| Subject: | Re: Political eruption, LVC |
| From: | Hermann the German |
| Date: | Sat, 14 Sep 2002 14:24:23 +0000 |
<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV> <P>Well done, Bulley!</P> <P>I am a high school teacher in the Midwest. Every fall, almost as a rite of passage, former graduates stop by to say hello. Many of them wear uniforms because they want to show that they survived boot camp/hell week etc.. Some have newborn babies in their arms. My boys and girls look great, suntanned, and fit. I have had them in class for 4 years. They are like family. AND : these kids don't want to go to war and die. They don't want to cry for their mothers in some forgotten desert. You know why they joined up? Because some recruiter promised them a career, a job, college tuition and security they did not have at home. These kids want to earn money and start a family, not get killed or maimed. </P> <P>Have you ever asked yourselves why with all this patriotic hype the armed forces are still hurting for QUALIFIED recruits? That there are no waiting lines at recruiting stations? That the recruiters have to come to our schools every week and promise the kids a rose garden for their signature?</P> <P>NOW: If George W.'s, Cheney's, Rumsfeld's, and Rice's sons and daughters join the military and lead the first wave of infantry totally made up of family members of Congress into Bagdad, I will change my mind. But as long as we keep playing "rich men's war - poor men's fight" I will drive my two children in my Westy all the way to Newfoundland.</P> <P>BTW: I served in the miltary.</P> <P>Cheers,<BR>Hermann de Boer </P></DIV> <DIV></DIV>Kansas City,Missouri <DIV></DIV>87 Westy "Eurospec" <DIV></DIV>89 Syncro GL <DIV></DIV>"...even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat..." <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV>>From: "G. Matthew Bulley" <GMBULLEY@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM> <DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: "G. Matthew Bulley" <GMBULLEY@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM> <DIV></DIV>>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <DIV></DIV>>Subject: Political eruption, Bulley Style; was Vanagons for Peace <DIV></DIV>>Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 23:58:40 -0400 <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>In the final analysis, there is only one reason for the Administration's <DIV></DIV>>fixation with Iraq. Insurance on the flow of cheap oil. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>There would be no such thing as "terrorist attacks on the US" if we <DIV></DIV>>weren't trying to force our beloved democracy down the throat of every <DIV></DIV>>nation where there is a natural resource we want to keep cheap. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Middle Eastern terrorists aren't inflamed for "no particular reason"... <DIV></DIV>>it is because the US is bound and determined to shape policy and <DIV></DIV>>governance in the Middle East so we can keep our cheap oil. Wouldn't you <DIV></DIV>>be peeved if, for example, Brazil was militarily forcing its political <DIV></DIV>>will in the US? Wouldn't you be tempted to take some wacky action to <DIV></DIV>>hurt Brazil? Duh. Why don't Americans get this? <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>If the US weren't addicted to cheap oil, if we could bear $8 gallon <DIV></DIV>>gasoline because we had walkable towns, and fast trains, Saddam Hussein <DIV></DIV>>would be just another corrupt, power-hungry dictator, preparing for war <DIV></DIV>>on his neighbors, and we'd read about it in the papers. Other countries <DIV></DIV>>with better land use and smarter transportation systems don't want to <DIV></DIV>>get involved in Dubya's "war", because they don't rely as heavily on <DIV></DIV>>cheap oil. They don't have a dog in the fight, and consequently they'd <DIV></DIV>>rather read about it in the paper. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Since we Americans demand fresh salad greens in January from 3,000 miles <DIV></DIV>>away, and we love Wal*Mart, whose scam on America is completely reliant <DIV></DIV>>on cheap oil to get those cut-rate drills and chintzy sweaters from <DIV></DIV>>China to the crappy grey box near you, our kids will die to keep our oil <DIV></DIV>>cheap. And you thought that little yellow smiley was fueling the cheaper <DIV></DIV>>prices. Watch what happens to Wal*Mart when fuel prices do spike, (and <DIV></DIV>>they will eventually). <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Bottom line: we're the one's with the addiction. We're the one's who <DIV></DIV>>should have to pay the price, or should have to develop better land use <DIV></DIV>>policies, and transportation options that cut our per capita oil <DIV></DIV>>consumption 85%. That would put our oil consumption on par with most <DIV></DIV>>other countries in the world. Or we can keep asking for plums in <DIV></DIV>>February for $.89 a pound at Wal*Mart, and raise an extra kid or two to <DIV></DIV>>send to Dubya's perpetual war for cheap oil. Reality. