Gadfly’s been off his game, off his beat the last day or two or three.
Maybe you’ve noticed.
Finding it almost impossible to focus on his little town of Bethlehem, his Norman Rockwell small town.
National doings of a momentous sort.
Like a toxic dust cloud approaching.
Perhaps — retired as he is — it’s harder for Gadfly to resist being locked in to the evolving news cycle than many of you.
Putting other life aside.
Gadfly has tried to avoid divisive national politics, focusing instead in these pages on local concerns where good conversation among people who, in a sense, know each other might help build community.
Focusing where we have more control, more ability to do tangible good of benefit to us all.
But we can’t ignore the toxic dust cloud approaching.
Gadfly sees his followers as thoughtful people who pay attention and make up their own minds.
And in Gadville we always go to the primary sources:
Trump slams whistleblower at private event
Gadfly hopes you will take the time . . .
An invisible ‘toxic dust cloud’ is indeed approaching, but it’s not the political noise from DC. The underlying corruption is nearly a constant. Sometimes it’s more visible / blatant, sometimes almost invisible or concealed by ‘civil’ manners.
The real threat right is the threat from less-visible, more-fatal systemic changes. I’ll just give two examples:
1. Our industrialized food system relies on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, undermining our health and destroying the web of life on which we all depend.
2. Global warming & climate change threaten the future and the Sixth Great Extinction is underway, with entire species dying off at an estimated 1,000 times the normal background rate. Two things, however, are very visible: an exponential increase in extreme weather events and widespread failure to take action to mitigate GHG emissions and to adapt to the changes that are on the way. Greta Thunberg’s comparison was apt — people are watching the latest entertainments & news distractions while the house is on fire.