LITTLEBILL REPEATS

This is LittleBill talking: Because most of you, as well as I, care deeply about overpopulation, particularly as it relates to racism and the rights and needs of others, as well as to the other creatures on this earth, I am posting once more two of my blogs which are of special interest to me, and I hope to you. “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me”. 12/30/06



Over Population Solutions
Sunday, July 09, 2006

It is both encouraging and alarming that there are so many letters and articles these days about overpopulation; encouraging because of the growing awareness of the problem, and alarming to realize that it may already be too late, that human beings are breeding themselves to extinction and taking the rest of the world’s creatures with us.

War, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence, mental illness, and hatred between groups and nations are not discrete problems. Overpopulation, is the BIG problem. It is worldwide, and it is a web in which we are all enmeshed.

Let’s start with some irrefutable facts:
· The earth is of unchanging size.

· The earth’s resources are finite and being rapidly depleted, especially by the developed and developing nations, the United States leading the pack.

· Human beings, like all creatures, do not live forever. We die at different ages from different causessome old, some young, some ill, some healthybut we will all die.

Envision two cows in a corral with only enough food to keep one alive. Obviously, one will die. Almost certainly both will eat some of the food, so both will die.

Some humans live in big corrals with plenty of food for the body, the mind, and the soul. But millions are living in tiny corrals with little or nothing to sustain them. And, as the numbers increase, they draw ever closer to each other. Folks, it just ain’t gonna work.

There is only one possible solution: Humans will have to start dying faster than they are being born.

Following are my suggestions for partial solutions:
· The number of children per family should be limited to one for all those on public support and two for all others, irrespective of personal wealth or religious belief, and it should be strictly enforced. Birth control should range all the way from abstinence to abortion and sterilization. The method should be the prerogative of the woman, and it should be fully funded by the government for those who cannot afford it.

· The Hippocratic Oath (first, do no harm) should be rethought, both for the benefit of the people involved and for their caregivers. The evolution of scientific knowledge with regard to prolonging human life can frequently result in more harm than good.

· Babies born with no chance for any quality of life should (with the assent of their parents) be allowed to die mercifully at birth.

· All adults should be made aware of and sign a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (or similar legal form) stating how they should be cared for in case of catastrophic injury or illness. In the case of children or adults who have left no instructions, their families or their surrogates should be allowed to make the decision for them, rather than having them drag on forever unable to make the decision for themselves.

· Suicide should be relieved of its stigma and the humane means of accomplishing it for any reason, physical, mental, or emotional, and people who are dying should not have to wait for a period of time set by others.

· The last suggestion is difficult and equivocal. Logic would say that those people in prison for life for terrible crimes should be considered not worth saving. The main problem with this is that although science makes it increasingly possible to be sure the right sentence was pronounced on the right man or woman, there are many in prison who have not been afforded that proof.

And then, of course, there is the final solution, of unending war, pestilence, starvation, and violence of every sort, marching over the face of the earth as I write, the option- of-choice of the compassionate religious right.



Rumination on a Different Direction
Thursday, August 03, 2006

It has suddenly crossed my mind that each nation in this fractious world should withdraw within its own boundaries and learn to live on what’s left of its own resources with whatever time is left before the complete collapse of civilization.

For the poorer countries it should be relatively easy because their lives are more engrossed with survival than with frills. They are accustomed to expecting less and dying sooner. But the resources of their own country would then at least belong to them.

It will be more difficult for the wealthy countries, because so many of the resources of other countries, including cheap labor, are what supply our creature comforts. This will be especially hard for the people of the United States who have been encouraged by our capitalist society to believe in the ethic of personal frolic and consumption, and to fear the personal shame of not supporting our country if we do not make the mall and world travel the cornerstone of our days.

Free trade does not appear to benefit anyone to any particular extent except the corporations and the very rich. The rest of us may benefit to some extent, but at the expense of the people who are employed by our corporations in foreign lands for meager pay, similar jobs that are lost to American workers, and the immigrants here, both legal and illegal, who can’t make a living wage in this country either.

Tribalism exists throughout the world. There is a great deal of tribalism within the United States: ­economic, political, financial, “social”, racial, and especially religious. When it becomes time for history (if there is anyone here to record it), the Great Divider will be remembered best for his faith-based fragmentation of his country and this world.

But it is not entirely his fault. Unfortunately, the Great American Dream of a country that said, after we got rid of the Indians, “Come one, come all, and we will live forever in peace and harmony” has become the world’s nightmare, aggravated by the increasing closeness in which we live.