Ride the Wind

I just got back from a trip to the left coast. And there are a lot of really positive things going on out there and elsewhere. Zip cars are everywhere. You can rent a Volvo or a cute little Mini Cooper by the hour or by the day. They send you the code for the car, and then they tell you where in your neighborhood you can pick it up.

San Franscico now has a fleet of historic trolley cars that was purchased from all over the world, then refurbished locally, which now run up and down Market Street. And, their underground metro runs you from the Embarcadero to Castro in about 7 minutes. And even though the tenderloin is still very tender, the young, divorcing, apparently heavy drinking Mayor seems to be genuinely trying to deal with the issues of homelessness in that city by the bay.

When I got back, I met with executives from an automotive manufacturer that is moving towards a complete new concept in automotive drive trains and platforms. They are even using the word "extended range electric" instead of "plug in hybrid".

This afternoon, I will meet with DOE officials on our new project to study how large wind and large solar plants work together as a combined resource, and how that will apply to our transmission lines. That will mean that these renewable plants will be able fuel these new cars of the future.

More and more, we are discussing communication protocols between the utility and the vehicle, billing strategies, and how we intend to control not only when the cars are charged, but also how we might take some of that power back during our peak.

We are moving towards the integration of the home, the office, and the car at lightning speed in utility time. And only the most perniciously ignorant does not see climate change and resource depletion as the true problems behind the issues that adorn our public media tree.

But indeed, are they perniciously ignorant?

Last year, I wrote this fiction piece about the bombing of Iran by these last remnants of the oil generation. I read it again last night.

Now even Pat Buchanan is warning of this possible calamity. He writes:

"Confident of victory this fall on the Hill, Bush is now moving into Phase III in his War on Terror: First, Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Iran.

Do not take this writer's word for it. Hearken to the astonishing rhetoric Bush used at the American Legion Convention in Las Vegas against Tehran:

"Iran ... is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. ... Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent and target Israel. ... Iran is sending arms to the Taliban. ... Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes. ... Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust. "Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. ... We will confront this danger before it is too late."

Even though voters in the geographic state of the United States sent a strong message to these leaders, they chose to not listen.

Perhaps because they know that too many of us are too busy with our favorite diversions to really pay much attention. And when we do, that attention is played by our media to its fullest potential, not for truth, but for the shaped story of empire.

In her new book, "The End of America", Naomi Wolf describes the "ten classic steps autocratic rulers take when they wish to close down an open society." Wolf makes abundantly clear that "each of those ten steps is now underway in the United States today."

Wolf warns: "John Adams wrote, 'Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.' We stand at a defining moment for America. If we do not act now, we risk the freedoms that sweat, blood, sacrifice, and loyalty to inalienable rights have earned us over the past two-hundred thirty-one years."

All of the progress, all of the new technologies, all of the innovative approaches to dealing with the real species threatening issues that face humankind, will take a giant stride backwards and could fall into a spiraling black hole of darkness, if we allow the "so called leaders" of the West to take the world down this path of war and destruction.

And for what?

For Oil?

For our Security?

For our gas guzzling way of life?

To preserve the last gasps of the white man's fourth world?

We must all be prepared to make our own midnight ride,

not on our horses, but on the wind,

as we warn our friends and neighbors and enemies alike.

If we allow this war to expand into Iran,

We will become King George's Red Coats.

For we will be covered in blood.

To paraphrase the POTUS,

"We must confront this danger

before it is too late."




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art courtesy of Claudia Paeth Studio