Activist

by Dr. James Hansen

"How did you become an activist?" I was surprised by the question. I never considered myself an activist. I am a slow-paced taciturn scientist from the Midwest. Most of my relatives are pretty conservative. I can imagine attitudes at home toward "activists".

I was about to protest the characterization – but I had been arrested, more than once. And I had testified in defense of others who had broken the law. Sure, we only meant to draw attention to problems of continued fossil fuel addiction. But weren't there other ways to do that in a democracy? How had I been sucked into being an "activist?"

My grandchildren had a lot to do with it. It happened step-by-step. First, in 2004, I broke a 15-year self-imposed effort to stay out of the media. I gave a public lecture, backed by scientific papers, showing the need to slow greenhouse gas emissions – and I criticized the Bush administration for lack of appropriate policies. My grandchildren came into the talk only as props – holding 1-watt Christmas tree bulbs to help explain climate forcings.

Fourteen months later I gave another public talk – connecting the dots from global warming to policy implications to criticisms of the fossil fuel industry for promoting misinformation. This time my grandchildren provided rationalization for a talk likely to draw Administration ire: I explained that I did not want my children to look back and say "Opa understood what was happening, but he never made it clear."

What had become clear was that our planet is close to climate tipping points. Ice is melting in the Arctic, on Greenland and Antarctica, and on mountain glaciers worldwide. Many species are stressed by environmental destruction and climate change. Continuing fossil fuel emissions, if unabated, will cause sea level rise and species extinction accelerating out of humanity's control. Increasing atmospheric water vapor is already magnifying climate extremes, increasing overall precipitation, causing greater floods and stronger storms.

Stabilizing climate requires restoring our planet's energy balance. The physics is straightforward. The effect of increasing carbon dioxide on Earth's energy imbalance is confirmed by precise measurements of ocean heat gain. The principal implication is defined by the geophysics, by the size of fossil fuel reservoirs. Simply put, there is a limit on how much carbon dioxide we can pour into the atmosphere. We cannot burn all fossil fuels. Specifically, we must (1) phase out coal use rapidly, (2) leave tar sands in the ground, and (3) not go after the last drops of oil.

Actions needed for the world to move on to clean energies of the future are feasible. The actions could restore clean air and water globally, assuring intergenerational equity by preserving creation – the natural world. But the actions are not happening.

At first I thought it was poor communication. Scientists must not have made the story clear enough to world leaders. Surely there must be some nations that could understand the intergenerational injustice of present energy policies.

So I wrote letters to national leaders and visited more than half a dozen nations, as described in my book, "Storms of My Grandchildren". What I found in each case was greenwash – a pretense of concern about climate but policies dictated by fossil fuel special interests.

The situation is epitomized by my recent trip to Norway. I hoped that Norway, because of its history of environmentalism, might be able to stand tall among nations, take real action to address climate change, drawing attention to the hypocrisy in the words and pseudo-actions of other nations.

So I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister suggesting that Norway, as majority owner of Statoil, should intervene in their plans to develop the tar sands of Canada. I received a polite response, by letter, from the Deputy Minister of Petroleum and Energy. The government position is that the tar sands investment is "a commercial decision", that the government should not interfere, and that a "vast majority in the Norwegian parliament" agree that this constitutes "good corporate governance". The Deputy Minister concluded his letter "I can however assure you that we will continue our offensive stance on climate change issues both at home and abroad".
A Norwegian grandfather, upon reading the Deputy Minister's letter, quoted Saint Augustine: "Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue."

The Norwegian government's position is a staggering reaffirmation of the global situation: even the greenest governments find it too inconvenient to address the implication of scientific facts.

It becomes clear that needed actions will happen only if the public, somehow, becomes forcefully involved. One way that citizens can help is by blocking coal plants, tar sands, and mining the last drops of fossil fuels from public and pristine lands and the deep ocean.

However, fossil fuel addiction can be solved only when we recognize an economic law as certain as the law of gravity: as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy they will be used. Solution therefore requires a rising fee on oil, gas and coal – a carbon fee collected from fossil fuel companies at the domestic mine or port of entry. All funds collected should be distributed to the public on a per capita basis to allow lifestyle adjustments and spur clean energy innovations. As the fee rises, fossil fuels will be phased out, replaced by carbon-free energy and efficiency.

A carbon fee is the only realistic path to global action. China and India will not accept caps, but they need a carbon fee to spur clean energy and avoid fossil fuel addiction.

Governments today, instead, talk of "cap-and-trade-with-offsets", a system rigged by big banks and fossil fuel interests. Cap-and-trade invites corruption. Worse, it is ineffectual, assuring continued fossil fuel addiction to the last drop and environmental catastrophe.

Stabilizing climate is a moral issue, a matter of intergenerational justice. Young people, and older people who support the young and the other species on the planet, must unite in demanding an effective approach that preserves our planet.

