At least in this Brooklyn end of the woods, it's been a depressing holiday season. The transforations that Bush made, he also rode - they're infra- strutural, and not likely to be resolved by any presidency. Case in point - "clean" coal, the TVA, recent catastrophe. The USuses 25% the world's energy - this isn't going to change under any presidency - and this comes from coal. To build a new power grid would cost billions and we're in debt. West Virginia as you know is being destroyed - as of a year ago, the last I have stats for - something like 423 mountains were mountain-topped, destroying an ecology that's second to the tropics in diversity, and of course destroying small towns and homesteads as well. If you look at poli- tics, it's the same mess - the holocaust in the mideast isn't likely to resolve for decades, if at all. Etc. etc. There doesn't seem to be any place for national or geopolitical joy; even on a personal level, so many people are suffering for lack of health care - our next door neighbor probably has severe prostrate cancer and has no insurance - he's found a hospital to test him, but they put off the tests for months, not untyp- ical here, and now his blood pressure is through the roof. He's an artist just about 60. I'm lucky with medicate and my father paying the supple- mental - I couldn't survive without that. So the world appears, not better or worse, but grey. The one bright spot is that Obama seems to be able to both listen and speak coherently - we're not likelly to have a cabal running things without input from the rest of us.
So we had as most people did we know, a very quiet holiday season with good friends and we're thankful for that. And Azure years ago found a forlorn dying Christmas tree in a pot at a store here - which has since blossomed, even indoors, into a beautiful pine. So we're helping keep something alive, and that is a real gift. And our cat is healthy... Take care, Alan _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
