This post is the most difficult one I have written so far. I expect that once I post this, my readership will go away and my written "voice" will be gone.
This will not be the first time I have tried to get this message out. It has never worked very well before. I am going to try again anyway, because it is so important. It is so important that it is worth making this my last written message.
There is no soft way to put this: The United States is under a curse. The people of the United States did this to themselves. It does not come from me, I am only telling you what is already here. It does not come from Gd. It comes from many choices that were made over and over by the people of the USA.
The largest part of the climate change on the earth comes from the choices made by the people of the USA. We, the people of the USA, enjoy the highest standard of living by the largest group of people in the history of the earth. We have maintained this high standard of living by using more than our share of the natural resources of the whole world.
Most of us, (people of the USA), have not paid much attention to what it takes for us to enjoy our luxurious standard of living. We simply demand it of our political leaders.
Some of what it takes for us to enjoy this luxurious way of life is not pleasant to look at. People die so that we can continue to enjoy our deluxe way of life. We turn our heads away and our lives go on as usual.
Every time we eat a hamburger that takes the resources needed to stay alive in a far away country, we bear the responsibility for those that die as a result.
Every time we drive 20 miles, for an unimportant errand, and burn precious fuel that is more and more scarce, we are responsible for what happens to the people who have that fuel taken from their countries.
If you choose to look, you can see terrible costs of the way we live. There are pictures and videos of poor people dying because they try to fill a tin can with fuel leaking from a well or pipeline in their own country. They are not trying to get rich. They are only trying to stay warm or cook.
This happens to keep our prices down at the gas pump. It makes me sad to sit on a bus bench and watch every single car going by with only one person in it, hundreds of cars, almost empty, all using up their cheap gas.
I have heard the objection raised against a cruel Gd, responsible for cursing people who do not worship or believe in him (her). I am not speaking of what happened in the past. I am not dealing with the past.
I am talking about choices that people made in recent times and are still making now. Our choices make things happen. Our choices bring consequences, those amount to a choice to curse ourselves with those consequences.
These consequences are regardless of our spirituality, churches or lack of, how we worship, don't worship, or look at the universe. Some of us have tried harder than others to do less harm and lessen the consequences of our lifestyle choices. I don't think any of us have done as much as we could have. We all bear responsibility for the consequences/curse that we bear.
Some of these consequences are easy to see. The easy to see ones are extreme weather due to climate change. We are seeing more hurricanes and bigger ones. We are seeing swarms of tornadoes, hundreds of them, all at once or one after another.We are seeing tsunamis doing more damage than we are used to. We see land being swallowed up by rising oceans.
We see glaciers, sea ice and arctic and antarctic ice disappearing at incredible speed. Drinking water is being ruined by careless behavior with mining, industrial and residence wastes. We are losing water that we need to keep our low food prices.
We turn our heads and refuse to look at the true costs of our cheap food, consumer goods, and fuel. Many of the things that we take for granted as part of our normal lives, have blood on them, whether we choose to see it or not.
We bear responsibility for that blood, whether we choose to see it or not. If you want to start looking at that blood and the true costs of the way we live, I have included some links to get you started:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xu1qfa_us-supreme-court-hears-shell-torture-case_news
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqywex_fuel-anger-protests-rock-nigeria_news
This video offers the clearest and easiest to understand explanation.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrafxq_riz-khan-the-other-oil-spill_tv
This article tells us some important truths, regardless of what we might think of who tells us.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/World_News_3/article_7886.shtml
This article has a video with it that is short and easy to understand. It tells some of the real costs of cheap hamburgers.
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2012/08/10/news-group-serves-up-the-hidden-costs-of-hamburgers/
I hope that your reading this will make a change in your life. Doing the same things we have been doing may cost our lives. We have to do better.
I published an extra post about dealing with hurricanes today. I also have older posts about them. They include information and links for before, during and after hurricanes. If your local officials say to evacuate, please do so. It may save your life.
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