Geek alert: references to
Eddie Izzard, 1950s science fiction, the New York Times and Star Trek. But
you’ll get the gist even if you don’t get all the references.
Okay, I’m beginning to think that the human race is
overdue for another big fuck-off flood.
Oh, that’s right! We’re going to get one! Because the
Antarctic ice sheet is melting! I just saw a picture on Google maps – there’s
this great inspirational app you can get that shows you what your street will
look like once the sea levels rise ten feet, which is pretty much inevitable
now, probably within my children and grandchildren’s lifetimes and maybe even
mine if I succeed in my wild-assed vegan/vigorous-exercise-scheme to live to be
105. I live a hundred miles from the Pacific Ocean and the water will be up to
the floorboards of my house. I did always want to move to Venice and now Venice
will move to me, sweet!
Anyway. What’s got Brenda’s knickers in a twist now.
Let’s start with Harvard professors. You just knew
this was coming, didn’t you? Because you undoubtedly saw the NYT
article about how Harvard economics professors are now upset about the ACA,
known in many circles as “Obamacare.”
Seems that some Harvard professors, many of whom
championed the ACA, are now upset because their very own health plan is
changing to require them to pay a deductible ($250 for an individual, $750 for
a family) and a co-payment of $20 for a doctor’s visit. Bar the door Nellie!
It’s the end of civilization!
To quote from the article, “… the university said it
‘must respond to the national trend of rising health care costs, including some
driven by…the Affordable Care Act.'” Because gee! “Harvard faces added costs
because of provisions that extend coverage for children up to age 26 [and]
offer(s) free preventive services like mammograms and colonoscopies…”
Coverage for children?! Including college students,
hum. Now there’s a thought. Tired of that oppressive teaching load of ten to
twelve hours a week? (I used to teach public school and find this laughable.)
Just make it harder for them to afford health insurance and maybe some of them
will go away!
Preventative health care? Nah. Just wait until folks
are really sick and they’ll go away too, especially if they’re one of the
millions who live in a state where their Republican governor said no thanks to
federal subsidies for the ACA just to make the President look bad.
And it’s not just Harvard professors that have it in
for kids and anybody who might get cancer. The USA Today’s “liberal”
article de jour (the jour in
question being January 6, 2015) worried about why wages aren’t increasing.
Sure, “Stunning technological advances have eliminated millions of jobs.” And,
“…at the same time, rising global competition is pressing wages downward even
as it adds new markets for American products.” But the biggest concern is this!
“This
year, Washington will raise roughly $3.3 trillion in taxes, mostly from the
young, productive and healthy. And it will spend roughly $3.9 trillion, mostly
on benefits for the retired, the unproductive and the unhealthy."
Oh my God! Say it’s not so! Taking care of people who
are sick, unemployed, or elderly? Or all three? Jeez!
So that’s just my little outburst about our societal
response to taking care of people who aren’t so good at taking care of
themselves, like people who are young, old, poor, or sick. If you are one of
those people who agree with the sentiments expressed above, then don’t bother
leaving a comment because I don’t want to know you.
But my OTHER crab for the day, and the main reason
why I think we might need a big fuck-off flood (watch the first fifteen minutes
of Eddie Izzard’s video Glorious if
you don’t get this reference, and if you don’t have time, it’s about Noah
saying to the ducks to get in the ark because there’s going to be a big
fuck-off flood and the ducks say, “What’s the big problem?”), is...
Sorry. I got distracted. What I wanted to express is
my deep sorrow about the planetary disaster we are facing. Yes, back to the
topic I introduced in the first paragraph. I’m talking about global warming.
(You can read my op-ed piece, “Bubble
Bubble,” that was kindly aired by PRP.fm about this, if you want all the
links to back up my assertion that the reason the back of our seed packets got
changed to reflect the WARMING of my very own little GROWING ZONE was…global
warming. Or you can go on to the next paragraph where I get a little
discouraged and sad.)
According to NASA, ninety-seven percent of the
scientists on the planet think that global warming is a fact and is caused by
human activities. These really smart, educated, thoughtful people are
observing, documenting, and worrying about the catastrophic rate at which our
planetary ecology is heating up. I say “catastrophic” because it’s all
happening too fast for us to respond to it, as a global society and indeed, as
a species. If human beings don’t even seem to know how to deal with taking care
of the health needs of the sick, young, old and poor, they certainly don’t know
how to deal with a sick planet, except to say, “It’s not my fault!” Which
brilliant response didn’t help Han Solo, and it’s not gonna help us.
One of my favorite science fiction stories is Zenna
Henderson’s The People: No Different Flesh, about people who must flee their failing planet. Lytha, a teenager who
witnesses the destruction of her favorite lake, says, “My poor Home! It’s
dying!” That’s how I feel, several days a month. And there’s no Jean-Luc Picard
and Geordi and Data orbiting in the Enterprise, folks, sent by a benevolent
Federation to save us from our folly. There’s just us, frackin’ and grabbin’
and building pipelines and putting our fingers in our ears going “la la la” or
at least “Bill Nye the Science Guy, what a joke! Global warming is all a
liberal conspiracy to take away my SUV!”
So I’m feeling a bit like a disappointed Mom today. I
want the human race, as a whole, to be smarter. More compassionate. More
observant and capable of long-term planning. If the human race were my
classroom, I’d be teaching them all critical thinking skills and how to work
well in groups right now.
Maybe you’re saying, “That’s not me.” Okay, good for
you and good for me. Let’s make sure we’re doing all we can do to make our home
a nicer place…reasonably, because hey, we wouldn’t want to be too
inconvenienced by our opinions. But maybe we could speak up once in awhile or
drive a little less or not complain about how our health insurance premiums
went up because some kid now has access to medical care?
Change the attitude a little? Be a little nicer to
ourselves as a group? Nicer to our home planet, which if you haven’t noticed is
the only one we’ve got?
And that’s my wail for the day. I’m trying to laugh,
because I suspect that humor is going to be a survival mechanism for me.
Where’s Tom Lehrer when you need him? Now there was a Harvard professor.
