Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 03:53:06 EDT
From: greg jones
Subject: in general
howdy all, as always, thanks gene, for the service, news, and entertainment you provide us free of charge, and full of variety and life.
two articles from this mornings’ chatlist caught my eye and my attention.
my thanks to author of the toxic sludge piece, I can only hope this concern is followed through with. it reminds me of a cover from the nation magazine post katrina, perhaps 2 months. That cover showed an eager, slightly seedy, young
corporate rep with a nametag saying, “hi I’m todd” from abc bluetarpgovcorp. The cover title read, now the real looting begins. synagro, nice name isn’t it? kinda reminds me of mom’s homemade pie or something from basf maybe.
third world county eh? not too big of a stretch, with real estate taxes being increased quicker than you can say, build me infrastructure for my mcmansion, I can only imagine the financial strain of trying to amortize notes on hundreds of acres. It’s little wonder the voice that says “this will nourish the soil and we’ll pay you” sounds so sweet.
wishful thinking, I suppose, but my first impulse was to think, where’s the EPA in all this? the simple easy answer is they wait on the hearings, which wait on the politicans to attend, who are busy running for re-election with their hands out, and who are most likely being courted by 100 synagros in various forms and disguises. so, reading this, as I write, I’m thinking we’ve got trouble, real trouble.
Perspective fortunately reminds me we’ve always had trouble in one form or another and that’s why I love reading history which brings me to the other half of my ramblings.
In rebuilding a 100 year old house in silk hope I ran across some siler city grit wheat pasted to the interior wall sheathing. this was dated from November of 1910. the grit was being sold for the princely sum of $1.00 per year. a weekly newspaper, it was a bargain. the news and observer, also being used as draft stopping, was selling for $1.70 per year. the local phone numbers for various merchants were double digit. ie: local feed store phone 47. the other number for the same feed store, a newer line no doubt, was 84. I remember my grandparents, as a child. They grew
their own vegetables every year, built and paid for their house before marrying and moving in, and lived into their 90s, long before modern, “better” times. In that time also we engaged in the “great war to end all wars”.
somehow, we stumble along, sort of a slow motion riot, and the remaining truth, far as I can see, is, we manage. we are now faced with more problems than I can even believe.
I have a bumper sticker, which sums things up for me it reads. “are you gonna cowboy up, or lay there and bleed”. I like it. thanks and luck to all
greg jones
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