-Caveat Lector- Published on Wednesday, January 31, 2001 in the Palo Alto Weekly When Will America Grow Up, Globally? http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0201-02.htm by Sally Schuman Last time I wrote about global warming in this paper, it was in a letter to the editor. I was congratulating three Stanford scientists who'd asked the university to cut its ties with companies in the Global Climate Coalition, whose agenda is to deny global warming and climate change and to obstruct efforts to combat them. My letter inspired a local reader to respond. He wrote, with all due snideness, that I should not "worry my pretty little head" about the whole issue, because those Stanford pinkos (led no doubt by Comrade Gore) would deliver us soon enough into a terrifying new world of--let's see, what might it be?--solar panels, high-mileage cars, public transit, wind power, and long-lasting lightbulbs. Sounds pretty nightmarish, I admit. Global warming is a Communist plot! How did I miss that? Every schoolchild knows how the Soviet Union tyrannized its citizens with pristine cities, clean factories and sparkling rivers. Enough sarcasm. It's fun but not my strong suit. I would like to reflect on the "pretty little head" comment, however. First I laughed. I am SO not the type. When you're six feet tall at age 14, certain feminine stereotypes just don't fit, no matter how much a girl might wish to wear them. But in a twisted way, the expression called to mind a tender thing my father used to say when I was little. I can't recall what childish tragedies drove me to seek comfort in his arms--maybe the matched pair of skinned knees I'd gotten rollerskating. Rejection by the three sisters who lived over the fence--yesterday they liked me! Or a bad dream. But I recall his words: "Everything's gonna be a-l-l-l right." He smiled as he said them, maybe had to suppress a laugh at the depth of my misery, but he offered solace and I took it. It's a fiction to tell a child that everything will be all right. Who can say? There's so very much that's not all right. But it's part of the parent's job, to let their children know that bigger shoulders than theirs will carry the burden, that they don't face their problems alone, that this too shall pass. For my father, everything really didn't turn out all right. One day at work, an alien growth in his brain knocked him down. A few weeks later, not long after JFK's assassination, he died, at age 47. He deserved more time, but he had completed a good deal of essential parenting, bringing my brother and me safe and prepared almost to the border of adulthood. I took his simple reassurance with me, to comfort myself and later my kids during hard times--"Everything's gonna be all right." It helps. But I can get pretty nostalgic for the days of childhood when I really didn't have to worry my pretty little head. When I had a loving dad to stand between me and the world's troubles. When I could say I don't have to worry about this bad thing, or that--someone strong and good is in charge. Or even now, to say, I'm just one woman, "just" a mom--I don't have to worry about the future, the planet, the well-being of our kids and coming generations. Denial and child-like ignorance are so very comfortable. But I'm nobody's child now. I've got these soon-to-be-adults I'm rearing, and it's not enough to tell them, or myself, what my father told his little girl. As children grow, the parent's job description expands--to include taking responsibility for the way things are and for making them right. (Sure, it's a hell of a job, but that's why they pay us the big bucks.) About the Global Climate Coalition, Ford and British Petroleum and some other companies have dropped out. A number of corporations are positioning themselves to take part in the clean-energy revolution; they'll proceed exactly as fast as their self-interest and stockholders allow. Our government remains mired in gridlock and denial about global warming and climate change. After America's performance at the international climate negotiations in The Hague last fall, resentment is growing against the United States for its greedy, "me-first" attitude toward this whole-earth problem. George "What, me worry?" Bush and his crowd, for all their crowing about responsibility and moral behavior, are passive deniers at best, aggressive obstructionists at worst, about something that could very well hit our children and grandchildren very, very hard. So when does America grow up? How much irreversible damage will climate change wreak before we face our responsibilities? Are we really content leaving this legacy to the rest of the world and future generations? Like it or not, I'm stuck--cursed might be a better word--worrying my pretty little head about these questions. My dad would be proud, though. ---- Sally Schuman is a freelance editor and writer who lives in College Terrace. Sally can be contacted at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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