Because the executive and legislative branches of our governments turn a deaf ear to the science, the judicial branch may provide the best opportunity to redress the situation. Our governments have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the rights of young people and future generations.

To the young people I say: stand up for your rights – demand that the government be honest and address the consequences of their policies. To the old people I say: let us gird up our loins and fight on the side of young people for protection of the world they will inherit.
I look forward to standing with young people and their supporters, helping them develop their case, as they demand their proper due and fight for nature and their future. I guess that makes me an activist.

Link to original article: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2010/20100824_Activist.pdf

Doctor James Hansen, an adjunct professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Sciences. He is the author of "Storms of my Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity," available from Bloomsbury USA. His website can be found at: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1


LABELS: ACTIVISM, CLIMATE CHANGE, COMMENTARY, ENVIRONMENT, GISS, GLOBAL WARMING, JAMES HANSEN, NASA, SCIENCE

Reflections on Casablanca

by K.J. Wetherholt

Last night, I was sitting with my mother and sister watching Casablanca on Turner Classic Movies. Richard Osborne, as he usually does, stood amidst a set of a living room, introducing the film, in this case being a retrospective of Ingrid Bergman. His usual tendency is to bring to light some meaningful anecdote about a film--and for well-known films, they are often tidbits which many of us who love old movies may know, but in this case, it was one I didn't. Of all the films Ingrid Bergman had made, she did not understand why Casablanca had been one of the most beloved. Was it the love story? Was it a love story set amidst war? Was it the characters--the beauty of Ingrid Bergman or Humphrey Bogart sparring with Claude Raines, the quips coming fast and deeply, cutting through to certain ironies and tendencies of human beings that transcend whatever age and make commentary on our very nature?

As with any film, and any work which exists to communicate on multiple levels, there is no one answer, and yet there is a resonance to the great ones which exists regardless of time period. Human truth is human truth no matter in what historical context one chooses to put it. Human truths move us for reasons we cannot adequately describe, and so they should. There needs to be something in this world which is transcendent, reminding us that no matter what, we are indeed human beings living in the midst of an ever changeable experience--subject to chaos, disappointment, the turning on a dime of fortune, to success, happiness, and the knowledge that there are deeper truths that exist, and despite the trappings or nuances of experience, they rise to the surface when we need them most.

One of the things that moves me most these days is that even when needing to escape--as I sometimes do in dealing with issues in the world sphere which most often have no answers, and if there are answers, they are never easy ones--that even in my escape--such as reading old classic books or seeing old films--there is a continuity that continues to exist among themes which are as relevant today as they were in the past, the past always being a constant reminder of the present, either knowing that we indeed repeat history from which we do not learn, or understanding that human nature is at its core a continuum from the greatest horrors to the most profound moments of illumination.

Watching Casablanca, and prepared just to sit and watch a good old movie with the intent of turning off my mind for a while, there were several things which immediately struck me as deeply moving--not just the story of a man and woman who are in love, and it is a love that in the end, despite the turns of fate, and a separation of time and distance, the remembrance of which requires sacrifice--or that such a sacrifice is for the benefit of the many as opposed to the desires of a single man. In this day and age, I would suggest that the majority of us sees this as a quaint or old fashioned notion--something not even worth thinking about, as we move in this fast-paced world, often thinking only of ourselves and to that which we feel most entitled, believing that too much difficulty only slows us down or is a burden, and that there are multiple justifications for doing what is best for us alone, or that our happiness somehow justifies the means it took to bring us to some amorphous notion of contentment--however that may be defined.

Recently, this thought has crossed my mind more than once, and seeing Casablanca last night only solidified the notions that have been brewing for some time, leading to a kind of purity of disdain for what may be considered the modern mentality: to the winner of whatever knock-down drag out conflict go the spoils. Never mind right or wrong. Never mind character or integrity. Never mind the time it takes to do something correctly and with conviction. Mercenary tendencies always win, and so should they, apparently--for we live in a brutal world where justice can be sold for the highest price, and human endeavor is reduced to that which can be done most quickly, whether or not it ever lasts, and whether or not we have to worry about it in the future. Now is all that matters--and we will buy or sell even ourselves--and others--if given the right motivations that satisfy some momentary need, pressing or not.

In Casablanca, we are met with a literal point of departure--the proverbial cantina scene in a place where fate is bought or sold for the right price. Fate, in this case, means life and death. Taking place during WWII in French Morocco, Casablanca is where one goes to get transit visas to Lisbon, Portugal, where one can eventually make his or her way to freedom in the States, having taken one hell of a journey to get even there, in the middle of the desert of northern Africa--the proverbial Wasteland. 

