It’s Hot As Hell in Alabama Powerland
August 22nd, 2007 |
Connecting the Dots
by Glynn Wilson
A dozen times in the past few weeks I have sat down in front of this computer and started to write a column about the damn heat wave and drought enveloping Alabamaland and much of the country.
But each time, I have slunk back to the Stratolounger in front of the TV and said to heck with it. This is the time of year when the best thing to do is catch up on old movies on cable under a strong air conditioner. Simply moving one’s body about the house is hard.
Besides, everybody knows it’s hot, literally, as hell. So where’s the news value in writing about it?
It’s so damn hot and dry that we are beginning to wonder if there is enough rain out there in clouds of the future to ever bring the dead grass back to life again. To keep the tomatoes growing, they have to be watered twice a day.
With water restrictions in place, there is no way to keep the hydrangeas and the dogwoods alive. If we have an ice storm this winter, there will be lots of dead trees falling on houses, because the ground and their root systems are so dry they will snap like dry beans.
It’s been more than 90 degrees in the shade on the screened in porch for so many days in a row that I can’t remember what the count is anymore.
Yet there’s not one peep out of weatherman James Spann on ABC’s 33/40 this entire summer about global warming being a myth. But there’s also not been one single story on any local television news station about global warming, and nothing in the local papers either.
Let’s face facts. We live in a land of denial. That’s why I call it Alabamaland.
Maybe all the criticism of the media from the left is starting to work just a little bit, however.
The Birmingham bureau of the Associated Press managed to produce a story the other day that I missed on the wires at the time, perhaps because the heat has turned me so lazy that I feel some days like I am back in the Big Easy.
Thanks to a couple of Republican Senators, Trent Lott of Mississippi and Dick Shelby of Alabama, developers are using federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding efforts in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Katrina to build condos - complete with Bear Bryant art - near the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny stadium in Tuscaloosa.
Katrina Aid Goes Toward Football Condos
When an alert reader pointed that out to me today in an e-mail message, I could hardly believe my eyes for a split second. Then I said to myself, “Self, that makes perfect sense in Bush’s America, where everybody loves a tax break for the rich, especially when it REALLY screws the poor.”
This is not the land of the free or the brave anymore, folks. We should change our national anthem and motto. How about this: “The good old US of A, the land where everybody looks out for themselves, and the rich get richer and the poor can go to hell after their teeth rot out.”
That government is best which governs least indeed.
It’s gotten so bad that one of the most powerful lawyers and Democrats in Alabama is so afraid of his own shadow that he insists anyone who supports the impeachment of the worst president in American history, that’s right, George W. Bush, is too far to the left to be included in any Democratic Party discussion in Alabama.
I won’t name this attorney just yet, because I have a surprise story in store for the Alabama Democratic Party I am working on to be published in the next few weeks.
But I will say this about that. Anybody who does not support the impeachment of Gonzales, Cheney and Bush should not be calling themselves a Democrat, and will certainly never be elected to any office in this state or any other in the future. So-called mainstream, centrist Democrats are so much road kill in the current political climate. And if you don’t believe me, wait until you see the public opinion data that backs it up.
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| Photo by Glynn Wilson |
| Alabama author Rick Bragg |
Perhaps one of the reasons I got motivated enough to write tonight is because last night, I made my way downtown to the McWayne Science Center to see my old friend Rick Bragg read from his new book The Prince of Frogtown.
Now I know it’s way too hot to be talking about football, but he also has a piece in a new special issue of Sports Illustrated about the upcoming Alabama football season.
The last column I wrote in this space was about the end of the era of the written word. I still stand by my conclusions. But that is not to say that some people won’t still write. And some people will still read good writing – when they can find it.
Now if we could just get more people to write about this damn global warming – so we can begin to do some things to reverse it. Time’s a wastin’.
Do you feel it yet? What have you done about it lately?
Me? I just a few days ago bought an insulation blanket for the hot water heater and installed it. We are capturing water in the sink as it heats up for washing dishes to use on the plants. And, we are gradually making the transition all over the house to energy efficient light bulbs. This winter, I plan on installing more insulation in the attic.
Now if we could just stop the tax breaks for condos and oil and coal companies and change the national policy to provide some tax breaks for solar power panels for homeowners, we might make some real progress.
Will it ever happen in Bush’s America or Alabama Powerland?
Not if we keep electing centrist Democrats with no cajónes.
