kindling

at a rate of speed that would cause any gas-cautious person to be concerned about rabbit-acceleration, the u.s. media and economy and populace is being overtaken by near doom and gloom with respect to the horrific effects that the price of oil is imposing upon our very existence.  i listened to a talk-show host this afternoon describe in increasingly pessimistic detail how the price of fuel has resulted in a local airlines company grounding a set of aircraft that, at least in the mind of some pilots and the talk-show host, will eliminate all non-stop flights beyond a 900 mile distance, along with eliminate 1 out of every three flights, and eliminate hundreds of jobs, and result in the destitution of tens of hundreds of family members.  this particular talk-show host actually took the perspective that the airlines would do well to file for bankruptcy as a way to avoid closing the business, not to mention as a way to defeat the demands of the unionized workforce.  this all got me thinking about how, on and on and on and on, our americanized perspective is based upon, as my father would say, the ‘almighty dollar’.  i read an article about how, back in the late nineties, the people of grand forks north dakota found a way to come together as a community and overcome what could have been the total devastation created by flooding.  they didn’t work based upon the needed dollar amount…they worked together to help each other.  the ‘fuel’ crisis and the ‘job’ crisis and the political crisis in our communities could be characterized by the financial impact.  but in reality doing so only negates the value of a life.  i call out those who only work in the dollar figure.  i call out the activists against those horrible oil company profits.  i call out those who can only look at the economic loss of airlines trying to run a business.  i call out the catholic church for using a capital campaign after it had to pay millions to address those they tried to conceal.  i call out the dollar and the wallets that are bare.  where are the connections in human life…regardless of cost?  what does all this economic crisis cost?  human lives…and there is no commensurate cost assigned.