In Europe, Nazi Germany has occupied France, and the stakes are inordinately high even in the colonies, where the iron grip of Facism is felt, and even subtle rebellion does not go unnoticed. The choices one makes here determine the future, and, appropriately, Rick's Café Américain is a place where one gambles--the proverbial roll of the dice, the spin of a roulette wheel, even the nod of the proprietor--or his subtle interference or lack thereof--will determine someone's fate because of the unusual and almost absurd power he holds in such a world. He can let the young, unknowing husband of a newlywed win at roulette to keep her from having to sleep with the legal authority to gain a transit visa--if he so chooses. He may or may not, influenced by the power of his memories of a better time when life made sense--by the events now, and by his own conscience. The bottom line: we do not know what we are capable of--in our best or worst moments--until we are tested. It is only then that we will ever know our true character, and we will know whether we have the humanity to do what is right when it matters. Until then, we can believe whatever we choose to believe about ourselves--or even about others. But it takes such a test to truly know, and whether we dread it or welcome it, fate will inevitably see that we find out who we most are when it matters most.

My reason for writing this article is because of this very tenet; what notions of humanity do we hold most dear in this world where stakes continue to be inordinately high? Are we up for these kinds of tests, and what notions of right and wrong remain indelible, despite the years that pass and the changing circumstances in which we find ourselves? Could we, as these "modern" generations, face the kind of war previous generations fought if it meant stopping the kind of threat that Nazism leveled at those who came before us? Do we have the strength, the fortitude, the very mettle to dig deeply within ourselves and find the common core of humanity it would require to make a stand against any true evil? We have failed in past decades again and again--believing a number of fallacies: that certain atrocities will never happen again; that what happens in other parts of the world are not our problem; that right and wrong are arcane notions disproved by the very nature of modernity, and a sense that one can deconstruct both the greatest evil or the greatest virtue down to nothing. In such a world, relative to our own notions of morality, we lead with our own values, and a conscience that increasingly that demands we live for ourselves and what is, if one will forgive me, convenient for us to believe.

I return to Casablanca--again, the stakes in this film--and in the reality we know historically the film represents--are almost unimaginable. Life and death are realities at any given moment. Yet we assuage our fears, watching, as we do other films about this or any other war, content to know we are home, safe in our living rooms with the television turned on, most of us thankfully immune to the kinds of dangers we see on screen.

However, we, if we would care to remember, now are involved in war--our own troops are in Afghanistan, along with the forces of other coalition states--and while we are at war, we at home barely act like it. Try to contradict me though you may, regardless of the incessant punditry and words bandied around the press regarding war, unless one is the family member of our armed forces, directly supporting armed forces or recovery efforts, or a member of the military ourselves, we are at a distance from the war, content to let it remain a nagging shadow blighting our peripheral vision, perhaps, at most--the subject of vitriolic commentary because we perhaps love to hear the sound of our own voices, but little more than that unless it strikes us personally because of the danger to a loved one, or the impact of his or her injury or death while overseas. Otherwise, we go on with our lives--impacted only according to our own frame of reference--not a collective one such as that which immersed most all Americans and most others during WWII, and indeed other wars of the past. We are individuals to the core--and so we should be, we think--heaven forbid we change our lives for others, for we need to take care of ourselves and leave others' lives to their own devices. None of us is responsible to the other--we can sing "Kumbaya," but what actions would lead us to believe that we should worry about more than just ourselves, especially for a war that involves our soldiers, but about which we could otherwise seem to care less except for the safety and comfort of offhand, sometimes ignorant, editorial commentary, claiming that it is for their benefit as well as ours?

WWII was a different time--and we lull ourselves into feeling content because of it. We watch old films, or listen, rolling our eyes at, for some, long-winded, and we think, irrelevant, perhaps nearly ancient parents or grand-relatives who recount what it was like to live under rationing, dutifully growing vegetables in Victory gardens, or becoming misty with remembrance when thinking about some moment when a friend or relative died, and the only announcement was by virtue of a telegram. Arcane, we think--poignant, perhaps, but that was the past. Again, it was a different time. There is no relevance now, because things have invariably changed since then.

And so we watch movies like Casablanca with some degree of distant poignancy, thinking what it must have been like back then. However, being involved in the international sphere, and finding myself unable to escape because I'm reminded--constantly--of what is happening in this world even now as this is being written--what strikes me most, at this moment, is the knowledge that right now, while watching Casablanca, in many far-flung places in the world that act as international ports for illicit, high-stakes pacts, fates are still being bargained for a price. Life and death can be a moment away, given a simple twist of fate, or a payoff falling into the right or wrong hands. Wars are decided on agreements made or broken--or information elevated or bastardized according to need. Lives are being lost. "The usual suspects" are being gathered to placate some authority, or to distract some power away from the truth, should that truth be important enough to obscure. Moments of rebellion--such as in Casablanca singing the "Marseillaise" to drown out Nazis singing "Die Wacht am Rhein," (for the scene, click here, one of the most poignant scenes of citizens' wartime rebellion on film)--to in modern Iran wearing green, protesting in the streets--are either withstood or met with swift, fierce retribution. In some places, when livelihoods are won or lost by powers and control believed to transcend common humanity, entire communities are devastated or given a reprieve--if it is in the interests of the one who strikes the best deal. None of this has changed--and it becomes an even more deeply disturbing notion when we realize that in some form, among humanity, this is something of which we as a race have always been capable--and continue to be--if it serves some need, or the majority of us are lulled into believing that none of it has anything to do with us.

