Over the past 50+ years since the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, I've tried to do something - every day - to improve this little blue dot in the cosmos.
Sometimes I went big, and other times I did not.
Today I'll be doing a small solo cleanup locally. Tomorrow, I'll be a little further away and I'll document my efforts on both sometime this upcoming weekend.
Later.
Before I get into the genesis - no pun intended - of the title of this post, I caught this info-blurb referencing my blog earlier today:
Since switching to this social media platform almost two decades ago, and posting 1,218 times, I've rarely incorporated a political cartoon as the main point and sole topic of discussion.
For today's offering, I'll make an exception.
Well done & spot on, Mr. Horsey. Very well done.
It has been at least 15 years since I last called into the Sue Henry radio talk show.
One of her recent podcasts showed up on my newsfeed this morning.
I decided to listen...and it was time well spent.
Atta girl, Sue!
For those stopping by for the 1st time...that is my real name.
CONCORD HYMN
***
Yesterday...on American soil, in an American state, in an American city, on an American street in an American neighborhood...an American citizen - 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good - was shot and killed.
And - as expected - starting with Donald John Trump (a/k/a Donald John the Lesser) and his cadre of spineless sycophants...Renee was vilified, trashed, and so on down the predictably obfuscatory path liars always take.
I watched the videos of her murder last night and this morning. I need see no more.
If you ever wondered what "leadership" with no ethical or moral compass would look like...check out today's headlines. Or yesterday's. Or tomorrow's.
Mid-terms can't come soon enough.
Until then...
“It is not impossible that in some unrecognized channel of his being he was aware of the destiny that was to be his.”
- from "The Susquehanna" by Carl Carmer (1955)
Once again, I find myself here...and as I have for over 25 years, I am posting a reminder of one of the darkest days in Pennsylvania's history.
The link directly below will take you there.
Lancaster’s Darkest Chapter: The Massacre of the Conestoga – Uncharted Lancaster
Earlier this year, while spending a few days in the Lancaster area, I visited the sites of both the December 14th and the December 27th massacres.
More to follow in a few days.
Peace.
I started blogging in ~1997, primarily to stop a proposed inflatable dam on the Susquehanna River. Until we deep-sixed the project in 2008, ~90%+ of my posts here dealt with hard science as it related to the environmental issues associated with damming a river. I won't take the time to explain my qualifications to have done all of that.
I was then and still am overly qualified.
In light of the recent tragic flooding events in Texas, and all of the finger-pointing going on by the clueless and uninformed in Washington and elsewhere, I'm bringing back a post on this blog - verbatim - from 2003. Putting it kindly - I've forgotten more than they know. All of them.
Did then...do now.
Whether it be in Pennsylvania - or Texas - rivers will continue to flood. And, as time passes...it will get worse as long as the inmates are running the asylum and people are led to believe climate change isn't real.
Here's my take on the subject of flooding from over two decades ago.
*****
---- Original Message -----
From: "Don Williams" <djw@netcarrier.com>
To: <editorial@citizensvoice.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 8:45 PM
Subject: Re: Levee Completion
To: Jim Gittens - Here's a text copy as requested. I'd appreciate having the letter printed as written. If you want to adjust the punctuation a little, be my guest.
Thank you for your response.
Don
**********
Dear Editor:
Floods happen. They are an integral and permanent part of a river's natural cycle. Even with dams, levees and all the engineering innovations of the past, the present & the morrow...rivers will continue to inundate their floodplains until the end of time. Man may delay the outcome, but nature always prevails.
People construct homes and buildings of commerce on floodplains. After each flood, these same people cry for more protection. "Raise the levees - dredge the river"...not realizing neither action will prevent future floods.
Prior to the 1700's, Pennsylvania - "Penn's Woods" - was covered by forests from the Delaware River to Lake Erie. It was once written that a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic shores to the Mississippi River without ever having to touch the ground. And amidst the forests were the swamps, a.k.a. wetlands. More than half the wetlands are gone, and even today the forests are sold to the highest bidder behind closed doors.
Think about the travels of a raindrop back then. It would first contact the upper reaches of the arboreal canopy maybe 150 feet above the forest floor. Layer upon layer of pine, oak, hemlock and maple would slow its descent. When it eventually reached the ground, which was cooled by almost constant shade, it would slowly seep into the dense humus-rich soils and percolate into and become part of the water table. Any dust or impurities were removed either by chemical or physical processes. The forests & wetlands acted as buffers, reservoirs and filters. How was water quality back then?
