Just about everyday, I wake up to WNYC's NPR programming. Usually that means that stories like terrorist attacks in Iraq (IEDs-Improvised Explosive Devices), genocide in Uganda, Sudan, etc. and domestic spying by our "elected" administration, plague my dreams. While I know that all around the world, chaos is not raining down on all of us, it sure does feel like it when that alarm goes off the radio clicks on and the reporters start their daily barrage of mostly bad news from around the globe.
Here we are at the beginning of another calendar year and I wake up with all this in my head slowly yet deeply convincing me that perhaps I should just roll back up in the covers and not face the day. I can see why some people tune out the news completely and why many have stopped buying or reading the newpapers. It seems like the world is always falling apart and that no matter what we do, we make it worse. Yet, somewhere within, optimism creeps in and I say to myself, get up time to help stop all this madness.
But where does one start? Often I am reminded that one must choose one's battles wisely. Rarely have I mastered this art, however in the spirit of New Year's resolutions and organizing ones life by setting some goals for the year, I decided that "choose your battles wisely" will become my mantra for this year.
One of the issues we have heard a lot about, particularly over 2005, was climate change. The days last year seem like they could be measured in natural catastrophies. This morning, over my morning coffee (fairly traded and shade grown), I listened to a brief mention that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison had managed to get support for passing of S. 517 the WEATHER MODIFICATION RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 and it has been placed on the legislative calendar. "Weather Modification, what the hell does that mean?" I thought.
