The Ruins of Earth

Today the sky is overcast, it might rain here in rain-starved southern California. I like the rain, it clears the skies and turns our rolling hills green.

Crows and blue jays argue brashly and seek to be the loudest birds around. I think the crows win, but the blue jays are certainly poor losers.

After the rain stops and the sun peeks out, perhaps there will be a rainbow to pour color from the gray blanket of clouds. Time will tell if there is anyone who cares enough to look up from the computer to see it.

There are so many people who disregard nature, who fight against it with all the vigor of warriors against an enemy. They cover the Earth with concrete and asphalt. They stab it with drills and scar it with mines in a frenzied race to destroy it. This solar system has no other home for us than Earth. They should not be ruining the only one we have.

Politics has come down to squabbles between silly, powerless wing nuts whose extremist views are impossible to mediate. Humans are mostly now under the thumbs of powerful crooks who would enslave everyone to avoid paying anyone. Employees are simply expenses to be minimized for profits to be maximized.

I'm not concerned about the political reasons for why we can't make the world clean again. There are always reasons to drill for more oil, to mine more coal, to cut down more trees, to deplete the oceans of fish, to cover more land with cookie cutter housing tracts. It doesn't matter what party you are in, we all live on the same planet. We are all guilty of its destruction to a small or large degree.

Science allowed humans to open their lives to infinite wonders. But it also allowed the creation of super weapons, super toxins, super prisons and super corporations. Everyone is connected by super highways of cars and trucks and information. Information can be used for good or for evil. You can be certain that it will be used for evil.

Religion still fights to turn off the light of science in order to seem like a brightness itself, but it cannot. Religion has merely become another kind of corporate machine, with employees to be minimized and profits to be maximized. The morals that graced the ideals of ancient religions have become a mockery. Once Pandora's Box was opened it became forever impossible to put all the demons back inside.

For my grandchildren's sake, I hope we can capture some of them, to keep some of the demons on leashes. I would not write this if I thought there was no hope at all.