Thanks George for this excellent article. We are not people of the future so much as we are people who benefit from the status quo. We are very reluctant to do any truly meaningful change to our life style except if it leads to more comfort, more wealth, more pleasure, etc. Take for example the terrible event this last week in Aurora, CO. This event is only 20 miles away from the tragedy of Columbine High School that occurred in 1999. Today when I go to church I expect to hear numerous prayers said on behalf of the families and friends in Aurora. And I also sympathize with their tragic losses. But here's the problem I have with these prayers, they obviously show solidarity with the pain being suffered but as Jesus said, "let the dead bury the dead." By that I mean, these unfortunate people have already suffered from our collective lack of self-control, what I would like to hear from the pulpit are prayers for the future victims of these awful happenings. As evidenced from Gaby Gifford's experience where an outpouring of national sympathy led to nothing in the way of inhibiting such events, let's just keep our gun obsession in full force but now recognize that we need to be praying for those who will be slaughtered in the future. Cynical? Yes, but a more realistic understanding of who we are and what our future has in store for us. Just as we are loathe to change our life-styles in order to slow down the inevitable global warming, we can't seem to get over the gigantic impact of gun lovers and the NRA even on a local scale. Is this all the human species has to show for its brief existence in the geological time frame? Jim Baumbach On 7/22/2012 5:43 AM, George Holcombe wrote:

For those interested in keeping up with Climate Change info you may want to read this take by McKibben in July 12 edition of Rolling Stone mag.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-mat...

George Holcombe 14900 Yellowleaf Tr. Austin, TX 78728 Mobile 512/252-2756 geowanda@earthlink.net

Hope appeareth, but it is not your Hope—you do not have anything to do with it. It just appeareth. It comes as a stranger, as an alien—it just appeareth! You do not even know why you hope. How in the world could you hope when there is absolutely nothing to justify any hope? ~Joseph W. Mathews

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