BEWARE OF PARSELTONGUE
(This is for folks living in good ol' Montana)
If you kept up with Harry Potter, you know that Parseltongue is the language of serpents. It's a slithery, whispery sort of speech, subtle and insidious. I suppose you could call it Wormtongue.
The Monitor Lizard, related to the Great Worm, is adored by other monitor lizards for having a dirty mouth. All it takes is one bite on a water buffalo and the bite infects, the wounded critter seeks water and mud, weakens and perhaps even dies. The lizards come crawling to the feast. That's how they hunt.
The Parseltongue used by Wormtongue himself, reduced Théoden, King of Rohan, to a pus-crusty ol' dodderer.
And look what Parseltongue did for Eve, our Ur-mother.
Let Storytelling rest a moment: Serpents in the real world are OK out in the forests, fields and jungles; sometimes dangerous, but part of the web of life.
Serpents are NOT OK when they whisper into the ears of our legislators urgings to change the law of the land.
One provision of the carefully crafted Montana State Constitution guarantees a “clean and healthful environment.” The beneficiaries of a “clean and healthful environment" include everyone. ALL of us! ALL the time. A clean and healthful environment cleans itself, creates soil, generates oxygen and produces clues to The Mystery, an essential need of human beings for mental health.
Speaking Parseltongue, Don Allen, the executive director of the Western Environmental Trade Association, asked that two words be added so the provision would read, “clean, healthful, and economically productive environment."
Objecting, David Scrimm, State Bar Trustee Representative, stated, “The 'clean and healthy' provision has not crippled our economy.”
The expression “environmental trade” is snaky. What is being traded? The environment. For what? For money. The resource is gone, the environment is compromised, and where does the money go? Some goes to working folks — probably not money enough to buy a home. The CEO of the industry concerned will make, according to the present pattern, 300 times more than any worker. The real profit will go upwards towards Wall Street. No one will be liable for reclaiming the damaged environment. That's Montana history.
The first problem that occurs when economics trumps environment is that what belongs to all of us, is traded away for what belongs to only a few.
The constitution is better left as it is. If developers must pose their proposition definitively, if agreement and accountability is hammered out beforehand, if waste disposal plans are acceptable, if environmental impact studies are created, studied and approved, misunderstandings will be much less likely and work can begin with good conscience.
This is a much better approach than removing from the hands of Montana citizens the strong tools needed should it be necessary to deny or halt a development that discloses serious threat to a clean and healthy environment.
This is a much better approach than melting before the honeyed breath and sweet words of talented myth makers.
If you kept up with Harry Potter, you know that Parseltongue is the language of serpents. It's a slithery, whispery sort of speech, subtle and insidious. I suppose you could call it Wormtongue.
The Monitor Lizard, related to the Great Worm, is adored by other monitor lizards for having a dirty mouth. All it takes is one bite on a water buffalo and the bite infects, the wounded critter seeks water and mud, weakens and perhaps even dies. The lizards come crawling to the feast. That's how they hunt.
The Parseltongue used by Wormtongue himself, reduced Théoden, King of Rohan, to a pus-crusty ol' dodderer.
And look what Parseltongue did for Eve, our Ur-mother.
Let Storytelling rest a moment: Serpents in the real world are OK out in the forests, fields and jungles; sometimes dangerous, but part of the web of life.
Serpents are NOT OK when they whisper into the ears of our legislators urgings to change the law of the land.
One provision of the carefully crafted Montana State Constitution guarantees a “clean and healthful environment.” The beneficiaries of a “clean and healthful environment" include everyone. ALL of us! ALL the time. A clean and healthful environment cleans itself, creates soil, generates oxygen and produces clues to The Mystery, an essential need of human beings for mental health.
Speaking Parseltongue, Don Allen, the executive director of the Western Environmental Trade Association, asked that two words be added so the provision would read, “clean, healthful, and economically productive environment."
Objecting, David Scrimm, State Bar Trustee Representative, stated, “The 'clean and healthy' provision has not crippled our economy.”
The expression “environmental trade” is snaky. What is being traded? The environment. For what? For money. The resource is gone, the environment is compromised, and where does the money go? Some goes to working folks — probably not money enough to buy a home. The CEO of the industry concerned will make, according to the present pattern, 300 times more than any worker. The real profit will go upwards towards Wall Street. No one will be liable for reclaiming the damaged environment. That's Montana history.
The first problem that occurs when economics trumps environment is that what belongs to all of us, is traded away for what belongs to only a few.
The constitution is better left as it is. If developers must pose their proposition definitively, if agreement and accountability is hammered out beforehand, if waste disposal plans are acceptable, if environmental impact studies are created, studied and approved, misunderstandings will be much less likely and work can begin with good conscience.
This is a much better approach than removing from the hands of Montana citizens the strong tools needed should it be necessary to deny or halt a development that discloses serious threat to a clean and healthy environment.
This is a much better approach than melting before the honeyed breath and sweet words of talented myth makers.
posted by Thunderpen | 8:43 AM
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