Whistling Past the Graveyard

It's probably a good thing that the human mind can put danger away in a little box, and go about it's business. Of course there is the opposite where a few crazy religionists thousands of miles away can get inside that brain and terrify it. Consider that eleven years ago nineteen men hijacked some airplanes, and killed three thousand people in the U.S. We were scared shitless, and committed trillions of dollars, and thousands of lives to defeat this small group of nuts. The terrorists actually were able to kill .001 percent of the population. In the same year there were 29,573 firearm deaths in the United States. In other words .010 percent of the population was killed by firearms in 2001, yet we never rolled out a gigantic army to protect ourselves from the gun nuts. We put the huge threat to our safety by guns away in that little second amendment box, somewhere in our brain. Maybe in the brains dusty attic.

I live in Florida. For many, many years I have been hearing about climate change, and what will result from that climate change. One of the results will be that the bottom portion of Florida will be under water. It is something that I just don't think about much. That is until this morning. I took my dogs out for their walk, and came across this.

That is the Atlantic Ocean coming up through the grate on the storm sewer in front of my house. Every spring and fall we get higher than usual tides. This year the tides are higher than ever. I don't know why, that storm called Sandy was well away from us. I consulted with my neighbor Diane who has lived in her house since 1956, and she said she had never in her life seen the tides so high. This is Diane's back yard.

I am afraid that I am living only a few inches above the sea, and that some day it just might come right in through my front door. Oh well. I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.