If you’re familiar with Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and you should be, you may think I’ve lost track of the seasons, since we haven’t yet reached Samhain / Halloween. The reality is that both have spirits as leading characters. Now, picture either Joe Manchin or Krysten Sinema, or both, as Scrooge. I have little faith that either of their hearts could be softened by Tiny Tim’s fate. Much closer to their hearts would be the assets they’re accumulating. SO, the question becomes, what might make them fear for the future of those assets?
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| spirits of yesterday, today, tomorrow?
Photo by J. Harrington
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Has anyone figured out that a hard transition away from fossil fuels, especially coal, would leave many miners in a deep hole if alternative jobs and training aren’t available, because a certain senator from West Virginia overplayed his hand? And wouldn’t that increase the amount of fossil fuel stranded assets? (And, by the way, wouldn’t a hard transition also hurt many of Mitch McConnell’s miners?)
Arizona’s economy includes a major nonprofit sector that gets a lot of earned income from the government sector. It might be a shame if some large federal government funded contracts became cancellable or if a significant effort were launched to make much of the pharmaceutical sector nationalized.
There is no question that climate change needs to be addressed in a big way by US. There is also little question that collaborating with the enemy has been an unproductive strategy thus far. Both Arizona and West Virginia need to be vigorously reminded of President Kennedy’s profound advice from his inaugural address: "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
Everything shimmers
with the sound of the train
rattling over the bridge
especially the ears and nostrils and teeth
of the horse riding out
to the pasture of death
where the long train runs
on diesel fuel
that used to run on coal.
I keep listening
for the crickets and birds
and my words fall down below.
I mistook the train for a thunder storm,
I mistook the willow tree
for a home, it's nothing to brag about
when you think of it
spending this time all alone.
I wandered into the hay field
and two ticks jumped in my hair
they dug in my scalp
and drank up my blood
like the sweet wine of Virginia,
then left me under the Druid moon
down here on earth in the kingdom.
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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.
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