Greening

Thursday morning and I’m hoping for a repeat of yesterday’s weather. It was an absolutely beautiful day, with no clouds and loads of sunshine. It was time to take off the coats and soak it in. That will really help to dry things out…and make the weeds grow! I’ve already seen the thin green blades popping up in the fields, right after the first rains. Another week of sunshine and the hills will be covered in green as well.

All is quiet here. Of course it’s 4:30 in the morning and quiet is to be expected. I have just begun to look at the news and some of it’s scary. With Israel’s leader, Sharon, on the verge of dying, Middle East politics are on everyone’s mind. Everyone with any kind of a stake in that region, I should say; and that definitely includes the U.S.

I read that the power in Israel has transferred to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert; and who is he? Suddenly, he is a very important person and I can’t remember reading anything about him. I really doubt that Sharon would have allowed anyone with political strength to occupy that office. And when (or if) Sharon dies, the power struggle will occupy the headlines for weeks.

Now imagine the same scenario in America. That’s really scary! It would definitely be orderly…no power struggles allowed. In fact, I doubt that dissent of any kind would be allowed.

And here’s part of a local headline…”Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff or Indian tribes he once represented, donated tens of thousands of dollars to members of Congress from California, and some returned the money or will donate it to charity…” Excuse me!? Does returning the money absolve the taker of the money? Why would they think that? Is this a variation of ethics, something we can call “New Ethics”?

And from our acting governor, the story is that he will propose adding more toll lanes to existing freeways and that would include freeways for trucks only. I like it, even though we would all have to pay for the trucking industries portion. He is due to give a major speech tonight and tomorrow’s news will have it all dissected and critiqued. For myself, I never watch politicians give speeches. The speeches are always written by someone (usually a group) other than the speaker and I would rather read it later.

A thought: if you wanted to clean up politics just a little bit, propose a rule that all politicians would have to give extemporaneous presentations…no notes allowed. And make them wash their hands before the presentation.