Don't blame the politicians - they are because we aren't

I had started a blog yesterday in honor of Earth Day, but life dictated other priorties. Still, i feel it is an important enought deal for me to go ahead and blog about it today. 8)

In Genesis 1 it says, "And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food." (28-29, ESV, emphesis mine)  To often we "on the right" stop here in our views on how we are to take care of the Earth.  It is ours, we must dominate, we must control.  I don't know about you, but if i don't clean my house from time to time those little dust bunnies collect, and my feet pick up little crumbs and little stones or dirt.  We need to read the whole chapter, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (1, ESV), but also latter we read, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it." (2:15, ESV).  If you think it through it is implied that man does not own the earth, he is merely a steward of another's creation.  In this case, God's creation.

Before i go on i want to be up front, i do not buy into Al Gore's and a lot of the "liberal left's" view point on global warming, or climate change, whatever you want to call it.  The evidence is not clear as has been portrayed, and there is a lot of evidence that is not consistant and/or contradictory.  However, having said that, that does not excuse the blattant disregard for the resources we have on this earth.  It only makes sense to find ways to reuse renewable resources, such as the sun to heat and create energy.  To take metals and melt them down and reform them.  To not take the trash from our automobiles and just throw it on the side of the road.  The reasons that community recycling is not more common is because we humanbeings are L A Z Y.  We do not like to change, we do not like to be inconvienced.  I feel that there should be better corporate stewardship, and better government/corporant sponsorship to help develop these technologies, which to be honest are overdue.  When megacompanies, such as Ford/GM/Chrysler/AT&T/Gladman Sachs/whoever snatch up  smaller companies who have made great innovations to improve a process or create a better widget, solely because it would cost them money to convert to the new ~ then if it costs them more now because they were selfish and gready back when - tough nogies.

The government - at least in the United States - was not established to micromange everything.  There is just no way that it can.  But because we are/were L A Z Y the government has had to step in on way too many issues.  When it was written, "We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." - it denotes that the people have the responsibility to, in essence, promote the common good.  If we use up more electricty or gas, which in turn causes more polution which reduces the health of those exposed and thus cause health care costs to go up, we are not promoting the common good.  If we jsut discard our trash on the side of the road forcing others to have to come along and clean up, or causing damage to vehicles, etc. this is not promoting the common good.  If we constantly just throw away all of our old junk instead of recycling it we fill up available land space, we poison ground water, and we cause unsafe (generally) the area when that land is reclaimed for use, we are not promoting the common good.

I think what i am trying to say is, STOP BEING LAZY!  And this is true for pretty much everything in life.  Raising children is hard work.  Stop ignoring the children to go play video games, or pursue some other coveted thing.  Employment is hard, stop trying to avoid work ~ wether it be for "the man" or for yourself.  "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,..." (Gen 3:19a, ESV).  Stop expecting the school system to teach your children the difference between right and wrong, or the Sunday School teacher to lead your child to Christ.  Stop ignoring the plight of those truly in need around you, and give clothes to the shelters, time to the soup kitchen, or sweat to the community projects.

No one person can do everything, but when individuals step up, well "many hands make light work".  In the end, if we leave it up to the government to do it they are going to need the money to make it happen.  The government has three options, 1) Print more money, which causes incredible inflation, 2) Borrow the money, which is never good financial stewardship because in the end you spend more money than what it originally cost and it lessens what you can do in the future until you are able to pay the loan off, or 3) Raise taxes.  I am hear to tell you that the final consumer ends up paying ALL of that tax burden.  Some might not believe me so let me put it this way.  When the mineral is mined out of the ground to make the raw material to eventually make the plastic (oil by product), or the steel or aluminum, or the circuit board, that corporation is taxed on their inventory and profits.  The workers pay (which is also taxed) is an expense in addition to the tax.  What does that corporation do?  Do they jsut soak up the costs?  No, they are a business and in the end the want to make a profit, so all expenses are pushed on to their consumer - the companies that buy the product to make the components.  And so on until the car (or whatever) rolls off the lot, or out the door of the store.  When a new tax is created, or increased, on any product the cost is then reflected in the increase of the sale price to the next in line - which always rolls down to the consumer eventually.

I have two quotes i would like to end my blog with today:

"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.  Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man."  ~ Proverbs 24:30-34, ESV)