OPINION |
by Dan Chiles, Bois D'Arc
A rant in two parts:
Part 1: I hope you read this in a newspaper or similar digital publication. This means you get information from professionals who attempt to print the truth using strict rules known as journalism. “Free Information” is propaganda for the weak minded.
The world is on fire. You see the pictures of Arctic forests burning. The American West is burning. South America is burning. Europe is burning. And the Middle East would be burning except it’s already burned leaving only sand. The oceans are dying. The rivers and glaciers are disappearing. The planet-killing carbon pollution we dump into the sky today will be here for a long time.
And nobody cares. NOBODY CARES. Oh sure, there’s some cranky scientists pointing out the obvious and using the same physics that powers your cell phone to predict the coming Hell on Earth. But I can’t find anyone in any positions of authority in our region who actually cares.
Part 2: This is only for Millennials, Gen X, Y and beyonders. My Baby Boom generation drives fat carbon spewing land yachts. Our houses puke energy. We jet around the world. We build gross hog factories on top of your pristine springs and rivers to kill the fish and critters that live there. We pray to the invisible Jesus in giant air conditioned barns for him to save us from our bad behavior.
And because we ignore the evidence of our eyes we deserve only rough justice. So, here’s how it works. When old age finally loosens our grip on the levers of power, feel free to shove our wheelchairs onto the black coal tar covered parking lots of abandoned Big Box stores so we can suffer and bake in the Homemade Hell of our own making. Then we will finally understand the world we leave for you.
I’m so glad that practically nobody will read this. Otherwise people my age might be angry. No, this little screed is for my children and grandchildren. I will carry a folded paper copy of this letter and keep it in a pouch on my cheap Chinese-made wheelchair. I will pull it out to plead with the Minders to please please please move my chair to the shade of a handful of tough old trees that survive on the perimeter of the parking lots. And as the torment drives those of us on the pavement with military grade machine guns to spray hollow points in all directions, well … we deserve that, too. And by then, like today, nobody in authority will care.
To my children: As you place orders for wheelchairs, please vote out of office every person who feels entitled to ruin your lives because they believe they can escape to Mars or Heaven. And please please please save me a place in the shade.