#1. Why Write?

As I began to look for a pencil just now, I found none that had points. Eventually, one was located and now I write. I write because I can no longer sleep. Everyone else in my house is asleep. The sun is coming up and the light stirs me. My teaching year over yesterday, I am anxious to document my observations to gain the insight and experience of others.

Normally a private person, within my family, the insight and reflection I seek can only be gained from the general public. My prior letters to the editor and submitted articles have not been printed in newspapers and journals of wide circulation. My two remaining options are the Internet and person to person.

My topics are my concerns for my community based upon perceived weaknesses. My nephew told me recently that I saw events ten years in the future that had indeed played out. I am a worrier by nature and these are the topics that concern me today.

Our natural world is being altered by man. Pollution and short sited land use practices are not sustainable. As a result, we take from the Earth and return contamination. We are polluting our own bed. It will kill us.

Second, American troops invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq four years ago. Our dependency on oil and natural gas leaves our nation dependent upon foreign sources. This dependency has driven our foreign policy to do anything to obtain these resources. As a result, the same American political leaders have put and place, and now removed, the same Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. Soldiers and sailors now die to allow oil companies to secure the third largest reserve of oil and natural gas in Iraq. They take record annual profits as their greed drives them to control oil, at the cost of American lives, to sell to us in the future.

Our economic system is not on stable ground. The wealthiest residents of our country make their money upon the backs of an expanding lower class. Our country no longer manufactures what we consume and we borrow rather than save and build. The federal government’s long term debt is $7,000,000,000,000.

The political system which has allowed these three problems to occur is symbolically democratic, but oligarchial in reality. The wealthy and politically powerful wave the democratic flag and quote “Founding Fathers” to maintain the appearance of a functioning democracy. A nation of special interests, our politicians do the will of wealth to secure funds to insure their own re-election.

Finally, American agriculture is our ace in the hole! When our balance of trade and federal debt finally crash, farmers and their friends will still be able to eat. Hopefully our soil and farming practices will remain viable to feed those of us who realize that relying on someone else for all your needs is a naïve way to live.

My hope is two fold: have any of you thought these thoughts? If so, what are your responses to mine? Secondly, I will share with you what my family and I have done in response to these concerns. Perhaps if others take similar actions, whatever they may be, these issues will be resolved. If they are resolved, I’ll be able to go back to sleep like everyone else.

Tom Bailey 6/20/07