...in my opinion..
...Life often has a way of teaching us things by showing us events that happen we have no control over: hard lessons, yes, sometimes, but always necessary. These lessons can be wonderful like the one I learned from Kimoko whose touch was the first time I knew sex could also mean love. They can be terrible like seriously hurting someone trying to rape you then blaming yourself, over a period of years, with guilt and artificial self-judgment.
Or these lessons can be works in progress like the one I am both learning and teaching with my ex-girlfriend and close friend Julia about leaving one love behind, embracing a mild but persistent form of Autism, while moving forward in search of a deeper more meaningful commitment.
Don't worry: this is not a confession. The events briefly described here are designed only to set the context of what I feel is inherently wrong with the bulwark of contemporary American Conservative Opposition at work in the discourse of the party who has dedicated themselves to the blind faith of "just say no" symbolized by the so called freedom cry of "Drill Baby, Drill."
Before a couple of weeks ago, the rallying cry of many Tea Party enthusiasts
was the phrase: Drill Baby, Drill
An election-year enthusiasm for more oil drilling found its voice at the Republican convention Wednesday, as delegates punctuated a couple of speeches with shouts of "Drill, baby, drill!"
[Republican Convention]"So, do you want to put your country first?," said former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, one of the Republican Party’s few prominent black politicians. "Then let’s reduce our dependency on foreign sources of oil and promote oil and gas production at home.
"In other words: Drill, baby, drill! And drill now!," Steele said. "So, do you want to put your country first? Then let’s make decisions about our security based on what keeps us safe and not on what’s politically correct."
In fact, the mantra was and still may be quite seductive: perhaps as seductive as Kool-Aid is sweet:
...Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani took up the cry. "Drill, baby, drill," he said, testing the line and then repeating it more forcefully. "Drill, baby, drill!" the crowd roared back.
By Mary Lu Carnevale
Siobhan Hughes reports from St. Paul, Minn., on the Republican convention.
Ahhh, the taste of Kool-Aid. Could lemmings have a better dream?
...the chant of "drill, baby, drill" was taken up by Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, and she maintains that she's holding onto it.
"I repeat the slogan 'drill here, drill now' not out of naivete or disregard for the tragic consequences of oil spills - my family and my state and I know firsthand those consequences," Palin wrote in a Facebook note today. "How could I still believe in drilling America's domestic supply of energy after having seen the devastation of the Exxon-Valdez spill? I continue to believe in it because increased domestic oil production will make us a more secure, prosperous, and peaceful nation."
Similarly, McDonnell said today that the "catastrophic event" off the Louisiana coast will not deter his plans to make Virginia the first state on the East Coast to begin drilling for oil and natural gas, the Washington Post reports.
Stephanie Condon
Yet, the point of this diary is not to solely indite the conservative opposition. In fact, i argue that there may be an approach to resolving the current crisis in the Gulf that, apparently neither side of the issue has considered yet.
For instance, if Oil is a heavy liquid under pressure and the liquid of the Gulf is a much lighter and larger body of liquid, theoretically it may be possible to approach the problem in much the same way plumbers have, for quite some time, dealt with sewage lines submerged in potable water supplies.
Where submerged mains inflow is permitted a backflow prevention device is required. In this way backflow prevention device protects the potable water system from contamination hazards which can be severe. There are over 10,000 reported cases of backflow contamination each year. Some cases can be fatal.
In many countries where regulations allow for the possibility of backflow , backflow prevention devices are required by law and must be installed in accordance with plumbing or building codes.
A typical backflow assembly has test cocks and shut-off valves and must be tested each year, if relocated or repaired, and when installed. Wikipedia entry: Backflow prevention April 30, 2010
In the case of the Gulf Crisis, the principle behind the physics of a
A back flow preventer and vacuum breaker (United States Patent 5038814)
could be applied with some margin of success if we can fabricate a large enough enclosure to manipulate the pressure of the discharge (the crude oil) relative to the pressure of the Gulf surface through a series of inlet and outlet duct structures with a one way master air vent housing canopy and subsequent diaphragms to facilitate collection of the effluvia ( the slurry of crude oil, sand and other assorted debris) in the enclosed structure.
Yes, I know: the logistics alone behind such a project are enormous, but as an idea, this approach goes way beyond both the right minded Palin enthusiasts' single mindedness as well as the what is quickly becoming, the left leaning standard of rote condemnation: neither of which are ultimately useful when people's lives and livelihoods are concerned.
Basically then, I am not arguing that either side is more correct than the other; instead what I am proposing is that real world problems require well thought out solutions and not political posturing in preparation for the upcoming Mid term elections.
And this "Drill Baby, Drill" brand of "sound bite" morality is also quite evident in the current Arizona Immigration legislation as is the subsequent polarization of opposition to what is, I argue, a clumsy attempt to solve a socio-economic crisis that only appears to be racial when the actual fact of the matter couldn't be further from the truth.
The "GOOD" folks of Arizona, as many of you already know, decided in what I maintain, was a "Drill baby, drill" philosophical approach to conflict resolution, to pass a law that effectively lumps all illegal immigrants into the universal category of "thug." In addition, the new law also obviates the existing efforts of law enforcement in areas from Lukeville to Sassabe to Cerro Pinacote to both the Organ Pipe Cactus and the region surrounding the Devil's Highway: a lot of hard work and sacrifice ignored by the very same state legislators who, of all people, should have known better.
