Do you see a pattern here yet? We need oil. So let’s get over our Chicken Little’s, “The Sky is Falling” mentality and jump into can do “American Attitude”, of putting our best minds and volumes more money towards figuring out how to stop that inane BP oil leak in the Gulf. The sooner we figure that out, the safer we will be when it happens again… and it will happen again. I mean come on, people get in automobile accidents all the time, and no one stops driving their car. Then let’s bring that same American caring and generosity that we have seen to help Haiti, and have some concerts and events to raise money to help the people who’s lives have been turned upside down by this catastrophe. Funny has anyone seen even one “We Are the World” type aid event for the people in Louisiana to help them overcome the suffering caused by BP’s oil spill? We will for Haiti but not for our own, something is terribly wrong with that picture folks, another story for another day.

BP… fine the snot of them. Make them pay as much as they can without putting them out of business… that would be senseless, remember “We Need Oil”… hello! And then as an added bonus for the ineptness… refuse them any further licensing, new or renewals, on their wells until they can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they can contend with any calamity that comes their way. And once again in the truest of American spirit… let’s not sit around and wait for them to figure it out, let’s help them find that technology… put our very best minds, from MIT and the likes to work on the solution. Create awards, prize money and grants to those students private businesses who can solve this. Oh and while they are at it… maybe add some nice caveat prizes for finding something that fits within the “Green” scheme to replace petroleum. Think of the jobs that can be created from an the industry that will replace petroleum products. Want the world to beat a path to America’s door. For America to be looked up to in awe again… then let’s make sure America is the one that creates and produces, green gas and green plastic!

Let do this the American way… let’s stop whining and be “We Can Do!”

The ramifications will be felt for many years from now. And the costs to attempt to clean this disaster up will be staggering on what is already an anorexic economy.

The media’s evil perpetrator BP oil as already admitted they were ill prepared to deal with a scenario such as this… but thought it was okay since everyone else in the industry with thousands of deep well platforms spread across the earth had no concept of what to do in this worst case scenario come true… misery loves company I guess.

From every corner of the earth the wail has arisen in unison, a lament at this horrible event brought about by careless greedy human beings!

But then it occurs to me… near everyone of those, and most likely those wailing the loudest will get in a car or bus and drive somewhere today, tonight, tomorrow. They will throw something in the microwave for a quick bite to eat, and then save it in a convenient plastic container, maybe wash some clothes or the dishes with detergent, put on their make-up, dye their hair, take out the trash in a garbage bag, listen to a CD or watch a movie on a DVD… and not think twice about the fact that it is they who demand the oil from far below… pass me that bottle of water please!

Being the type of individual, the fierce competitor required to be and Olympic athlete, I have not doubt, Nodar Kumaritashvili would have been the first to tell you, to tell everyone to go on… Show the world Olympians do not lay down at the feet of adversity, rather they, we learn, apply, and make greater the world for all of us because of the incredible human endeavors of great men like Nodar Kumaritashvili. He is an unsung hero who in pushing the envelope to go a little faster helps to pioneer for every man, woman and child a better world. Should doctors stop practicing medicine when their is a tragic loss of life… or should automobile manufactures stop making car when a crash occurs… no, they should learn from what occurred, apply what they learn, and move forward with those improvements.

This is a huge, unspeakable loss, to family, to country, to the sport itself. But improvements will be made, a new set of eyes will be brought to view the challenges from a new perspective… and this sport as well as many other day to day aspects of our lives will benefit.

Sports is not a trivial thing… these men and woman perform out of the pure joy of conquering what the naysayers say can’t or should not be done… Athletes, Olympic athletes say it can be, and back it up with action not words. They teach us perseverance in the acquisition of a worthy goal.

No, Nodar Kumaritashvili would be the first to tell you… Let the Games Begin!

I had an epiphany the other day as I was pondering where the matter, all be if very compressed matter goes after it is sucked past the event horizon into a Black Hole… and then this very clear picture developed in my head, slowly at first, then like a photo in the developer bath it become crystal clear… Matter is not being attracted or sucked in, rather it is being dispelled just like someone exhaling.