You can't even imagine.
Picture that same raindrop hitting a parking lot, driveway or city landscape of today. Surface runoff - storm drain - sewer system - stream. It gets to the nearest waterway a lot faster, dirtier and warmer than its counterpart of yesteryear. Envision that same area covered by thousands of umbrellas at various levels, with the ground itself covered with sponges wrapped in fine, porous filters. A very simple example, yes. But that's what is missing today. The forests and wetlands were nature's flood protection and water purification system for hundreds of thousands of years. Today, we pay for a far inferior substitute that once was perfectly free.
The Army Corps of Engineers knows it...they just won't tell you. As more land is developed, as more forests are felled, wetlands filled and streams channelized...floods along the Susquehanna are going to increase in magnitude. If an event equal to Hurricane Agnes in 1972 occurred today...the newly raised levees in the Wyoming Valley would not provide the level of protection anticipated. In the last 30 years, people have been very busy upstream - and they have not been planting trees and saving wetlands.
Regards,
Don Williams
H*******, PA
For all those who think some guy & his sycophants with no background or regard for science whatsoever know better than the NOAA, the NWS and, humbly, yours truly...consider yourself significantly misinformed.
...is everyone lying EXCEPT Donald J. Trump?
If you answered yes...consider yourself clueless.
Are all the numbers provided by PA's governor via his FB post accurate?
I don't know.
But...what I do know is that: 1). If not for Medicaid, my Mom would not have been able to stay in an assisted living facility for the last ~3 years of her life and I - as being financially responsible for paying those ($10K+/month) bills - would probably have found it necessary to file for bankruptcy - and 2). Donald John the Lesser is a habitual liar.
They're trying to jam the "Big Beautiful Bill" through quickly for a reason.
Here are but a few.
From PA Governor Josh Shapiro (FB) on 29 June 2025:
Knocks 11.8 million people off of health care — including 310,000 Pennsylvanians who get their health care from Medicaid. And for those who try to justify their votes by claiming “we’re just knocking ‘illegal immigrants’ off and eliminating ‘waste fraud and abuse’,” note that in Pennsylvania, it is against the law for an undocumented immigrant to get Medicaid and we lead the nation in rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.
Takes food assistance away from more than 7 million people — 2 million children — including 140,000 Pennsylvanians. These people are working and just need a bit of extra help to feed their families. This is cruel to them and to our farmers who do the noble work of growing crops to feed their neighbors. 
Adds $3.3 TRILLION to our national deficit — limiting our freedom, harming the generation that has to clean up the mess long after Trump is gone.
Threatens 26,000 Pennsylvanians’ jobs — including thousands of union Building Trades members who work in our energy industry — who will lose their jobs because the bill raises taxes and eliminates funding for affordable energy development. As the second largest net energy exporter in the nation, this will crush the fastest growing parts of our energy sector. As an added insult to all Pennsylvanians, you’ll see higher electricity prices that will more than offset the important work my Administration has done to control electricity bills.
Strains of "Deja vu all over again" started popping up in my thoughts last week as talk about attacking Iran and 'bunker buster bombs' began to increase in frequency.
+++
Happy Friday the 13th to all the triskaidekaphobics out there! 😲
...writing styles.
I recently received a comment on my latest post. It was submitted under a fictitious name.
The person does. not. exist.
As I read it, and then read the revised comment, I could say the writing style and vocabulary sounded somewhat familiar.
And that. would be. a lie.
Just like evidentiary DNA and fingerprints, writing styles are very, very difficult to disguise and/or refute.
Actually...dam (sic) near impossible. Remember how the 'Unabomber' was eventually identified and caught?
And he had an IQ of 167.
Do better and/or try harder, my friend. Your choice.
And as for me "dialing it back"?
Not possible.
Peace.
Unless you are a true student of history, you more than likely cannot recognize the parallels between the 'Trail of Tears', Kristallnacht and the modern-day ICE raids taking place in broad daylight in our country today.
And if, by chance, you are a red-blooded MAGA supporter...you'll turn a blind eye to those parallels until, perhaps, they come knocking on your door.
If you're following current headlines, you cannot help but notice that more folks are getting directly involved by interceding in these events as they unfold.
Eventually, someone trying to help may be hurt or killed.
Once again, history is repeating itself.
*****
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
- George Santayana
*****
