ALASKA IS MELTING

     Okay, I outgrew the childhood picture of Alaska as a snow covered land, with sleds ruling the streets, towering glaciers, Inuit villages along the seacoast and the site and inspiration of wonderful stories and novels such as those of Sue Henry. But it always was, and is supposed to be, a place of beauty, of nature at its most awesome and yet, what have we done? What have we done to one of the most vital examples of G-d's creations? We have just about set it firmly on its path towards total meltdown, literally and figuratively. Think what that means.
     The present heat wave there is fueling fires, tainting the air with heavy smoke, melting glaciers and flooding the rivers with meltwater. The glaciers do not come back. The air , well, do not go there with COPD! And still and all, our nation left the G-20 again, with no climate control agreement on our part. The friggin' moron there can not seem to understand the oneness of the world and how we are all intertwined, with the environment one for us all.
     That is not the only truth he ignores. "Then we saw the lightning, and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder, and that was the big guns; and the we heard the  rain falling, and that was drops of blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped."
     Harriet Tubman on the War Between the States
     See, that is the truth about war. We throw the words and the challenges and the threats and dares around as if the words mean nothing and will never come to reality, yet how wrong we all are. Yes, there are times that negotiations must come to a halt, but they must be begun in good faith if they are to work at all. One needs to face the truth of the consequences, one needs to understand that bluster does not work and leads only further down the path towards war, but our esteemed leader does not seem to understand that.
     Our negotiators are useless, for they are undercut by the Demented Toddler's true negotiators - Ivanka and  Jared. The experience of others, as minor as it might be, is neglected, and the supposed negotiators left in the dark. And the ugliness of war is unspoken in the chant of madness and blood fever. 
     I still remember Alphaville's plaintive song "Forever Young', the harsh questions of the song of "War, What is it Good For - Absolutely Nothing!" So why the hell are we allowing a madman to start and end and start and end and start and end negotiations. Negotiations about anything, for war, teritory, fuels, water, arable land - all are part and parcel of the same sickness - the need for some to dominate over others.
     This domination, this abhorrent need, makes itself recognized in the violent words and actions against migrants, against refugees, and yes, that is what they are - refugees, plain and simple. The same people we told the world that we want them to send to us, chiseling it on the Lady of the Harbor, the Statue of Liberty. But the windows of opportunity, of hope, of fresh air, are closing rapidly, melting down in front of our eyes. A cartoonist in Canada created a cartoon which had Trump drawing up to two drowned bodies on a golf course, and askingif they minded if he played through. Harsh, yet true, for the truth is harsh, hard to take, and yet we must. Alaska is melting! And so are we. And the cartoonist was fired by the right wing paper!! Another window closed, slammed shut. And the air grows staler yet. And another piece of a glacier falls off.
     The violence around the wrold grows. Hatred in the mind becomes weapons in the hand becomes wounds on others and blood flows once more. It seems we have learned nothing at all and in fact, have slid backwards. We are devolving rather than evolving. 
     Oscar Wilde said, "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." That is the truth, the one we must face up to, recognize and change. If not, well, Alaska is melting, the world's veneer of civilization is melting, and the ugliness is showing through. Are there points to be made on both sides? Yes, but let us at least be aware that most of the truth, the simple part of the truth, the pure part of the truth is that we, mankind, are destroying ourselves and our home, Earth. In every which way possible. Alaska is melting.