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May 24, 2013
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 We Screwed Up: A Letter of Apology to My GranddaughterPosted on Mar 28, 2012
By Chip Ward, TomDispatch (Page 2) We also pigged out on most of the fertile soil, the forests and their timber, and the oceans that teemed with fish before we scraped the seabed raw, dumped our poisonous wastes in the water, and turned it acid and barren. Hey, that ocean was an awesome place and it’s too bad you can’t know it like we did. There were bright coral reefs, vibrant runs of red salmon, ribbons of birds embroidering the shores, graceful shells, the solace and majesty of the wild sea … … But then I never saw the vast herds of bison that roamed the American heartland, so I know it is hard to miss something you only saw in pictures. We took lots of photos. We thought we were pretty smart because we walked a man on the moon. Our technology is indeed amazing. I was raised without computers, smart phones, and the World Wide Web, so I appreciate how our engineering prowess has enhanced our lives, but I also know it has a downside. When I was a kid we worried that the Cold War would go nuclear. And it wasn’t until a river caught fire near Cleveland that we realized fouling your own nest isn’t so smart after all. Well, you know about the rest—the coal-fired power plants, acid rain, the hole in the ozone ... Advertisement One set of problems we pass on to you is not altogether our fault. It was handed down to us by our parents’ generation so hammered by cataclysmic world wars and economic hardship that they armed themselves to the teeth and saw enemies everywhere. Their paranoia was understandable, but they passed their fears on to us and we should have seen through them. I have lived through four major American wars in my 62 years, and by now defense and homeland security are powerful industries with a stranglehold on Congress and the economy. We knew that was a lousy deal, but trauma and terror darkened our imaginations and distorted our priorities. And, like you, we needed jobs. Sorry we spent your inheritance on all that cheap bling and, especially, all those weapons of mass destruction. That was crazy and wasteful. I can’t explain it. I guess we’ve been confused for a long time now. Oh, and sorry about the confusion. We called it advertising and it seemed like it would be easy enough to control. When I was a kid, commercials merely interrupted entertainment. Don’t know when the lines all blurred and the buy, buy, buy message became so ubiquitous and all-consuming. It just got outta hand and we couldn’t stop it, even when we realized we hated it and that it was taking us over. We turned away from one another, tuned in, and got lost. I’m betting you can still download this note, copy it, share it, bust it up and remake it, and that you do so while plugged into some sort of electrical device you can’t live without—so maybe you don’t think that an apology for technology is needed and, if that’s the case, an apology is especially relevant. The tools we gave you are fine, but the apps are mostly bogus. We made an industry of silly distraction. When our spirits hungered, we fed them clay that filled but did not nourish them. If you still don’t know the difference, blame us because we started it. And sorry about the chemicals. I mean the ones you were born with in your blood and bones that stay there—even though we don’t know what they’ll do to you). Who thought that the fire retardant that kept smokers from igniting their pillows and children’s clothes from bursting into flames would end up in umbilical cords and infants? It just seemed like better living through chemistry at the time. Same with all the other chemicals you carry. We learned to accept cancer and I guess you will, too. I’m sure there will be better treatments for that in your lifetime than we have today. If you can afford them, that is. Turning healthcare over to predatory corporations was another bad move.
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By prosefights, April 3, 2012 at 6:27 pm Link to this comment
Solar generation of electricity may be a good idea if matched to the right electric loads.
One stop Gardens may have blown the whistle on good idea on solar generation of electricty app?
Google ‘solar lights prosefights’ and look for ‘solar lights’.
Report thisBy Clash, April 2, 2012 at 5:07 pm Link to this comment
Interesting that they got the statement backwards, We are enslaved to the machines, their food is coal, oil and gas, and the do well on a diet of the suffering of humans. No better or worse than those who fed the beam engine.
While we may not be able to escape some may avoid the flying debris when the train goes off the cliff.
Report thisBy prosefights, March 30, 2012 at 6:39 am Link to this comment
Profound sentence ‘Machines are our slaves and coal, oil, and gas are their food.’ needs expansion to include: And they don’t do well on a diet of wind and solar produced electricity.
Google ‘Case No. 12-00007-UT’
Report thisGoogle also ‘solar pollution riots china’
By do over, March 29, 2012 at 9:15 pm Link to this comment
Escape is not an option.
Report thisBy prosefights, March 29, 2012 at 5:53 pm Link to this comment
Google ‘cornwall mining’
Click on ‘Levant mine’
We may be going back to before the industrial revolution?
Report thisBy Clash, March 29, 2012 at 5:22 pm Link to this comment
There are no brakes on this train, 40 years of listening to the excuses of the best and brightest, nothing has come of it, no reason to to list into ad nausea all the failures of this civilization. Change is coming sooner than you think and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.
