When I logged onto Facebook this afternoon, I had quite an unexpected and entertaining note from a television news photographer I used to work with in Portland, Oregon.
It was a link to an article from a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania newspaper. The story was about a lone bank robber who recently knocked off a bank there. My friend Scott’s note simply read, “Were you in Pittsburgh around noon today?” And here’s why:
Maybe it’s the angle, or who knows what, but this robber has a stunning resemblance to me!
Sure he’s older and the police description puts him a little shorter than me, but it’s kind of weird!
I asked around my newsroom to see if this guy really did look like me. I got a bunch of chuckles, and my friend and producing colleague, Brandice, said that I was much cuter than the aforementioned robber. I’d have to say she’s right. But who knows. Maybe this is me… from the future… coming back in time… to knock off banks to get rich. Maybe I lose a few inches of height in a tragic accident 20-30 years from now… who knows!
But I definitely think it’s odd, and entertaining!
By the way, here’s the link to the newspaper article: Lone bandit robs National City Bank in Buffalo Township
So if you happen to see me in a bank soon, don’t freak out… I’m just there to make a deposit. A legal deposit without any firearms that is!
So here we are again, taking a single day to recognize the value of this mossy spinning rock we call home. Earth is truly an amazing planet that deserves to be protected… from us. For millennia humankind has had its way with Earth, for better or worse, changing her naturally landscaped hills, plains and shores, manipulating her natural plants into something more suitable for consumption, taking the lives of her creatures for sustenance, clothing and a myriad of other uses and misuses. Unlike any other indigenous species in the planet’s history, Humans have completely separated themselves from their natural connection to Earth. Onetime “wild” creatures who lived within the harmonious balance of nature, have now “advanced” into something completely and detrimentally different. At least that is true as far as the planet is concerned. The paths of humanity and Earth have been split like a tree struck by lightning. Separate halves connected by the same roots.
This truth has become painfully obvious within the last couple hundred years, and especially so in recent decades. Our advancements in agriculture, industry, science and technology have taken a toll on our living home. Our weapons have helped us hunt certain animals into endangerment or extinction. Our farming practices have stripped the soil of minerals, our machines have polluted the air and robbed the land of resources, and our chemicals have tainted waters and stained the landscape with our obviously flawed practices. Our science and technology have abused, and created mutations and the end of certain creatures.
We now see how the work of humans has altered climate patterns, depleted the atmosphere, melted eons old glaciers and icebergs, and turned onetime lush ecosystems into arid patches of lifelessness.
Sounds awful, but the intention was to advance our own kind, make life easier, less dangerous, and better for future generations. We could spend the rest of time damning ourselves for our actions and mistakes, but that would be just as irresponsible as what we’ve already done.
Yet there may be one fact we are overlooking in our desperate quest to save Earth from our misgivings. Earth is, and always will be, inherently in charge of its own fate. Or more specifically, the Universe is in charge of Earth’s fate. It always has been. And like humankind, Earth has always been in a state of evolution. From its early beginnings as a collection of space debris caught up in a new star’s orbit, to its time as a relentless, rough mass of spewing chemicals, liquids and gases, to its more familiar state as a spherical blue-green sanctuary of life, Earth has always been changing and, more importantly, alive. But whatever state she’s in, Earth has always been and will always be on her own. We and every other living organism have always been simply, along for the ride.
We can rob her, break her, scar her, rape her, deplete her, whatever we want, and she will still be here. There might be fewer of us, or other creatures and plants, or none of us, but Earth will persevere. Unless we create a way to disintegrate every molecule that makes up Earth, and everything that lives in and on her, we can really not harm her. All we can do is destroy the current state of Earth on which we are dependant for our own survival. We need to protect the blue skies, the green fields and the sparkling waters, so WE can exist, along with all the cute, cuddly and delicious organisms we’ve grown accustomed to having around with us. And that is true crux we face: our current and past actions are threatening “our” future, not Earth’s.
So as we celebrate this and future “Earth Days,” let us not forget what this is all really about… US.
For, if we were truly sincere in our quest to save Earth, we would find a way of ridding ourselves from her… for good.
…during these tough economic times, remember it could always be worse.
My old buddy Toan Lam from KRON was laid off late last year. He hasn’t found a new job yet, but is seizing the opportunity to help others. He visited Sacramento’s quickly growing tent city. It reminds me of the old shanty towns I read about from the Great Depression.
Thank you Toan! I’m going to see what I can do to help you with your mission!
