SUBHEAD: We are so embedded in growing our industry and advancing our technology we don't see any solutions without both.
By Juan Wilson on 4 July 2010 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-drink-green-kool-ade.html)
Image above: Green Kool-Ade was made to taste like kiwi-lime juice. From (http://www.x-entertainment.com/kool-aid/reviews/kickin_kiwi-lime/index.php).
Happy Independence Day! I do not mean rejoice in the "the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air" variety; with the beer, the burnt meat, the noise, the smell of sulphur. In fact I am avoiding the fireworks show at the Pacific Missile Range Facility tonight.
I see it as a publicity kickoff celebration for RIMPAC 2010 (starting 7/6) to get people ready for the big shebang. There will be 14 countries getting together for war games in a million square miles of deep blue. They'll be pounding the ocean (and sea life eardrums) with destructive low frequency sonar. They'll be using depleted uranium rounds to sink decommissioned ships and just having a grand old time. No. By Independence Day I was referring to you ability to think and act on your own.
Unfortunately we are often not aware when we are not doing it. As water is invisible to a fish and air is invisible to us, some things go unnoticed. That's because we are so dependent on it andso embedded in it (and it in us) that we simply take it for granted and are unaware of its presence... until it is unavailable.
That may be the situation soon. We are so comfy in our cable-ready suburban cocoon, equipped with a microwave and fridge full of sweet and fatty treats, that we forget we are on the tit of a giant machine that is devouring the Gaia. We want to believe that machine can run on hopes and dreams and not require scraping the life off the planet and then burning it.
Many intelligent and educated people have fallen into the trap of imagining that with just a few simple adjustments in our lives we will be allowed to go on doing what we're doing, and save the Earth at the same time.
Do you remember, while watching Gore's "Inconvenient Truth", that you felt horrified and motivated to change the world. Then at the end Gore provides you tools to do something about our situation. He suggests we switch over to fluorescent light bulbs and check the pressure in our tires!!? What the fuck! Basically Gore caved. He did not tell us what we didn't want to hear.
We would have left the theater crying. Maybe we should have... by now we might not be so embedded. Instead we drank the Green Kool-Ade. By that I mean, we joined the crowd of organic lettuce eating, Toyota Prius driving, solar panel selling, individuals who think that donating a $100 to the Sierra Club will save our wilderness. Jim Foxworthy is comedian whose gag line is "You just might be a redneck if...". I have a variant to that running joke that is directed at determining if you drank the Green Kool-Ade:
To celebrate we went out to Puolo Point to watch the sunset. Talk about lighting up the night sky with fire works! What a beautiful evening. A picture of the pink clouds even made the top-fold of page-one of today's Garden Island News, but the emphasis was so different than our sunset walk.
In the newspaper, the clouds were the background of photo of dragsters out at Kauai Raceway park in Mana, illustrating an article titled "Revvin' Up for the 4th". Here's our angle on the event:
Image above: Pink cloud to the south. All photos by Juan Wilson and Linda Pascatore.
Image above: Linda Pascatore.
Image above: Juan Wilson.
Image above: Sunset from Puolo Point, Hanapepe, Kauai.
Happy Independence Day!
.
By Juan Wilson on 4 July 2010 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-drink-green-kool-ade.html)
Image above: Green Kool-Ade was made to taste like kiwi-lime juice. From (http://www.x-entertainment.com/kool-aid/reviews/kickin_kiwi-lime/index.php).
Happy Independence Day! I do not mean rejoice in the "the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air" variety; with the beer, the burnt meat, the noise, the smell of sulphur. In fact I am avoiding the fireworks show at the Pacific Missile Range Facility tonight.
I see it as a publicity kickoff celebration for RIMPAC 2010 (starting 7/6) to get people ready for the big shebang. There will be 14 countries getting together for war games in a million square miles of deep blue. They'll be pounding the ocean (and sea life eardrums) with destructive low frequency sonar. They'll be using depleted uranium rounds to sink decommissioned ships and just having a grand old time. No. By Independence Day I was referring to you ability to think and act on your own.
Unfortunately we are often not aware when we are not doing it. As water is invisible to a fish and air is invisible to us, some things go unnoticed. That's because we are so dependent on it andso embedded in it (and it in us) that we simply take it for granted and are unaware of its presence... until it is unavailable.
That may be the situation soon. We are so comfy in our cable-ready suburban cocoon, equipped with a microwave and fridge full of sweet and fatty treats, that we forget we are on the tit of a giant machine that is devouring the Gaia. We want to believe that machine can run on hopes and dreams and not require scraping the life off the planet and then burning it.
Many intelligent and educated people have fallen into the trap of imagining that with just a few simple adjustments in our lives we will be allowed to go on doing what we're doing, and save the Earth at the same time.
Do you remember, while watching Gore's "Inconvenient Truth", that you felt horrified and motivated to change the world. Then at the end Gore provides you tools to do something about our situation. He suggests we switch over to fluorescent light bulbs and check the pressure in our tires!!? What the fuck! Basically Gore caved. He did not tell us what we didn't want to hear.
We would have left the theater crying. Maybe we should have... by now we might not be so embedded. Instead we drank the Green Kool-Ade. By that I mean, we joined the crowd of organic lettuce eating, Toyota Prius driving, solar panel selling, individuals who think that donating a $100 to the Sierra Club will save our wilderness. Jim Foxworthy is comedian whose gag line is "You just might be a redneck if...". I have a variant to that running joke that is directed at determining if you drank the Green Kool-Ade:
You know you drank the Green Kool-Ade if you... • subscribe to either Wired Magazine or Scientific American. • look forward to desktop fusion running your laptop by 2020. • expect clean fossil, nuclear and bio-fuel will keep our lights burning for 400 years. • hope genetic engineering, nano-technology and artificial intelligence will serve us. • have a full-time-on-the-books job with a national corporation. • rely on cable television, newspapers or commercial websites for the truth.Snap out of it. Wake up from that silly idea. Start doing the work that will actually support your life and the lives of those around you. Plant a garden and grow some food, use your leisure time in nature and good company, and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Last night was my 18th anniversary of marriage to Linda Pascatore. I realized last night that I had spent more time with her than any other human being including my parents, sister, or children. What a rewarding investment that turned out to be. I'm grateful.
To celebrate we went out to Puolo Point to watch the sunset. Talk about lighting up the night sky with fire works! What a beautiful evening. A picture of the pink clouds even made the top-fold of page-one of today's Garden Island News, but the emphasis was so different than our sunset walk.
In the newspaper, the clouds were the background of photo of dragsters out at Kauai Raceway park in Mana, illustrating an article titled "Revvin' Up for the 4th". Here's our angle on the event:
Image above: Pink cloud to the south. All photos by Juan Wilson and Linda Pascatore.
Image above: Linda Pascatore.
Image above: Juan Wilson.
Image above: Sunset from Puolo Point, Hanapepe, Kauai.
Happy Independence Day!
.
1 comment :
A Happy Anniversary to you and a big mahalo nui loa for all the work (play?) you have done in regard to raising our collective awareness and consciousness to the important issues and questions that need to be asked.
I have been following Island Breath for roughly a year and it resonates with me so very well. Keep up the great job of sharing this with us all.
~Mahalo yo!
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