Soap Box

I come from a long line of farmers and timber people, folks who made their living from what grew out of the ground. Men who had a great and abiding respect for the soil and water, who harvested the timber with an eye on selective cutting, for leaving seed trees to replenish the woodlands, for never leaving the dead trimmings next to a standing tree to keep the bugs who attack dead wood from going into a live tree and killing it.

They would let fields lie fallow every so often to give the soil a rest and let it replenish the natural nutrients it draws from nature, uninterrupted by plow or seeding.

And the ecosystem flourished with forested tracts and bumper crops and the branches flowed clear and sweet and you could drink the water without fear of contamination.

They were sportsmen, these men who got up every morning before the sun did, they hunted and fished and had the greatest respect for firearms, well aware of the damage they could do and passed the absolute rules of gun safety on to their children before they were ever allowed to pull the trigger on a live round.

They were conservationists who would never dream of allowing harmful industrial waste to flow into the waterways they fished or let their wood lots to be overharvested to the point of destroying the new growth.

If any fault for what has happened to America’s ecosystem lies among these generations it would be a naivety, a propensity for trusting those they put in office and were told that the pipelines from the new factory that drained into the river were unobtrusive and harmless to the waters, that the light waste just disintegrated in the millions of gallons of water and flowed on out to the ocean, which was certainly big enough to assimilate and break down the small amount of harmful stuff that even made it that far.

They were led to believe that the unnaturally colored vapors that came out of the tall smokestacks of the new fertilizer factory were not toxic and would disburse harmlessly into the atmosphere and besides didn’t their children and neighbors work there, didn’t they diversify the agrarian economy and pay taxes for better schools and roads.

And so, it went, with local and state politicians being bought off in one way or another turning the other way while the businesses in their constituency trashed the land, polluted the waters and gained influence on the federal level and the party went on.

By the time the ecological movement gained enough clout to actually bring civil action against the offenders, vast damage had been done and, in some cases, the offending businesses, rather than face the litigation they were bound to lose, just tore down, packed up and went away, leaving an ecological dilemma behind.

I’ve seen the aftermath and I am so glad that the ecological movers and shakers gathered enough support to hold many of these offenders accountable, I’m thankful that the Pinelands that were left in clear cut, total disarray are now managed by companies who replant, tree for tree ensuring that there will be timber in America’s future.

America has made great strides in cleaning up the industrial and chemical waste, the volatile tailings of nuclear power and the protection of our natural treasures.

But now it seems that the lion’s share of the energy of the modern eco movement is directed at what was once called global warming, has morphed into climate change and will probably be renamed many more times to fit whatever weather and natural disasters would best be suited by it, as it has vacillated between hot climate and ice age for the last century.

First, on a practical side, the philosophy of the movement is tantamount to looking for something in the house that you know you misplaced in the barn.

No “global warming cum climate change” effort would ever amount to a hill of beans if it only involves America, when the real offenders are on the other side of the world.

This “The world will end in 12 years” brand of tactic is a farce, an attempt at a power grab that has a lot more to do with election than environment.

It is designed to scare the people of this country into giving up convenience and personal freedom so that a bunch of radicals can control every facet of life from cradle to grave.

They are unrealistic, naive and extremely dangerous and if America would, God forbid, go along with their programs, we would find ourselves fifty years down the line with no improvement in global warming and living in a nation where you can’t do anything without the government’s permission.

When mankind tries to take over the things that belong to the Creator, and the temperature of this and all planets are controlled by the hand and will of Almighty God, he finds himself at odds with an eternally implacable force and the results are not pretty.

I firmly believe that we should do our best to clean up our environment and try to persuade China, Russia, India and the other real polluters to clean up their act, but even if it’s done to the Nth degree, it will make for a cleaner, more healthy, pleasant world, but it will affect the temperature of the earth, not one jot, nor one tittle.

The thermostat is in the hand of the One who brought the Universe into being, always has been always will be.

What do you think?

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

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