Saving The Places

As many of you know, I’m having a wonderful time researching and reading a lot about the history of central Maryland – all for a book that I hope will be published later this year. This has been my Covid escape – trying to bring to life our collective ancestors and what their lives were like during the challenges they faced. It has offered me a healthier perspective on the challenges and moral decisions we face today as a species.

As part of this project, I have been reading a lot of historical fiction. A book I am currently ready is The House on Hatemonger Hill by Eileen Haavik McIntire. Eileen is a talented author and has a number of good books in print. I suggest you check her out on Amazon or on her website. I have found them to be good reads and very informative.

Let me know if you have a Historical Novel that you treasure. I have learned a lot reading what others have written.

Keep Reading,

Ned

As a writer, I am always interested in the feedback that I receive on my books. In my latest book, The Big Melt, some people loved it and others got sidetracked wondering if the events I describe could really happen. I did exaggerate what could happen to make it more engaging – it is a work of fiction. It worked for some readers, but not all. Here is a thoughtful review that explains how one reader had to get over this early hump and suspend her disbelief, but once she did….

Review by Mina Hilsenrath

“ I had a hard time getting into it. I don’t know whether it was the young adult focus, with its teen characters, or my inability to suspend my disbelief about the melting described. I also had some concerns about where the story was going: would the ominous tone end up with a feel-good ending? But the further I got into it, the more real it became. Having spent so much time in public meetings, your depictions of those dynamics were spot on. And you absolutely NAILED the ending. (Spoiler alert) It was so much more convincing- and so much more tragic – to have Marley and his friends fail in their mission. The emotional impact of their loss resulted in having the book linger in memory. It made me think of all the towns and cities across America that have suffered from environmental pollution and degradation. You are right: many of them never recover. It can happen here, so what are we going to do about it? BRAVO, it’s clear why this book won so many awards and recognitions.”

So what’s the message??? Keep Reading!

There are at least three major existential threats to human life. They are:

• Pandemics
• Climate Change 
• Nuclear War

These very real threats are global in nature and therefore must be handled with the cooperation of many countries. This requires skilled leadership in the USA as well as elsewhere. Each of these risks has gotten greater in the past 4 years, and therefore, they are good reasons not to vote for Trump – his incoherent management style and the constantly rotating team he has around him are not up to dealing with complex global issues. He has demonstrated this with his mishandling of the coronavirus, his withdrawal from many of our alliances (e.g., World Health Organization, Paris Climate Accord), and in a myriad of other ways.

There are a series of other concerns that many of us also consider to be important. These include:

• Jobs and economic security
• Improving our democracy
• Income inequality and access to the American Dream
• Inherent worth and dignity of everyone
• Domestic terrorism
• Disinformation campaigns
• Cyber Security
• Breakdown of our institutions
• Clean air, clean water and the degradation of the Earth’s biosphere of which we are a part
• Protection of our Public Lands

On each one of these, Trump has also failed the majority of Americans. A few special interests have won. Most of us have lost. Few of us are better off today than we were 4 years ago. 

My Dream – I see a future where we all work together to deal with these issues in a systematic and responsible manner. Where we have a leader who can bring us together to achieve all that we can achieve. A leader who we can trust and who inspires us to be the best that we can be. A leader who reaches not only across the aisle but also across borders and works globally with the world community on these challenging issues.

I see a future where we support one another, where we listen to logic and science and the people all across this great land. Where we act with knowledge and compassion for others and where we all, through hard and honest work, can achieve our dreams for ourselves and our children. Let’s come together and make that wish come true. Vote as if your life, liberty, and your pursuit of happiness depend on it.

I am hopeful because Joe Biden has the potential for making this happen. I am excited because we get to help make this dream come true. We get to vote for leaders and representatives at all levels of government who know that we are better and can do better than this.

Ned Tillman is an earth and energy scientist and is an award-winning author of three books.

