Tuesday, November 6, 2012:
So Big Tuesday comes and goes and the results are what they are. Some feel elated, others feel demoralized. Nationally, at the state level, district, township, and municipalities all have had their opportunity to cask their votes; to voice their opinions about how things are going and how things should be. That’s really the most important point isn’t it? That we have that opportunity?
Sure, there will always be second-guessing and I told you so’s, but, no doubt, the biggest reminder of what it is to live in a free society is election day. Listening to Jim Rome today tell about all the poll workers who give their time every two/four years, driving up in their Oldsmobiles, with their oxygen tanks, referencing the Millard Fillmore administration, cracked me up.
It does cause one also to pause and think, however, about the people who have given their lives, who are sacrificing or at least putting on hold their family life; on foreign soil, in harsh conditions, for reasons they rarely/barely understand. We are blessed to be able to elect our government officials, and we are able to because of them. So regardless of which side of the fence you are on, let us come together and salute those that protect the fence.
As for invasive mussels, they have not and will not pause in their pursuit of total domination, regardless of who is elected. I think of how far they have managed to get in such a little time, and I am reminded of the movie “The Thing”. The movie has been made and remade several times, but in the great John Carpenter’s version with Kurt Russell they had a computer projection that showed what would happen if the creature could get out of the isolation of the Arctic science camp and into a populated civilization. Within months, the projection predicted, humans would be wiped out.
Thankfully, Zebra and Quagga mussels do not morph into exact replicas of those they come in contact with. They do, however, continue to spread across the globe, reeking havoc in every fresh water system they encounter. Billions of dollars are being spent to try to stem the tide, yet they just keep coming. Perhaps our science and technology will some day develop and patent a method to, if not kill, then repel the little buggers. Then the hard part will be helping the government understand what we have – regardless of who is in office.