Yes It’s True: We’ve seen fire and we’ve seen rain. Yawn

“Well, I’m about to get upset, from watching my TV,

checking out the news until my eyeballs fail to see.

I’m mean to say that every day it’s just another rotten mess,

And when it’s gonna change, my friend, is anybody’s guess. So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’, hopin’ for the best.

You can think I’m goin’ to prayin’, every time I hear ‘em saying’

That’s there’s no way to delay that trouble comin’ every day. No way to delay that trouble comin’ every day.”

— Frank Zappa, 1965

I’m a scaredy-cat. I’m a wooseye. I’m a snowflake. I’m a wimp absorbing the slings and arrows from the toxic masculinity boys who tell me to “suck it up, buttercup.”

While watching, listening to and taking in the news, that nagging low-grade fever of fear about climate change has exploded into full-blown panic. It stems from our ignorance of and collective inability to deal with the Coronavirus and social justice issues, and now comes even stronger hints that our species has pooped the bed and refuses to do anything about it.

“And there ain’t nothin’ I can do about it.” — The Supremes and the Vanilla Fudge, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”

The images and reports of the worst wildfires on record cause me to wonder if we really are doomed. Add in Covid-19, the worst hurricane season in memory and social unrest and violence in the cities and you have to admit things are not going well for the United States of America, nor for that matter, the entire world.

California Gov. Gavin Newsome, admittedly no climate scientist he, angrily warned everybody this weekend that what’s happening now out west is merely a peek at coming attractions. We could dismiss his comments, but there have been many scientists before him who have told us the same. In response, too many have submitted a collective yawn.

Decades ago, when we first heard about climate change, it commonly was referred to as “global warming,” but that was met by derisive contentions whenever a cold snap or snowstorm appeared. So, in response, these Chicken Littles revamped the characterization to climate change and the naysayers almost immediately dissed the adjustment as proving it’s on shaky ground.

Because it was too easy to talk about and criticize warming, scientists then told us to pay attention instead to weird weather and violent storms. In my lifetime and in studying history, I don’t recall seeing and hearing so many stories about wildfires fueled by record heat at the same time as a record number of hurricanes and tropical storms.

Meanwhile, many of us unaffected by the troubles on the west and east coasts still live with a virus that already has killed nearly 200,000 of us in just these here United States.

Are we indeed going there in a handbasket?

Aside from my fears, what makes me angry is the appalling lack of meaningful action by our government. We have a horribly deteriorated two-party system that gets nothing done because the two sides spend all their time trying to make the other look bad. Not much, if anything, is being done for the people. Government should be all about finding solutions to problems.

Even worse, we spend too much time trying to make our opponents look bad.

It reminds me of the film “Citizen Ruth,” in which a young pregnant woman played by Laura Dern escapes out the back door after a miscarriage while the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice forces do serious battle on the front lawn. Or perhaps Nero fiddling while Rome burns, as if that really happened.

It shouldn’t mean a whole lot to someone like me, in the twilight of his autumn, but there are so many young people in this country and on this planet who deserve a lot better. But we probably have ruined it for them.

We have met the enemy, and he is us.