It is in these moments, that we are asked: if it does not affect us directly, in what interest is it for us to give a damn? At what point do we involve ourselves in questions of right or wrong, or as we have come to be most used to doing, do we turn a blind eye, believing that such issues are indeed so relative to not even require an answer. Silence and inaction are enough to make our intentions known. Either that, or we're willing to speak loudly but do nothing. After all, talk is cheap, and it costs us little to have an opinion but do nothing about it. We may as well be talking in our sleep--for chances, are, few are listening, or else we don't even really care ourselves. It just placates our notions of importance to believe we have something to say.

Something--something--has to strike us. Something has to awaken us. Something has to move us or scare us so profoundly that we have to realize we are not indeed immune to the realities that we would otherwise choose to ignore. It is only when we--ourselves--are threatened by reality that we choose to act. It is only then that given the threat to ourselves--our notions of right and wrong are suddenly also awakened. It is only then that, whether in time or too late, we choose to make a stand. Often we find in those moments, we may even make a stand for others, because all of a sudden there is a commonality that we deign to remember. It is then, perhaps, that we remember we are indeed human, and the indignation of a lack of justice suddenly burns within us, because all of a sudden, the effects are personal. Perhaps such indignation was latent all along. Perhaps it wasn't. We then convince ourselves--rightly or wrongly--that coming to the fight now will forgive those moments of apathy--even if the damage has already been done. But we choose not to think about it. The past is the past. But truly, it is too much to take on when we only now are taking responsibility for the present.

Many in the thick of the trenches, amidst landscapes immersed in blood and irrefutable physical evidence of suffering, look at what is happening in the world and wonder what will it take for each of us to awaken. Will it take our own life or death? Will it take the threat to a loved one? Will it take something being taken from us which suddenly jars us out of our collective disinterest?

It may seem an odd notion that watching Casablanca would have inspired such thoughts--but indeed, the filmmakers were doing their job. It is the job of anything truly resonant to awaken us--to cause us to feel, even when we least expect it. To ask questions, even, at first, cautiously, with even halting knowledge of the possibility that the implications of those questions will take root in some unknown moment. To compare our lives to that of others being depicted.

Last night, with my mother, who watches even old movies she has seen several times, she with warm curiosity will turn to others of us watching, and with the light of true interest in her eyes will ask us, who would I have been then? What would any of us have done given those circumstances? Would I have given my life for someone else I loved--or someone I didn't even know, really, at all? Would I have been brave enough to stand up to others?

But then my mother was alive during the Depression, and in school during WWII--and she was one who grew a Victory garden, taking her ration stamps to the grocery to pick up rare meat or other food for the family. I had to wonder, was that the reason she was somehow willing to even ask those kinds of questions out loud for us to hear?

In my mind, knowing what I have also seen of the world, I could feel myself asking, if we--those of us among these modern generations--had been in Rick's Cafe, would we have been the embodiment of bravery, apathy, or cowardice? Would we have sold our souls to the highest bidder, or would we have sacrificed ourselves and our happiness for the greater good--or for the love of one whom we knew we were going to lose. Would we choose to do the right thing, even in the worst of circumstances? Would we have laughed at fate, or given it a knowing wink, as some of the more irreverently brave among us might do--and then done what was most within us to do, knowing that the outcome might indeed put us in jeopardy, knowing on some level it was for the greater good?

These are questions we may or may not ask ourselves. But one thing is certain--as has been proved throughout human history--complacency, apathy, and ignorance will at some point face a crisis that will shatter it, and we will be faced with the kinds of tests we, at this moment, do not even want to think about. Perhaps it will not happen now, or a year from now, but it will indeed happen, as it has in the past, and it is something for which we need to be prepared. Now, more than ever, with the vast amounts of information being readily accessible about what is going on in the world, we no longer have the excuse of unfettered ignorance. Whether we like it or not, we are making a conscious choice to learn or to turn away--to act, or to ignore. And based on those choices, we can and will be judged. For we no longer can say we didn't know, for even burying our heads in the sand is a choice we can choose to make--about any number of issues currently at large in the world--but it will be to our detriment. And it will also be to the detriment of those we love--if we indeed know what it means to love anyone at all and understand the nature of even the most basic human compassion.

