Swans

(Swans - November 19, 2007) Human ingenuity has led to extraordinary advances over the lifespan of our species, though one has to question the merits of such advances in light of their unintended, unforeseen, or too-often ignored consequences. We turn to ingenuity to find solutions to those consequences -- once again without regard to the new probl... ems that will result from this vicious circle. Sure, we can create new energy sources by destroying the environment, impacting the price and supply of food, and further depleting current energy sources. We can develop stronger antibiotics to fight the drug-resistant organisms that we've created through the overuse of antibiotics. And given our universal lack of will to make the necessary changes to stop polluting our earth, we can only hope (and pray) that our bodies will evolve to (or an Intelligent Designer will provide us with) better-filtering lungs and kidneys, and thicker skin. Which brings us to the good-old American approach to problem solving: prayer. Even our government turns to a Higher Power to solve its failure of ingenuity (i.e., lack of will). Just this week, the Governor of Georgia gathered politicians and ministers to pray for rain in his drought-stricken state, when neither rationing nor lawsuits produced the much-needed water (it has not arrived as of yet...). Alabama's governor, in competition for the dwindling supply of the precious commodity, had already tried the same approach, also to no avail.Read More