Desert Invasion The fact remains, as many law enforcement officials in the area(s) will attest, relatively small amounts of drugs are often used by Mexican Cartels as a diversionary tactic: a couple of thousand dollars worth of pot is often used to tie up law enforcement in one spot along the border while several hundred thousand dollars of illegal immigrants, some of whom are mules for crack or black tar heroin, are sent across the boarder from another location, sometimes only a few miles away.
What neither the conservative Glen Beck Sarah Palin Raggedy Ann and Andy's nor the Rachel Maddow die hares (of which I am sympatico with the 'what's up doc?' yoga position by the way) are talking enough about I argue, are the existing technologies, in various stages of development, for effectively tracking these areas.
US Mexico Border delays
In a February 4, 2010 Homeland Security Newswire article, the problems with a proposed satellite detection system are discussed as an ambitious Government project designed to monitor the entire US/Mexican Border.
...among other things, the radar system had trouble distinguishing between vegetation and people when it was windy; also, the satellite communication system took too long to relay information in the field to a command center; by the time an operator moved a camera to take a closer look at a spot, whatever had raised suspicion was gone; Obama’s proposed 2011 budget cuts $189 million from the venture
What the article fails to mention is that the Boeing Corporation, contacted by the government to design and implement the combination eavesdropping laser based ground based surveillance and thermal imaging and satellite coordinated technology was effectively hobbled because Boeing was never given the congressional go ahead from the previous presidential administrations to work closely with Dassault Systemes, a French based software development firm specializing in precisely the kind of computer aided 3 dimensional interactive applications this kind of large scale area surveillance requires in order for it to become operational and cost effective.
The fact that as of the 21st of April of this year:
Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wastes no words in his disdain for SBInet during Tuesday’s oversight hearing....
When the virtual fence, or SBInet, was first launched, we were told that it would be extended across our entire southwest border — nearly 2,000 miles — by early fiscal year 2009. Well, it is now April of 2010, almost four years after SBInet began, after $770 million has been spent directly on SBInet and we are still waiting on the testing of a 23-mile stretch in the Tucson sector. That’s it! By any measure, SBInet, has been a failure. A classic example of a program that was grossly oversold and has badly under-delivered.
...the virtual fence idea was raked over the coals as un-productive. I am amazed how these very same Senators and such well intentioned folk on the one hand could expect a solution to such a complex problem, while on the other hand, neglect to at least ask the question: is there anyone anywhere who might have a possible solution to this problem.
If they had, they most certainly would have stumbled across Dassault Systeme as well as a host of similar European and Indian computer firms who have done extensive work in interoperable communication systems as well as interconnected systems for defense and public safety. Apparently, international cooperation and an exchange of technologies never occurred to any one. I feel that any talk of comprehensive immigration reform must make room for just such an international exchange of technology particularly in the areas of computer aided 3 dimensional interaction and surveillance.
Again, as I have maintained, the Arizona Illegal Immigrant situation is another example of how the "Drill Baby, drill" philosophy of "force" to solve all problems not only gets in the way of creative solutions to difficult problems, it also overlooks a very real cost in human terms at the very core of the problem.
These people coming across the US Mexican Border illegally have paid A HEAVY price in terms of money, health: with some, perhaps, their own children become collateral.
The current law is designed to catch those who are suspicious and to force the hand of law enforcement irregardless of the context. But the law does absolutely nothing about the traffickers who profit from these people's misery. And with so much real money going around on both sides of the border, can we really be certain that when an innocent American rancher dies at the hands of these "Money Men" that another American rancher or businessman or woman was not in some way part of the crime?
If we're thinking logically, these kinds of things may occur to us, but if if we're thinking "Drill baby, drill" or "Might makes right" where the ends justify the means, then of course we're not going to consider the possibility that the illegal immigrants in many cases, may be victims just like the American workers already suffering the devastating effects of crippling unemployment rampant in this country.
Indeed, when we react like blind and hungry mice in a maze where the mere "whiff" of cheese is no better than a campaign slogan sound bite guaranteed to whip the base up for the upcoming mid term elections we are not thinking at all. We are behaving like a common "mob" and that's a far cry from the novus ordo secolorum: the new common order mandate, written on the back of every American dollar bill as the Great Seal.
And whether we are chanting "Drill baby, drill" or "Profit baby, profit" as may be the case from Wall Street, the hallowed hall of the other white meat, we are talking about a way of thinking that places the rule of "force" above the necessity of common sense and then naming the result "reason."
If life teaches us anything about the events in the Gulf of Mexico or the US Mexican border in Arizona isn't it clear by now that the rule of force by itself simply is not enough?
"Drill baby, drill" is not good enough. Haphazard and clumsy legislation regarding immigration reform is not good enough. The old models of "might makes right" do not work: period. Every problem doesn't have one single fix all solution, but every problem can be worked and negotiated if we just keep our eyes open to the possibility of unconventional resolutions.
In other words: every problem can be resolved if we are willing to listen to and learn from what every problem "teaches" us.
It's not that much different when you learn about love for the first time and continually re-learn what you thought you knew was the only way it could be: or when you make a mistake you punish yourself for when your finally realize that punishing yourself closes you off from the lives of others. Drill baby, drill or profit baby, profit are terribly lonely positions to take when it comes right down to it.
And if the events in the Gulf of Mexico and Arizona as well as Wall Street are indeed our teachers, surely the most obvious lesson must be that life is not that long for any of us. Shouldn't we be more careful with each other and make our compassion just as serious as our politics?
Drill baby, drill or Think people, think: the choice, as always, is in our hands. Maybe it's high time we all get busy and really go to work.
That's my opinion, happy May Day everyone.
Tom Krawford
Ann Arbor MI