Whether ignored now, or faced then--when such tests come, we will have to ask ourselves who we will choose to be--for that will indeed determine the world as we would choose to make it. Believing in humanity, even when we fall to the deepest depths of depravity or ignorance, we also have the capacity to do just the opposite. We have the choice as to whether or not to stand in the light, steel ourselves toward bravery, and remember there is such a thing as conscience, if not even transcendence, when it matters most. All we have to do is make the choice.


K.J. Wetherholt is Co-Founder/Board Chairman of The Humanitarian Media Foundation, Co-Principal of Humanitas-ThinkWorks, Co-Editor of the International Journal of Media and Information Policy (upcoming in late 2010), and the author of an upcoming book on WWI titled The Illumination.


LABELS: HISTORY, K.J. WETHERHOLT, CASABLANCA, Commentary

Editorial Cartoon: Integrity Testing

by Sandy Ritz

Sandy Ritz is an editorial cartoonist, the recipient of the Certificate of  Editorial and Artistic Accomplishment from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and is a Doctor of Public Health in Hawaii.

LABELS: ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, BP, COMMENTARY, ENVIRONMENT, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, SANDY RITZ 

Too Bad to Fail

by Sherman Yellen

During the banking crises, the billion dollars bailout was given to those reckless, behemoth banks that were called too big to fail; the argument was that they would bring down the entire American economy if they were allowed to suffer the consequences of their greed-driven gambles. We learned of that shadow world of devious derivatives, short sales, and swinish swaps, etc. none of which meant a damned thing to me, but meant mega fortunes for Goldman Sachs and their brothers in that high stakes gambling casino called American banking; a casino in which the house always won, because the people would cover the losses. We were essentially held hostage to these banks, not daring to risk their failure which then might spread across the nation and the world and transform a horrible recession into a devastating depression.

Thus we had the Obama policy of bailout before they destroyed the entire world economy; note that both the scheme for bailout and the destruction had been in place before Obama came into office. And still, months later, the jobs situation is critical for millions despite the assurances of Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers. A situation made more critical by the stone-hearted Republicans who refuse to extend the unemployed benefits for the long term unemployed. Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold played these guys in the old thirties movies, political friends of the millionaires, and the enemies of the downtrodden, but Jimmy Stewart always saved the day. Where is Jimmy now that we need him? Can Obama find his inner Jimmy Stewart? We can only hope so. If this is class warfare it is unique, because it is a revolution started by the super-rich.

My first contact with the too big to fail mantra was many years ago when developer Donald Trump had borrowed so much money from various banks and was allegedly unable to meet the deadlines for payment on the loans. The banks found it necessary to prop up his various enterprises when he fell upon hard times to keep him from bankruptcy- he was too big to fail, and thus he was able to go on to play TV games that fire people who fail to meet his scrupulous standards for success. Only the small, those whose limited reach touches the lives of their friends and families are allowed to fail.

My elderly 76 year old friend Molly, promised a loan modification from the bank that held her mortgage, and nearly losing her mind in the endless paper trail she was forced to provide, was, despite everything she tried to do, recently foreclosed. She lost her apartment of thirty years, barely escaped living in the streets, after a lifetime of middle class decency working as a saleswoman at Filenes, raising two sons, and being a generous friend to all. Too small to succeed, I suppose. That is the new paradigm – too small to succeed. Size, alas, does matter when it comes to sticking the government for your gambling debts.

As an Obama supporter, I cannot ignore the shameful way that the loan modification program was announced with so much fanfare, only to be ignored in its application as the administration averted its eyes to “more important matters.” Good works depend more upon the works made workable than the good intentions, a lesson this administration has yet to learn. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I will be voting for Obama and for those who support his policies, not because I am under a spell of his enchantment -- I see his many failings as clearly as I see my own -- but because I view the Republican perpetual no vote as a seismic temper tantrum that defines their inherent selfishness, and not as they claim it to be, a frugal policy for running a government for its citizens welfare.

BP has introduced a new element into the business equation. Instead of too big to fail, it is too bad to fail. This company has despoiled our waters, ruined the lives of Gulf Coast residents, destroyed the most precious wildlife, and they are promising to pay their way out of what I must regard as a war crime committed against our planet. But we cannot set in motion the laws that would ruin this company, because in doing so they may not have the resources to make good on the damages and the crimes against nature which they have perpetrated.

I stopped looking at the oil spill a few days ago, realizing that it was like watching the death of a beloved friend under the most ghastly conditions – the operation overseen by an incompetent surgeon who had brought about the trauma from which the friend suffered and was desperately trying to save him, not for my friend’s sake, but from fear of the consequences to the surgeon’s own life and reputation. It is not just that BP is a pariah amongst oil drilling companies, the tragedy is that it is typical of all those companies, all of them complicit with the Bush and Clinton administrations who loosened the oversight and controls on deep water drilling, harkening back to the deregulating of St. Ronnie of Reagan, all partners in crime, and setting up the too bad to fail policy. We are told that only these companies have the know-how to save us from the attack of the undersea oil monsters – and we buy into it in our desperation. When will we learn that the undersea oil monster is a figment of the collective imagination? The oil that flows unchecked is innocent fossil fuel – it is the wicked incompetence of the drilling, and the failure to provide alternative energy that has created this catastrophe.

