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Things are quite bad here in Iowa. Rains continue at the rate of 4-5 days a week. We have gotten here an additional three inches plus in the last few days. It did not rain yesterday, nor is it supposed to today. Friday, more rain.

In northern and western Iowa and in Des Moines, the situation is more dire. Des Moines has flooding; Ames, home of  ISU is having it much worse, with drinking water now out. The University is flooded badly and they say the worst has not yet come.

Here, the temps hover in the low 90’s and humidity is unbearable. Water is still standing everywhere from our last storm on Tuesday night. I’ve made the pasta salad that will last until this ends, which is supposed to be Saturday. Humidity that is. Rains are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in the long forecast.

We have mail from Iowa Telecom and we are thinking it may be a hookup for high speed Internet. They were recently taken over by something called Windstream or something which has as one of it’s avowed promises “to bring high speed Internet to rural America.”

I expect to drive part way down and walk the rest of the way, picking up that package and the mail. If it is as we hope, we might be high speeding sometime Saturday when the humidity has dropped sufficiently to work around the house a bit.

Flooding is rampant in Poland I hear. Uncontrolled forest fires continue in Russia, more are dead and dying in Pakistan and millions are displaced due to abnormally high flooding.  A piece of ice the size of four Manhattans has broken off Greenland and may threaten shipping lanes and oil rigs. Of course it cannot be steered.

And yet people too despicable to be called humans continue to claim that climate change is a left wing lie, much like general relativity, evolution, and separation of church and state. I attempt, but fail to find Christian charity to pity these utterly oxygen deprived persons whose brains have long atrophied. No appeal to their shriveled souls will work. Their hearts are dried up prunes of self-righteous selfishness.

I don’t appeal to God to change things, for He did not cause them. We did. We all bear the guilt of things left undone, and things done. It is we who have been more interested in planning the trip to Disney world when we should have been standing at the door of our congressional delegations, demanding that they actually legislate on the public’s behalf rather than to dance in the minefield of re-election politics.

I appeal to God change hearts and minds. He is always ready to do that, assuming one’s mind is willing to set aside one’s petty self-serving beliefs and desires.

We are a people filled with hatred at a world gone amok and we are sadly prone to listen to those who tell us it’s not our fault by X’s or Y’s or Z’s. Plug in your favorite ethnic, religious, or class.

I read a meditation today that in essence said: We will never grow more compassionate toward the world and each other until we are willing to admit our own sin.

It’s so deeply true.

All of us who have a place to sleep, adequate food, have been educated, have worked, have attained, have TV’s, IPods, computers, washing machines, and all the other accoutrements of the “good” life, all of us, are guilty. We have done this. We have let this happen. We have fiddled while Rome burned.

And we now reap the whirlwind.

Oh yes, this too shall pass. The humidity will break, the heat will dissipate, the fires will go out, the waters recede. We will shake our heads and talk about the Summer of 2010. We will have our stories.

Our thoughts will turn to fall, and pumpkins and Thanksgiving dinners and what to buy for Christmas.

And we will nod a bit puzzled, just barely remembering, as some new and fresh assault on the planet occurs somewhere, not here. It will be the poor folks of the Balkans or Thailand, or Argentina. Not us, we forget.

We have our own troubles. Mortgages, and job security, and tuitions, and credit card debt. We can’t be faulted for taking care of our own. After all, we elected those congressmen and women to care for all that other stuff. Except they don’t, because they have their own set of personal issues and frankly, being a congress person is just another paycheck.

And so, next year, or the next, it will hit us between the eyes once again, and we will promise to do better. Yeah.  And we will look for people to blame. And we will listen to the demigods, the demagogues, the puerile pundits who too are only making a living telling us what we want to hear.

And nothing will change.

Unless, You actually listen, open, confess, and act. Will you? Will I? You tell me.

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