“Super storm Sandy”; The New Norm?

I guess it was ten years ago when I first saw a story depicting a major hurricane impacting New York City. Last night, that prediction came to pass, as Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey coast with devastating force. Much of Atlantic City, NJ was severely damaged, including landmarks that have been a part of that area’s history for more than a century, which now lay in rubble. Much of lower Manhattan was flooded as well, crippling the mass transit systems, and causing hundreds of thousands of power outages. Although everyone saw this coming, days in advance, many thousands have lost everything, and several dozen have lost their lives.
As I watch the news now, the day after, I am also astounded by the damage to my home, the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Many people within the global scientific community are conceding to the fact that no matter what the root cause, the sea is warming and rising. This year, for instance, the Northern half of the Atlantic Ocean reached temperatures three degrees higher than ever in recorded history. In light of this fact and many other facts about of the effects of climate change on our daily lives, some are taking heed to warnings from the scientific community, and preparing for more of this weather, most likely for decades to come.
This change in our global weather system is not only responsible for stronger storms in our oceans, but the drought conditions much of our nation, and other world nations are facing. These conditions are not predicted to change for the better for decades at least. While some continue to ignore and mock these scientific predictions, a few are listening to the science, and seeing the proof in their neighborhoods right now, again.
The Governor of New Jersey has vowed to rebuild, and to go one step further, rebuild with a plan for enduring the future catastrophes that are sure to come. I have seen reports where he has pledged to base the plan for reconstruction on not just a one hundred year plan, based on current predictions for sea level rise, and temperature changes, but looking forward with a five hundred year plan. Many may find this approach “cavalier”, or wasteful, however, I have been beating my head against a wall of resistance to change for years now, calling for a similar plan for our coastal plain development and infrastructure. I find his plan to be that of a pioneer, a visionary that believes that the legacy left behind should not be more disasters and financial losses from continuing what I believe to be wasteful practices, such as are currently in place here at home. With only touching on two of the projects under current implementation here in Dare County, NC, one might find more than $2Billion in “wasteful spending”, potentially over the next fifty years. This is yet one more futile cry, to those of you that choose to believe in the predictions, and who do not want our State run by politicians who’s only goals are to think in four year increments, and getting re-elected by pandering to tourism dollars, mostly from our real estate moguls.
In closing, I just want to state that I will continue this fight to re-think the way we develop our area, not only for our continued enjoyment, lifestyle, and safety. But I think it is imperative that we immediately begin to heed these warnings, and implement a hundred year plan, starting with our coastal school boards, to get funds to our teachers and tools to our children. We need to inspire them in math, science, and engineering. We have a choice. We have Congressional candidates who have plans to develop green energy sources, and bring the businesses that will build the solar panels, and wind turbines to Eastern North Carolina. I am backing him, and I hope you should all choose to do so as well. We can not only rebuild our infrastructure more responsibly, but in doing so, create thousands of jobs over the coming decades, and attract companies such as Google and Siemens, among others to our area. We have a choice, in my opinion. We can continue to back those that want to keep up with business as usual, and continue to be ravaged by future storms, or we can demand a responsible approach to changing the very face of North Carolina’s coastal plain. We can, like New York, and New Jersey, serve as a beacon and an example to sea side towns worldwide that will be faced with the same challenges that we are sure to face as a community in the decades to come.

On “The Anatomy of Vines”

Every organism on the planet has but one basic instinct, and that is survival. The rate or frequency of adaptation of each organism dictates not only the survival of one species over the next, but also creates our global food chain.

In the case of the virus, we see seasonally how these adaptations affect our daily lives, from influenza to the common cold. Humans come up with vaccines to survive the attack of these organisms, and in turn, the organisms adapt to our efforts to control them. It is, and has been, a seemingly never ending story.

In the case of vines, they develop tendrils, to cling to existing structures, trees or buildings, in order to reach high into the air, above the canopy, to the sunlight. This displays a basic survival instinct to get to the energy source necessary for more growth and development.

In any case, this basic need of organisms interacting with one another seems to boil down to one thing; the competition for food. In the case of the human organism, however, we seem to be witnessing a global devolution, as we deplete and poison our food sources, or allow them to be poisoned through either our apathy or our ignorance.

I just wanted to see if anyone out there was awake. Vines are neat.

still chasing, but now for no reason i know

with eyes half open
and fists still clinched
and hoarse for no reason

something had bumped us

and gotten away
and i chased but
just screamed at
cracks in lined pavement
that ran away as
i woke.

The Truth about The Meek

thought on the quote
"the meek shall inherit the Earth." *

*this generation shall learn
the truth
about many things

one of the most troublesome
of lessons will come
when the "world"
learns
the origin of
the meek

they will be face to face with
the meek
as they roll
money and
war machines
over our homes, crops and
dreams

so what next ?
what shall
the meek actually
inherit?

-not that this writer
endorses nor denies the
validity of
the passage
in the first place

but
this is always up
for consideration
in his herded
head top

a
many-faceted
jewel of
s

mas. (from Beaverdam; nudes 2001)

struggling
to find a pen before
the sounds leave me

inspiration from this
dirt seat
rock pillow shared with
lady bird beetles
and ants

old men holding hands
walking to
free coffee church
look to save me

annoy me

my ride is sure
to pass me by
in one of these
white foreign cars

blue hair and still
drunk left over
from my one
night gone (
my one night hotel
out of my
ninety hour prison)

-my surest sacred dream

my partner sleeps
soundly-
surely, in a bed alone
which i can not find
and
i have found
heaven alone in
this disguise of
street urchin flames

scabbing- mostly healed
ink
it tells the story
of how to find me
-bending
the eaves of the gate
and leaves on this tree
drop one, every moment
to remind me
___
every thing i wish
to spill in thoughts
so subtle
while i am too bored
or happily rested
to scratch down,

i am the few
the proud
the bird
the stop:sigh
and green sign
hanging from
the border of this
picture-framed
small town in
big city mama's clothes,
i write one last farewell and
blow my nose.

none, found notes

the sun
,
set searing cold
breezes through

un sheilded
.eyes

it was
perfection
in stop -
motion

nothing
more
for
now
required

late summer rains fall hard, beating newness into destruction

as the majority of the
herd migrates back
towards the familiar
grazing fields of home
for now

a hard rain falls on
the sand
and on the roads

separating the microbes
and grime specks from
blistered blacktop

the remains of weather beaten
sea glass chewing gum
and solarcained silica

yep
the rain falls hard
as the thunder rolls
telling us all
the bank is closing
and the storm that feeds us
is approaching