Maybe, just maybe, they will cap the well in the coming months. But if we allow them to pay out their damages (nothing can compensate for the psychological damage to the lives BP has ruined) and allow them to proceed with business as usual, as the clinically hysterical Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindel wants: he of the crazed eyes and crackpot plans for stone barriers which will only compound the tragedy, all taking place while shouting curses at the Obama administration, then we, as a nation, have proven that we cannot learn from hard lessons, that we are too spineless to succeed, and that oil companies such as BP are too bad to fail, and we shall forever be their victims until we learn to say “Stop!’ And mean it.

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Contributing writer, Sherman Yellen, screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist, has won two Emmy Awards, first for his drama John Adams, Lawyer in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, and later for An Early Frost, a groundbreaking drama about AIDS in America. His Beauty and the Beast was nominated for an Emmy and won the Christopher Award. Yellenwas nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the Broadway musical, The Rothschilds. Yellen's other plays include Strangers, December Fools and Josephine Tonight! Sherman Yellen received a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Letters from Bard College.
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LABELS: banks, Barack obama, bill clinton, BP, COMMENTARY, ENVIRONMENT, GEORGE W. BUSH, goldman sachs, GULF OIL DISASTER, Gulf Oil Spill, pollution, too big to fail, SHERMAN YELLEN, TARP

The Pelican and Me

by Sherman Yellen

I know I should call this piece The Pelican and Us because I don’t own the rights to the feelings of horror, anger, outrage and repulsion at the sight of the great bird covered in oily slime, doomed to suffocation and death, pictures that have come to symbolize the horrors of the BP oil spill. I know that eleven men have died as a result of that tragic event, but men who do dangerous work know the risks they undertake, although some might argue that they are forced to do so given the limited opportunities to make a decent living in hard times. But these birds are the innocent victims of this “spill” and stand forever as the symbol of a culture which placed greed above nature, and the death of those birds seems to be the direct result of that greed. The child in me feels as if Big Bird had been killed, and all Sesame Street is in mourning.

These real birds, and the many species that inhabit the gulf area; turtles, dolphins, and the fish they live on, are in military terms collateral damage like the armless child who is mutilated or destroyed by the missile meant for the terrorist. BP – no – not the British people, is a multi-national company driven by greed and ruled by dividends; for them the endangered pelicans are not amazing creatures with which we share our finite world, but really bad PR, a public relations nightmare making viewers of the birds destruction cringe in horror and dismay. 

Many ornithologists consider it an exercise in futility to attempt the rescue of these birds, the trauma of the immersion in this oil, and their ingestion of the oil, being too great for their organs to tolerate and ever fully recover from. But we will not write them off because the triage would be triage for our environment as well. We might as well write off the Gulf of Mexico and the jobs, beaches, and people who live there – no – I would fight for the pelicans’ right to survive – because it must be seen as an act of self-preservation as well. But I’m the man who always puts down his aged ailing dogs and cats a few weeks later than he should - knowing how wrong I am, but living on hope for a miracle which I know will not come causing them needless pain which I later regret. So I am no expert on the right and wrong of euthanizing animals and wild birds.

I will admit that I am a coward when it comes to all animals, wildlife and children in distress, and not in that order. The abuse of the innocent is an assault to my already weary and unguarded nervous system, forcing me to avert my eyes and condemn myself as less than courageous. But even a coward like me must take a second, third, and fourth look, because averting eyes from an evil makes one an inadvertent accomplice to the crime. So we are obliged by our own humanity to look long and hard at that pelican. Can we measure the evil caused by carelessness as less than the evil caused by a willful act? I don’t think so.

My mother was killed while out walking on a sidewalk delivering food to a sick friend when an out of control driver ran her down in mid-day. He did not intend to do so, but the pain my family felt was not lessened by the accidental nature of the driver’s act. And so it is with the death of the Gulf’s wildlife. Of course BP did not start out with a plan to destroy the Gulf and all the wildlife within it – but the consequences of their greed driven enterprise is the same – grief and desolation. In their case the motive was profit at any price. For a great corporation to cut corners, even when it comes to matters of safety, is no anomaly, it is business as usual, something that the CEO gets a huge bonus for doing, until…

The other day I was in the Frick Museum in Manhattan and admired a magnificent large white porcelain sculpture of a huge bird, called The Great Bustard. The bustard is a pelican like bird which was completely eliminated from the British Isles by hunters, and only exists in those parts of Europe like Germany and Hungary where blood sport had been mainly confined to killing Jews, Gypsies, and the disabled. But it reminded me of the many species lost through carelessness, sometimes that carelessness is nothing less than the lack of reverence for all life that evolving humans should feel, but a subspecies of humans, like the BP executives fail to feel until they look around and find themselves pariahs. And that pelican is there not just as an object of pity but as a guidepost to a future – one in which fossil fuels are replaced by other sources of energy – a future that may not be as close as we hope but will not get closer by turning our eyes away from the destruction caused by our use of fossil fuels and the terrible – okay – atrocity that it has caused on our planet.