The Scallion

-Not the news-

PT Barnum hired as auctioneer of public lands.

Trump attempts to balance budget and line his friend’s pockets by selling national parks at discount rates. Brings back his long lost idol to cloud the give-away with disinformation to confuse the people. #SavingThePlaces  Satire.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGjnIG7puzY&feature=em-lsp

From The Scallion – not the news – Teddy Roosevelt turned over in his grave this past weekend after hearing about Trump’s plans to give National Parks back to New York syndicates – USGS reported that tremors were felt around the world. No telling what the Teddy bear might do to the doughboy if this plan proceeds. #SavingThePlaces

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGjnIG7puzY&feature=em-lsp

Satire

There is no texture to the sky today. It’s soft with a dull yellow sun. Not the brilliant blue that often precedes a hurricane.

They say it’s a high-altitude haze from the fires out west. And yet I smell the ash, chasing me indoors – a place I have tried to escape during the pandemic.

No, I’m not in California, or Oregon, or Washington. I am on the East Coast. And yet somehow, a ghost-like layer of smoke has reached all the way across our continent and continues to carry the memories of Pacific rim fires out into the Atlantic. 

It’s Day 3 of this relatively minor inconvenience, but it brings home the magnitude of this global event. Just like the fires in California, Australia, Indonesia, and Brazil over the past few years the surface of the Earth is drying out in many places (new record of 130 degrees in Death Valley) and lightning storms are increasing. We are losing control of our goldilocks climate by continuing to poison our atmosphere and not taking the steps that will reduce these threats. Where is the government when we really need them? This is a challenge worth fighting for.

The residue from the West Coast fires will probably be washed out of our skies over the next few days as the residual rains from Hurricane Sally pass overhead. Sally is another climate exasperated event. We won’t get the 30 inches of rain that fell on some of the Gulf Coast or the torrential rains and floods of the Upper mid-West that occurred earlier in the year, but we should get enough to wash some of the remaining particulates from the skies. They will fall into our soils and the waters of the mid-Atlantic states and well beyond. 

These events have not directly impacted us here in the East but they have been large enough to get our attention – if only for a few days. They might have impacts on our food supplies and other supply chains, and we will all end up paying for these disruptions somehow. But are these events enough to get us to look at our personal and corporate behaviors and change not just to save ourselves and our lifestyles but to help others as well.

What have we learned from the other great global, man-made crisis – the pandemic. As I attempted to change my behaviors to avoid catching Covid-19, I think I learned a little about myself relative to others. I have had encounters, both friendly and awkward, with people behind masks or not sporting a mask at all. I realized that my actions have not only been about protecting me and my loved ones but I followed the public health recommendations because wide participation is the only way to gain control over the spread of this virus.

I learned that to help fight any of these curses we all need to follow the best scientific advice available. That is the only way to win the fight against a global problem.

The Pandemic Fog – Since March I’ve been feeling like I’m living in a fog. There is a certain sameness about being in my house all the time and taking the same walking paths around my neighborhood. I miss the hugs and the sense of comfort I get when hanging out without worrying about how close I am to someone else. I miss the excitement of “looking ahead to the next trip or vacation”. There is a lack of freshness, a lack of oportunty and a lack of excitement in my everyday life. On top of that, more fear has entered my life. I’m greatly concerned about how and when this pandemic will end and the financial and health-related hardships many of us are facing.

I don’t think of this Pandemic Fog that I’m experiencing as boredom, however, because I’ve taken the opportunity to read more, walk more, and appreciate my partner and close friends more. I’ve meditated more this year and have tried to always “be there” for my family and friends. I’ve also engaged much more than in past years in the political campaigns and in my ongoing efforts to inspire more people to take personal actions in the fight against climate change. So I don’t think it’s boredom. In fact, life seems to be going too fast and I’m concerned that I’m wasting time and missing out on something important. It’s as if I’m lost in a fog and missing a year of my life.