Winter In The Southland
Arriving yesterday in Raleigh-Durham we deplaned into seventy-five degree sunny weather. Today will be the same. It is February the 23, and this is winter? I know that weather is not climate. Climate is what we call those more or less stable patterns governed by the jet stream, ocean currents, and probably much else that we have no idea how to track. Weather is what is happening outside, today. It is sixty degrees now at 8AM on February 23rd.
In the past I rarely attempted to say anything to fellow travelers seated next to me on a flight. Lately I make a conscious effort to say something if I can, to a fellow citizen with whom I must suffer an uncomfortable flight to get from point a to point b in a short time. The woman next to me seemed to be doing some editing work. I know a little bit about editing so I commented upon her activity. We must have conversed for about five minutes. She was a native North Carolinian. We talked about living in the cosmopolitan South at this time. In the course of our conversation weather came up. She mentioned that she didn’t know if we could use the word, “climate change” to describe what everyone is experiencing. I let her comment go without pursuing the matter. We didn’t really know each other after all. I am sure her tentative comment reflected her uncertainty as to my political affiliations. She just did not know if she was speaking with a person who would find the term offensive, ruled out of reasonable discourse.
Sunday April 1st is Easter. Why don’t we move it up a month? Feels like Easter already so why not go ahead and begin the celebration of new life?
The dispiriting, mind-numbing outcry over the murder of 17 students and faculty at Douglas High School in Florida goes on. The NRA has predictably weighed in with the same old nonsense Let’s look at everything else but the utilization of our state-of-the-art killing technology in this catastrophe. As time passes the significance of the catastrophe widens. We are getting a overview of the consequence of selecting one of the most intellectually incompetent individuals that could be found to occupy the White House. Arming teachers is a recipe for a wholesale exit of individuals who are presently teaching our children. Teaching at best is a emotionally demanding profession. To even suggest that a teacher is expected to participate in a gun fight is surreal. If I were a teacher I would be thinking about early retirement.
One thought on “Winter In The Southland”
I suspect I might have started out the same as your flight seat companion, but perhaps followed up the comment with the following:
“Well, I actually prefer to describe the rapid warming trend as unmitigated, catastrophic, manmade climate alteration on a global scale”
Best to get right to the point.