The Bigger Picture

    

I really hate being the prophet of doom and gloom as the things I sometimes write about seem to represent...

It is all relative to one's overall world view I suppose. I can still recall as a kid my older sister telling me that there would come a day in the far distant future when the polar ice caps would melt and the land would eventually be covered by water. That thought was frightening but I always felt it was hundreds of years into the future. Today's scientific data is suggesting that it will definitely happen in this century if we don't succeed in finding alternate energy sources to burning fossil fuels to curb the rate of the greenhouse effect and global warming. Satellite imaging has shown a section of ice the size of the United States totally melted in one arctic region after several thousands of years of stability. The Greenland glaciers of the North can be seen to be rapidly vanishing. So far Mother Earth has been able to compensate but I've learned that scientists believe that a point of no return can be reached where the ice that melts continues to progressively melt and not return to the previous total amount of ice again. When and if this happens we will lose most of Florida and most of the coastal cities of the east. This isn't science fiction.

A relatively pessimistic person might argue the scientific fact that every few thousand years the orbit of the earth around the sun changes from circular to elliptical and sets off another ice age, thus making the occurrence of global warming irrelevant. I once heard that scientists of this school of thought have been advising the Bush administration about the environment. An ultra pessimistic individual might conform to the argument that in a few million years the sun will run out of fuel anyway and swell in size and heat so much that it will engulf the earth and burn it to a cinder long after all life is gone. This view makes the case of absolute inevitability of destruction. If this isn't enough, the argument may digress to that millions of years before the sun dies there is close to a 99.9 % chance that at some unknown point the earth will be struck by at least one of the millions of the deadly asteroids now moving about the solar system in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. So mankind may go the way of the dinosaurs long before the planet is cooked by the sun. According to an ultra optimist, we will have colonized space long before any of these things happen. Whatever is left of mankind may have moved on to other parts of this and other galaxies when the technology advances enough to make it feasible.

I sometimes allow myself to mentally trip this way to try and find some type of context to help me understand thoughts or situations that may be troubling me at the time. Some people do the same through religion, and I know that they would not hesitate to label me as using heretic thinking. Galileo spent the last years of his life locked up by the church of his day for teaching that the world was round when all the wise and God fearing men of the day knew that it was still flat. Eventually, most of the religious community accepted that the world is indeed round after all. I see myself as a highly spiritual and open minded individual, and am more educated in religion than the average Joe but I too believe that God gave us a brain for a reason. Part of that reason includes learning and using science for the advancement of mankind. I do not wish to attempt any discussion of the slippery slope of religion. I know that it would eventually end up as usual with a tip from a concerned individual that I am going to hell.

What led me to today's topic was facing a week with numerous cocaine related issues. Most of the people encountered don't even know what cocaine looks like but they have a spouse, child, or relative totally strung out on the stuff. I can't help but ask myself why is this happening and why does no one really seem to care? I start to wonder if I'm blowing things out of proportion because of the special population I'm exposed to, then the conclusion is reached that I probably am not. Why is this problem not a higher priority? Why are most budgets for the prevention and treatment of drug abuse being reduced or eliminated? How can tons of drugs come through our borders undetected continuously? Is our homeland security that bad? Is someone being paid to look the other way? What good does it do to arrest the users and do nothing to deter the suppliers? We can never lock all of them up. It seems to just assure that the addict will be banned from the work force for good because with a record they will probably never be hired for a decent job. I know that these questions won't be answered until the problem becomes so severe that it can no longer be overlooked, and that will eventually happen. For now, it really bothers me to see people go to the justice system for help for a family member spiraling out of control to the point of endangering themselves, others, and the home and be told by the magistrate not to contact the police anymore because they cannot do anything to help. An involuntary substance abuse commitment taken out for an addict by a doctor who considers that person to be dangerous is not really worth the paper it is written on. Usually within 72 hours or less that person is right back on the streets using and committing crimes again.

We, as a society, have witnessed this problem spill over from the inner cities to rural America where it now affects middle and upper middle class people of every ethnic group. I believe that this epidemic will hurt us as a nation far greater than terrorism. Having a front row seat yet having little or no power to effectively intervene saddens and worries me often. In one way or another this problem will impose among most of us at some point. At that time we won't be able to run hide or look the other way any more. I wish I had some answers.

Comments

[Kristen]

I found you because we were next to each other in the Top Blog list under General Audience.

We have a lot in common.

I would be interested in hearing what you would have to say at the Discuss Race Forum and at White Light of Peace: Emotional Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Racial Prejudice

[Mary]

Enjoyed this post..perhaps a parallel can be drawn that we who populate this planet are suffering the exact same meltdown we've inadvertently imposed on it.

The question now becomes, can we save it and ourselves.