The death of the pelican is as much a death by greed as death by oil immersion. It is connected to the outrageous flow of money to our Congressmen and Senators from special interest groups represented by their lobbyists – money spilling from the oil companies – that allows the contributors unregulated permits to drill in our oceans and despoil our land. It is the disastrous spill of money into our political campaigns – for one can connect the dots between the politician buying office and being bought by his or her contributors – and the Supreme Court regarding corporate money as a form of speech – that is all part of a nexus that led to the oil spill and the death of Big Bird. Sadly, pelicans rub the backs of their heads on their preen glands to pick up its oily secretion which they transfer to their plumage to waterproof it. Alas, these marvelous birds need no longer seek their own natural oil: the oil has come to them not to enhance their lives, but to imperil them.

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Contributing writer, Sherman Yellen, screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist, has won two Emmy Awards, first for his drama John Adams, Lawyer in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, and later for An Early Frost, a groundbreaking drama about AIDS in America. His Beauty and the Beast was nominated for an Emmy and won the Christopher Award. Yellenwas nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the Broadway musical, The Rothschilds. Yellen's other plays include Strangers, December Fools and Josephine Tonight! Sherman Yellen received a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Letters from Bard College.
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LABELS: BP, COMMENTARY, ENVIRONMENT, GULF OIL DISASTER, Pelican, SHERMAN YELLEN

Ocean's Thirteen: Crime without punishment

by Sherman Yellen

Nobody knows if BP will be able to cap the raging oil well and end the spill in the coming days, weeks, or months. But what we do know is that there will be no real punishment for its crimes against our environment, our wildlife, and the men and women who have for generations lived for the sea and by the sea. This is no mere accident. It is a high crime against men, women, children, and the natural world. 

Punishment means that the company’s top execs spend some real time in the slammer for the deaths of twelve workers, and for those environmental crimes which occurred through their cost cutting practices and Cheney chicanery. In an ideal world the company and all its profits would be confiscated: their billions used to clean up the mess if the cleanup is even possible. And that’s for openers.

There is of course the Cheney question. Nobody knows what happened in those secret meetings with oil company execs which Cheney held in the White House, but an educated guess would be that the relaxation of safety standards that brought about this tragedy came in with Halliburton’s Oil Slick Dick – deregulation for fun and profits.

Disgrace is what happens to most of these people, but disgrace is hardly a true reckoning for BP and its minions, the BP execs behaving as if the very questioning of their motives and competence is an act of incredible colonial rudeness.

I fear that our President, a man whom I support and admire must partake of some of this disgrace for the BP mess. His desire from day one of his administration to turn a blind eye to the crimes of the past administration in some Mandela like gesture of forgiveness was beyond naïve because without a thorough investigation of the crimes of his predecessors, the BP mess, and other catastrophes springing from the Republican passion for deregulation were sure to happen.

The gleeful, gloating Railin’ Palin and the Tea Party Poopers could not have undone the Obama presidency on their own: he is far too smart and too honorable to be brought down by them while their shrieks of “Drill, Baby, Drill” still resonate, but the oil slick that destroys our wetlands, our beaches, and annihilate our fish and wildlife may well be the legacy of this abysmal failure of Obama’s to examine the crimes of the past and punish them. Obama’s dependence on the very people who caused this tragedy to correct it reminds many of his turning to Wall Street insiders who caused our recession to correct the economic mayhem that murdered so many jobs and caused the many foreclosures of homes and hopes. Allowing an unsupervised BP and its “expertise” to cap this spill is like going to Hannibal the Cannibal for help in finding a serial killer. Yes, yes, I’ve heard the excuse that nobody but BP has the technical know-how to fix this mess, but if that is so it’s a scary movie, not a sane policy.

As a people we remember the Alamo, we remember Pearl Harbor, we remember Katrina, and we remember 9/11, and we will most certainly remember this grievous oil spill. We Americans forget a lot, much of it having to do with offering equality of opportunity and other civil rights to minorities but we remember the great betrayals and disasters. It truly is time for the Justice Department to start investigating the crimes and the corruption behind this spill that has soiled our world and stained our children’s future.

