Political, For Once

Although I had planned to write about the loss of friends, some abrupt losses and some not, I just read on line that the House of Representatives passed the bill to enable the construction of the Keystone pipeline.  I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was.  Fortunately my representative, Derek Kilmer, was one of the 161 Congressmen who voted ‘no’, so I immediately sent him an email of thanks.  If there was any doubt left about how much ‘big oil’ has intruded into our political discourse, as well as our government’s decisions, today that doubt should have evaporated completely.  Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on the planet.  The distraction of the useable oil within it is the dirtiest process in an industry that is already reeking havoc, and will release more carbon into the atmosphere than any other aspect of a filthy industry.  Only the oil company executives and investors will reap the rewards, though none of the citizens in the states through which it passes will benefit. The jobs created will be fewer than originally touted, and they will be temporary.  If, God forbid, any of the pipes spring a leak, the damage to the environment will be enormous. Although tribal leaders, whose lands will be traversed by the pipeline, have all spoken out in opposition, few in Congress have paid attention to those voices.  The only reason this perilous motion was passed can only be because the oil lobbyists have been doing their dirty work behind the scenes in DC so effectively.  How can so many members of Congress pay such little attention to the scientists who have weighed in on the issue?  Are the perks they receive too great for them to care about the cost to the rest of us?  To the globe?  Have our politicians become that short-sighted? Guess so.  Is any doubt remaining about the poverty of our political system, and the money that runs it?  Will our President, who has been resisting taking a strong position about this issue for years, have the courage and decency to veto the bill?  What can the rest of us do if he does not?  I know I’m venting, but this development makes me feel such despair.  In my mind at this moment, it increases the likelihood that the decision in Ferguson will be equally appalling.  What is happening to our country, to our sense of thoughtfulness, integrity, and wisdom? As a nation are we out to get what we can now, without any consideration for the generations that will come after us?  Almost everything in the news these days is disheartening, but this, this feels devastating.