Weblog
03/19/01 05:13 PM: Having our cake and eating
Having our cake and eating it too
What does that even mean? Does “having” it mean having all the pretty flowers and whatnot in the frosting to look at? And the point would be that you can’t enjoy looking at it once you eat it? I guess that seems logical, but I really don’t know. At any rate, that is pretty much what the U.S. wants. I mean, really, Americans are about as greedy as they come. But I won’t get into the downfall of American society right now.
I’m talking more about our government. George Bush campaigned on a platform of reducing CO2 emissions. I’m not naive enough to think that he really cared about cutting down on the greenhouse gases and other pollutants, but what he said is what he said. His promises got him enough votes to be elected president. Oops, nevermind. But seriously, he’s turned around and said that he will do nothing in the way of reducing CO2 emissions. “What I meant to say was. . . .” Okay, whatever, politicians lie all the time. Obviously, it’s not good domestic policy to promise the country something and then say, “Nevermind, forget it.” But there is a larger issue here. Has anybody ever heard of something called the Kyoto Protocol? A whole bunch of countries signed something saying that they are going to reduce CO2 emissions. We signed it. So. . . . When can we expect this to happen? Are we just going to wake up one day to find that everything we have been doing as a nation only produces half as much carbon dioxide as it used to? I think not. The U.S. has a terrible record when it comes to honoring international agreements. We use our clout to push other countries into signing them, yet we expect to be exempt and not have to actually put into action whatever it is that we agreed to. And what about the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty? The U.S. is about to back out of that so we can build our precious missile defense system. Come on now. We can’t simply forget about our responsibilities when they are no longer convenient. I don’t mean to vilify George Bush by comparing him to Hitler, but didn’t Hitler have an agreement with Stalin at one point? And when that was no longer convenient. . . . If the U.S. wants to be a leader/role model for the world, shouldn’t it start acting like one?
