PENN (Natural) STATE (Gas) UNIVERSITY

  
    
Happy Sunday...or perhaps Monday for some of my foreign visitors.

 

I've got quite a few thoughts to share today, so I'm going to touch briefly on multiple issues that are on my mind now that the mocha java has kicked in.

 

• Yesterday, I passed over the Susquehanna River near Havre de Grace a few minutes after sunrise, and then a few minutes after sunset later that same day. I helped one of my children move into a new apartment, and of course, it was on the sixth floor of a newly renovated building with a very antiquated elevator. As we were driving through the heart of DC, ( I still hate the circles in Washington ) I found myself wondering what our founding fathers would say if they could see the size of our nation's capitol? Did they ever envision or intend that the government they founded would become so large...and so removed and indifferent to the people it was created to serve?

• My son texted me from the Penn State / Temple game. Seems Chesapeake Energy had an informational tent at the game and proclaims that it "sponsors Penn State football."  And if you didn't catch it last week, Penn State received an 88 million dollar gift from some folks in the natural gas industry. And - if you didn't catch the connection - the Pegulas that donated the $88M are the same folks that donated ~$180K to Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett's campaign. Folks, Penn State is knee-deep in guano with the natural gas industry, and right along side them is (potentially) our next governor. How does that make you feel? Since both Corbett and Dan Onorato each support Marcellus Shale drilling in their own way, and have accepted campaign $ from the NG industry, why should anyone vote for either of them? There are alternatives. How about a write-in candidate? With the power and connectivity of the internet, this can go "viral" in plenty of time to make a difference on election day. Thoughts? Believe me, it can happen.

• At least a decade and probably three ( or more ) computers ago, I clearly remember reading a journal entry from one of the earliest (I believe) Jesuit missionaries that traveled throughout the "frontier" of this country trying to learn the language of the various tribes and - of course - preach the "good word" of the white man's religion. The point that caught my attention was the difficulty the writer was having understanding one word of the native language that seemed to have two (in his mind) distinct meanings. Tried as he might to discover he was mistaken, he eventually came to fully understand and accept the fact that these people had one word -  and one word only - that had two meanings in the English language: the truth and the law. Think about it.  Seems the wrong people were doing the preaching.

• Finally ( for today ), I want to share a photo with you that I took several years ago on a Sunday morning in Mary's Garden behind the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. It is a picture of the fountain in the center of the garden, it is unretouched, i.e. the blue halo was not added...and I'll let you take it from here.   

Peace - Мир - Ráfi - 和平 - Barış - Wo'okeyeh - Kiba-kiba 

 

  

Mitakuye Oyasin.