I envisioned a “Super Universe” where our universe was no more then a white dot among infinite other universes, very much like our own night sky filled with infinite galaxies. And ours, our universe, was contained in an ever expanding, (ever since the Big Bang,) membrane. And this membrane, much like that of helium party balloon was reaching the point that it was so expanded that small, micro holes were developing in the skin or membrane… and as such our matter so minute on this scale it is little more then gas was escaping, being propelled out and through these holes… as were all the other little universes dotting the Super Universe’s blackness. I could see the gasses spewing out of them like solar flares off our Sun. Thing is I could also see there is a point at which, like any expanding balloon, especially one at the point small micro holes are forming in its skin, that it is about to erupt… “Big Bang Number II”

Good thing I also believe our souls, not containing any mass will in fact survive and move on to another Super Universal school of enlightenment.

Then reality could play it’s hand
and fill my soul’s desire
making wishes simply by command

G. Thomas Edwards

© Copyright 2010, Gary Thomas Edwards, all rights reserved

It seems the rule at this school is if you want to give one child something, you have to give one to everyone in the class to be fair… really?

FAIR… Christmas is not about being fair, it is not about making sure everyone gets exactly the same amount or thing… Granted that would make Santa’s life easier. “Hey Elves this year we are only making one toy, and every child gets the same size, the same color and the same amount, one, so it’s fair.

I admit it, let me be the first to herald it through the carefully politically correct ‘Seasons Greetings’ decorated streets, “Christmas is about generosity and giving.”

Isn’t it really about giving something to those close to you, as a way of saying thank you for being my friend, my family, my loved one? And, again yes (trumpets in the background this time) it is about giving to those who are less fortunate. Christmas is the perfect time to help out those in need… though really that should be a year-long endeavor don’t you think?

If we continue on this path, to dictate what everyone should get, so that it is always fair, Christmas will lose that wonderful meaning, so well portrayed in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ and ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ it will simply have no meaning, religious or otherwise, it will lose its luster and no longer be the special day it has been for so long… it will just be another Federally mandated Welfare Program. Hey maybe then you can go stand in line and pick up your Government approved Holiday Gift to take home and open on Holiday Day.

I got an idea, this year why don’t we treat everyone as an individual, with individual desires, wants and needs…. let’s make the world, its people, rituals, and customs unique and special again.

Okay… I’ll stop now, I have Christmas presents to wrap and Christmas carols to listen to.

So to all of you… have yourselves a Merry little Christmas now!

Don’t even get me started on those trying to homogenize all the Religious Holidays into one generic event…

I say to you… that is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment!!! The reason they wrote the Amendment, and let it be noted they wrote it in, they did not grant a special privilege to the citizens… they wrote it into our Constitution so the citizens of the United States, would always be armed as the final “Check and Balance” of our government. That is to say, if the government was to ever get so out of hand, so corrupt, so self indulgent as to believe they were in control rather then the citizens… the citizens would be ready to stand up bearing arms and remove any tyranny that might arise.

Hunting, food on the table and protection against intruders are merely frosting on the cake… our Forefathers wanted us armed to the teeth so that the people would always be in charge, not the government!

What a sure fire way to get reelected… tax the rich to pay for free programs for those that cannot afford them, and I dare say, that would be a pretty big chunk of the nations voters…. not even counting those who are here illegally… can they vote yet? It is after all, only a matter of time… and is yet another huge, no make that a humongous sure fire way to get reelected, but that is fodder for another time.

But I have to ask the sanity in running a team, business or government where you penalize those that are successful to reward those who are not. Seems to me fundamentally flawed… and a simply superior way to raise, or train a nation of individual who desire not to excel or even work.

I mean why should anyone work, it is a democratic society and we can keep electing officials who will steal from the rich and give to the poor… a nation of self imposed Robin Hoods, if you will.

I don’t know is it just me, or does anyone else think that sooner or later it is a system that will simply collapse on itself because there won’t be enough entrepreneurial individuals coming up through the ranks who want to succeed only to have the fruits of their endeavors taken away and given to those who have learned only to stick their hand out…

I don’t know… maybe I am just missing something… am I missing something?

It is in the greatness of disparity,
the bridging of the gap
that makes this
electrifying joy so immense,
so absolutely irresistible, seductive
and intense.

You and I, we share
unquenchable a thirst
for spikes of epicurean ecstasy,
being the junkies that we are
we’ll do anything…
anything just to reach yet one last star.

G. Thomas Edwards

© Copyright 2009, Gary Thomas Edwards, all rights reserved.