Obama is a man of some brilliance and great goodwill with the potential of being an outstanding leader, but brilliance and goodwill are but a part of great leadership. It is not enough to be loved, or admired for your rhetoric and your noble principals. Obama’s politics of hope have their splendid side in so far as they resonate with Emily Dickenson famous poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers.” No poem ever captured American optimism more than this one.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

It is wonderful to hope for the best in life and the integrity of men and women, but the trouble with hope is that those feathers allow it to fly away leaving us with a cold reality and an ugly mess to clean up. So the politics of hope have a very airborne quality – here today gone tomorrow. It is sometimes necessary to be feared by wrong-doers for your strong arm and willingness to strike hard in order to lead a country and keep it safe. The President should learn from this catastrophe that greedy corporations such as BP can be dangerous to America’s future.


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Contributing writer, Sherman Yellen, screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist, has won two Emmy Awards, first for his drama John Adams, Lawyer in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, and later for An Early Frost, a groundbreaking drama about AIDS in America. His Beauty and the Beast was nominated for an Emmy and won the Christopher Award. Yellenwas nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the Broadway musical, The Rothschilds. Yellen's other plays include Strangers, December Fools and Josephine Tonight! Sherman Yellen received a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Letters from Bard College.
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LABELS: BP, COMMENTARY, ENVIRONMENT, GULF OIL DISASTER, GULF OIL SPILL, SHERMAN YELLEN

That Acrid Smell in the Air

by Sherman Yellen

Oh how I hate an ism. Born in the first half of the twentieth century I've lived through them all. That century was cursed with fascism, communism, and McCarthyism. In the twenty first we have Islamic terrorism. 

I must apologize if I am adding to the already overcrowded list of isms -- but with the threats from Republican Congressmen, the bulls-eye targeting of Sarah Palin of the Democrats she disagrees with, and the racist and homophobic curses from the Tea Party ringing in our ears after the passage of the health care bill, I suggest that we take a look backwards at the sad story of Timothy James McVeigh and see the McVeighism that is festering. 

Here was a man so filled with rage and resentment against the government for its Waco and Ruby Ridge raids, and a generalized hatred for American foreign policy, that he used explosives to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in April of 1995 killing 168 people, injuring 450 others, nineteen of them small children in a day care center. I won't use the word fascism if I can help it -- it belongs to another era -- and often degrades clear thinking, but it requires more self control than I may have to keep it from sneaking into this piece.

McVeigh was the child of a divorced Irish Catholic family from upstate New York, the target of bullying in school, claiming that he found relief in fantasies of retaliation against the bullies. Withdrawn, a loner, he became interested in computer systems and showed a talent for technology.

Fascinated by firearms, obsessed with gun rights, he served in the Gulf War, claiming that the army taught him how to switch off his emotions. Discharged from the army in '91, he became a wanderer, an anti-taxation advocate, writing "Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that. But it might."

He wrote angry letters to the government, mostly because it was growing larger and he seemed to feel smaller, except for his possession of a gun. He worked at gun shows and handed out cards with the name and address of the sharpshooter who had worked for the government during the Waco siege "in the hope that somebody in the Patriot Movement would assassinate the sharpshooter." His paranoia had an almost humorous cast to it if it did not lead to such tragedy. He claimed that the government had planted a chip in his buttocks to keep track of him. If they had the chip in his behind it did not work because he was able to execute a tragic act of terrorism -- American style.

Of course no two madmen or assassins with a grudge against the world are ever quite the same. But the common thread that runs through them is a deep sense of victimhood. McVeigh had it, Hitler had it, Oswald had it, Booth had it, and I can see and hear reflections of that dangerous victimhood in the far right today.

The anti-government, in this case anti-Obama rhetoric is hate filled, some of it race based, and contains within it an unappeasable grudge -- the us against them kind that sets off explosions, kills the innocent, and destroys the security of the country it claims to protect.

If we sniff we can smell the burning fuse. There is no constitutional right to inflame sociopaths to commit murderous acts. Cool it Sarah, and all you Republican leaders who are playing to your base, using code words that are well understood by many who feel victimized because of the recession (just as Germans became targets for Hitler's rhetoric because of the Great Depression).

Sorry, reader, I've done it, slipped it in but I am truly worried by the parallels and hope against hope that I am wrong.

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Contributing writer, Sherman Yellen, screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist, has won two Emmy Awards, first for his drama John Adams, Lawyer in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, and later for An Early Frost, a groundbreaking drama about AIDS in America. His Beauty and the Beast was nominated for an Emmy and won the Christopher Award. Yellenwas nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the Broadway musical, The Rothschilds. Yellen's other plays include Strangers, December Fools and Josephine Tonight! Sherman Yellen received a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Letters from Bard College.
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LABELS: COMMENTARY, HEALTH CARE REFORM, MILITIA MOVEMENT, OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING,POLITICS, RESPONSIBILITY, SARAH PALIN, SHERMAN YELLEN, TEA PARTY MOVEMENT, TIMOTHY MCVEIGH