T.A. Edison commented in the 1930’s that it would be wise to look for alternatives to coal and oil as soon as possible, but here we are.
Apology not required nor accepted.
Report thisBy gerard, March 29, 2012 at 1:28 pm Link to this comment
The thing many people are just now beginning to understand worldwide is that violence breeds violence, injustice breed injustice. And in the opposite direction, the alternatives breed better outcomes: knowledge and understanding breed more widely spread, deeper knowledge and understanding, and successful attempts to bring about more justice lead to more successful attempts to bring about more justice.
Report thisIt’s too soon to give up, IMO. And even if I’m wrong, I’d still rather go down working for knowledge, understanding, justice and better lives for as many as possible as soon as possible. What else is more worth while? What else makes life more worth living.
By moonraven, March 29, 2012 at 11:57 am Link to this comment
Ozark: I agree with you about this site.
It reeks of dirty (US government) money now.
Report thisBy moonraven, March 29, 2012 at 11:55 am Link to this comment
The radioactive colonization of Native America has constituted the last phase of the Indian Wars (sic).
Some whites have had to die in the process of the campaign, but the US government considers that it is a small price of collateral damage to pay as they try to eliminate that pesky last 5 percent of us….
Report thisBy prosefights, March 29, 2012 at 11:26 am Link to this comment
Don’t count on solar or wind generation of electricity to get the world our of possible future power problems.
BEFORE THE NEW MEXICO PUBLIC REGULATION COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NEW MEXICO FOR APPROVAL OF RENEWABLE ENERGY RIDER NO. 36 PURSUANT TO ADVICE NOTICE NO. 439 AND FOR VARIANCES FROM CERTAIN FILING REQUIREMENTS
PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NEW MEXICO,
Applicant )
Case No. 12-00007-UT
MOTION FOR LEAVE TO INTERVENE
AND REQUEST FOR DISCOVERY
http://www.prosefights.org/pnmrider/pnmrider.htm#motion
Report thisBy diman, March 29, 2012 at 5:53 am Link to this comment
“I hope we develop clean, renewable energy sources soon, or that you and your generation figure out how to do that quickly”
Why don’t you tell your grandchildren the truth old man? That there is no hope for them!
Report thisBy Clash, March 28, 2012 at 6:04 pm Link to this comment
This letter is just a bad joke by some lame square, right?
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, March 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm Link to this comment
On behalf of my generation, i want to apologize to all future generations for spending all their money upon our shovel-ready projects.
Report thisBy Big B, March 28, 2012 at 5:12 pm Link to this comment
Ozark
always love reading your tripe. libretarians and conservatives always have the same mantra, “I’m gonna do whatever I want, to hell with everybody else. To hell with the future.”
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, March 28, 2012 at 4:36 pm Link to this comment
On behalf of my generation, to all of you who visit this website, I want to apologize for the lopsided mess that Truthdig has become.
Report thisBy gerard, March 28, 2012 at 3:26 pm Link to this comment
The fat lady has not sung yet—and hopefully, when she does sing, it won’t be the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Report thisBy Mairead, March 28, 2012 at 3:25 pm Link to this comment
Agreed, BrilliantBill.
Mr Ward, your fulsome apology is neither necessary nor useful. Your grandchild is not likely to die in her bed (or anyone else’s). Her fate is much more likely to be a premature death by starvation, disease, or violence as the habitable world shrinks and dessicates.
I’d urge you to revisit your politics and become a fang-and-claw radical. We need to get rid of feudalism (currently manifesting as private-profit capitalism) root and branch, and make post-partum sterilisation mandatory all the world around after 0.5 live birth per person.
Otherwise, Dr Lovelock’s prediction will be the fate of your granddaughter, my great-granddaughter, and all the other granddaughters of all the other high-order species on Earth: a world that no longer supports our kind of life.
Put down the keyboard, the sackcloth, and the ashes, and get weaving.
Report thisBy berniem, March 28, 2012 at 3:09 pm Link to this comment
Not all free market conservative capitalists are bad people; but the vast majority of bad people are free market conservative capitalists! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!
Report thisBy BrilliantBill, March 28, 2012 at 1:44 pm Link to this comment
I’m sure Mr. Ward means well, and I’m sure he’s personally doing what he can to “save the planet.” However, this comes across as embarrassingly self-important and self-indulgent—so much so it makes me cringe.
Perhaps the antidote is George Carlin’s observation that this planet will simply shake us off like a “case of bad fleas.”
Report thisBy Anarcissie, March 28, 2012 at 12:04 pm Link to this comment
Personally, I’m sorry about World War 2. I know I hadn’t even been born when it started, but somehow I could have tried harder, bouncing around out there in the void, I’m sure.
Report this