Mother Nature

I remember an old Christmas cartoon, "The Year Without A Santa Claus," that had Mrs. Claus and two elves visiting Mother Nature, who was the mother of the Heat Miser and Snow Miser. Mother Nature appeared as a nice old lady. Well, that nice old lady has become the equivalent of the Heat Miser lately!

In addition to this year's extreme temperatures and humidity, my allergies have been bothering me lately. And my mother and sister were on their way to North Carolina today and just missed flash floods in Washington, D.C. They were battling heavy rain all the way down south, plus there was a tornado watch in effect.

We've had some major hurricanes over the past 20 years but it seems like they've been increasing in frequency and fury over the past few years. What happened to New Orleans was a major strike against that area. The storms have even had some of the religious advocates suggesting that the Second Coming is near.

It's easy to assign fantasy characters to things like holidays, forces of nature, etc. It's easier to place blame when we can picture an idea in a human form. One of the Internet definitions of Nature is "the material world, esp. as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities." Well, I have to disagree with that, as they say factories created by humans have caused the greenhouse effect which can influence nature.

An argument I've been hearing for years is that mankind is destroying the planet and it's atmosphere, which I agree with. And that is affecting the weather patterns, which I also agree with. So is it really too far out of bounds to say that yes, we have seriously pissed someone off and now we're paying the price? Not that I believe in a little old lady that views this world as her garden but we do assign names to hurricanes that makes them seem human. Look at Hurricane Katrina and what she did to New Orleans - we could safely call her something that rhymes with "witch" and we would be justified. Yet she could have been striking back at us for what we're doing to the planet, in which case it would be self-defense.

A lot of people have problems with the Greenpeace activists and all the other "Save the Planet" groups. And these are probably the same people that throw cigarettes out their car windows along with other trash. I don't profess to be a tree hugger but I do have respect for our environment. And I remember back in 1st or 2nd grade where we took at walk and collected trash on the street, back when "Give a hoot, don't pollute" was a slogan. What happened to those days? Did we get too bogged down in insurance policies to let kids leave the school grounds for a worthy cause? How much do they teach about the environment in schools these days? Maybe more should be done.

In closing, I just want to ask for everyone to have more respect for our planet. After all, it's the only one we have.