Re: Saving the Earth from ourselves

On Jun 17, 11:13 pm, jose <josefsop...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Saving the Earth from ourselves
JOE SOUCHERAY

TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated:06/17/2007 06:47:37 PM CDT

Environmentalists, many of whom are young and have had a scholastic
diet of worshipping the Earth, don't really have any idea about how
far we have come in everyday practical applications of what I guess is
called stewardship. For example, anybody of my generation can remember
when it was perfectly common for a motorist to empty his ashtray in
the street at a red light.

Remember that? A guy would open the door and tap the metal ashtray on
the street and leave behind the butts. Ashtrays were easily removable
in those days, intuitively within reach of the driver. They slid out
of the dash. Today, you would have to consult four pages of an owner's
manual to understand how the ashtray works, if the car has one, not to
mention that respectable people just don't smoke.

You don't see that street dumping anymore. As smoking has become
demonized and the smokers shamed into a kind of public timidity, the
last thing in the world a smoker would do with a used *** is leave it
to be discovered. I'm not complaining, mind you. I think we live in a
better world when motorists don't routinely empty ashtrays at red
lights. But it used to happen, and I suspect that other motorists did
not necessarily hold the offender in disdain. We just happened to be
in a slob period of American life.

Leaves used to get burned. I'm not convinced that prohibiting that
activity has resulted in a better life. That was quite an autumn
perfume.

Pop cans were not recycled. Bottles were not recycled. Every once in a
while there would be a big paper drive conducted by the Boy Scouts,
but other than that, newspapers were not recycled. There were more of
them then, too.

On this Father's Day, I can still see my father thinking nothing
harmful about dumping a little leftover oil and gasoline into what we
called a swamp next door. He is long gone now and cannot be
prosecuted, so I can tell the story of his generation of fellows. I
was reminded of this the other day when somebody dumped as much as 30
gallons of motor oil into a catch basin over near Minnehaha Creek in
Minneapolis.

Calling all cars!

The authorities in Minneapolis reacted immediately. Teams arrived with
containment booms and absorbent pads. The spill was pretty much caught
before it ever reached the creek. We were reminded of Web sites that
list the proper ways and locations to dispose of hazardous waste. The
perpetrator, still at large as of this writing, might as well have
robbed a bank and shot 12 people.

Calling all cars! Oil dumper on the loose!

It was a lousy thing for that guy to do. I say guy because I just
can't see a woman doing it. Maybe it was a woman, but I doubt it.
There is an unmistakably emotional component in the new consciousness
about the Earth being our mother and I would imagine that women are
more naturally disposed to such sentiments.

Now, because many of my critics read with their mouths open and hope
to discover an opposition to my views - I don't think the Earth is my
mother - I must repeat that it is a lousy thing to dump as much as 30
gallons of oil into a catch basin that feeds a creek. It should not be
done. And if they get the guy, he will be fined and admonished and
ostracized by his neighbors.

And I am not suggesting that any amount of oil should be dumped. Those
days are gone. I am merely pointing out to the youngsters in the
audience that your grandfathers were inventive with used motor oil and
did not link their actions to environmental destruction. Oil could
seal a driveway, kill weeds, lubricate swing sets, kill ants, start a
fire. And if there was some gunk left over, a child of yesterday might
have been instructed to "dump it in the swamp.''

I saw that swamp the other day. Actually I didn't. It's gone, replaced
by a paved parking lot where the cattails used to grow and a full
brick restroom to accommodate a public swimming beach. That swamp
survived the old man's occasional lawnmower oil but it could not
survive the vast popularity of swimming.

Whether it's mother earth or god the father, people need to get it
through their thick heads that it's all metaphor for things that don't
literally exist. But alas, everybody insists on playing these silly
word games...




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