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Monday, Sept. 5, 2005

THE QUESTION REMAINS whether we will get the messages of Hurricane Katrina, which at the moment I see as being three in number. No, let's make that four.

The first is on the global scale. The United States has been criminally negligent in its refusal to participate in the global warming discussion, and the government has set a rather horrendous example for its citizens. Will we begin to get the global warming message and deal with it? Will we put the pressure on our political leaders and start adjusting our driving and shopping habits? We may not actually be able to turn back the clock on damage already done, and whether we can arrest the progress of climate change remains to be seen. But the choice is still between doing something and doing nothing.

The second issue involves observing what can happen when society breaks down: when food, water, sanitation and shelter disappear. Some lose their dignity, others lose their composure, others spring into service, others become violent. How much or how little pressure does it take for everything to break down? What is the snapping point? And how are we supposed to handle ourselves when that point comes?

Last, what is the relationship of the federal government to its people? What is the role of the federal government in our lives? We have to file our tax forms, serve jury duty, watch the speed limit and not go on any weird rampages. What does the government do for us? We need to study the existence and the strength of the social contract between we, the citizens of the republic, and the republic itself. In the event of a disaster, are we really just on our own?

A closely related issue is the extent to which local and national resources have been diverted to an illegal, that is to say, private interest war in Iraq -- and how badly those people, that money and highwater Humvees and Chinook helicopters are needed now in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. It's one thing to be spending a billion dollars a day to rain death and maintain non-existent order in Iraq -- that is, a thousand million dollars each day -- when you "don't need" the money (though from what I am reading, we are borrowing two billion dollars a day to support the government, much of it from China). But it's another thing when it would have taken six hours spending on the war to reinforce the levees in New Orleans, which actually started to give on Sunday -- long before the storm hit land. As I understood it, that's why we all pay federal taxes every time we make a phone call, set foot into work, or scratch our heads. But something seems to have changed.

The war in Iraq is a human travesty and an environmental nightmare; it's impossible to wage war without waging war on the planet itself. And in terms of how the resources of our country are used, well, we are now seeing some of the effects. We had best question the motives, too.

There is some mythology about what happened on Mars a long time ago that I don't think I've ever related. It's the kind of stuff that circulates around the "pyramids on Mars" movement that I don't quite exactly subscribe to, but which I think is rather interesting to consider fairly. I can't tell you if it's true, but I hold it among the modern myths that help us think about our lives and what they mean; myths always reflect some level of how we feel about ourselves and the world we live in.

As the story goes, there was actually a civilization on Mars, as many of us have come to believe and accept. One day, a meteorite hit the planet and ripped a big hole in the atmosphere, and as the atmosphere ran out or went away was ruined or whatever happened, the governments made war on one another. And, basically, that was that. Everyone died or was killed. A few million years passed and everything turned to dust. Now we look up with our telescopes and wonder about that pretty orange planet and what might have gone on there.

Can we imagine looking at the Earth and wondering the same thing? Wow, pretty planet --what ever happened? Well, it's happening. And trust me -- I am an optimist. But doesn't the Iraq-Katrina story sound a little like Mars, you know, big climate change and disasters and the government(s) make war?

Or let me put it another way. If you had to write a letter to posterity, what would you say? How would you explain to successive generations what is happening on Earth now? How would you account for who people are and what they believe? How would you account for your own choices?

If you write such a thing, please send it in for possible publication, and if I write one, I'll send it out.

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