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Developing business and guiding change since 1996, <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>G. Matthew Bulley <DIV></DIV>>Bulley-Hewlett <DIV></DIV>>Business: www.bulley-hewlett.com <DIV></DIV>>AIM = IExplain4u <DIV></DIV>>Phone: +1.919.658.1278 <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>-----Original Message----- <DIV></DIV>>From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf <DIV></DIV>>Of Andy Mahler <DIV></DIV>>Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 1:03 AM <DIV></DIV>>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <DIV></DIV>>Subject: Vanagons for Peace <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>friends <DIV></DIV>>this is the first item I have posted to this list <DIV></DIV>>(other than a request for help from my Wolfy-driving cousin who was <DIV></DIV>>passing <DIV></DIV>>through) <DIV></DIV>>My wife and I have three Vanagons, all Westys, two '84s and an '88 <DIV></DIV>>We got our first Vanagon in 1991, the same year I helped organize <DIV></DIV>>what has since grown into an eighteen state regional cooperative network <DIV></DIV>>of local, grassroots forest protection organizations called Heartwood. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>I mention this because my wife and I have spent a lot of time in our <DIV></DIV>>vanagons <DIV></DIV>>in every one of those states, hooking up with the good, caring, <DIV></DIV>>hard-working local folks who <DIV></DIV>>sometimes alone, and sometimes with a handful of friends, <DIV></DIV>>organized among their neighbors <DIV></DIV>>to stop the careless and wanton destruction of the remnant hardwood <DIV></DIV>>forests <DIV></DIV>>of the East, Midwest, and South (heartland + hardwood = Heartwood). <DIV></DIV>>Our Vanagons have taken us down some windy-ass driveways in the Ozarks <DIV></DIV>>and the Appalachians, from Mississippi to Minnesota, and from Missouri <DIV></DIV>>to <DIV></DIV>>Maryland, <DIV></DIV>>from the mean streets of big cities to the most rugged and remote rural <DIV></DIV>>areas, <DIV></DIV>>the Vanagon has proven itself, time and again, the most useful beast in <DIV></DIV>>the <DIV></DIV>>barnyard. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>We always had a place to sleep, even when broken down by the road in the <DIV></DIV>>middle of nowhere--- <DIV></DIV>>and when you're in this line of work, the great thing is you're never <DIV></DIV>>more <DIV></DIV>>than a couple of hours <DIV></DIV>>from someone who will come get you, help get your vehicle back on the <DIV></DIV>>road, <DIV></DIV>>feed you a great meal, <DIV></DIV>>and set you up in a beautiful place for the night-- and, the next day <DIV></DIV>>they <DIV></DIV>>take you to the most beautiful forest, or a wild free-flowing river, or <DIV></DIV>>some other sweet precious spot that gives them solace and strength in a <DIV></DIV>>crazy old world. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>I am on a lot of lists, none of which get as much traffic as this one <DIV></DIV>>I am beginning to recognize names and personalities <DIV></DIV>>and wish to say <DIV></DIV>>thank you for the generosity in sharing wisdom and experience and spare <DIV></DIV>>parts <DIV></DIV>>for good advice and good laughs <DIV></DIV>>for your devotion to these contraptions and their many admirable <DIV></DIV>>qualities <DIV></DIV>>and of course their idiosyncrasies <DIV></DIV>>long life to them all, and to you <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>I don't spend as much time on the road as i used to <DIV></DIV>>spending more and more at this computer <DIV></DIV>>in the woods here in southern Indiana <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>I'm going to go on digest mode for a while (too much to read as it is) <DIV></DIV>>but I wanted to post this message before I do <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>and now, to the point <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>to me the Vanagon is not just a conveyance <DIV></DIV>>it is a political tool <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>a remarkable utilitarian expression of personal transportation and <DIV></DIV>>self-sufficiency <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>(those who do not wish to read a political opinion are advised to <DIV></DIV>>discontinue reading now) <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Times are getting tough and people are carrying a lot of stress <DIV></DIV>>The political situation is getting ugly and the bill of rights is <DIV></DIV>>getting <DIV></DIV>>constricted and eroded <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>I may bring down coyote's wrath, but I just have to ask <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Won't you all please take some action, small or large, soon, <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>TO STOP THIS INSANE WAR!!! <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Thanks for listening <DIV></DIV>>thanks for caring <DIV></DIV>>thanks for whatever you choose to do <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>and thanks to TomC and Coyote for moderation <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>peace <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> @ <DIV></DIV>>andy <DIV></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: <a href='http://g.msn.com/1HM1ENUS/c152??PI=44364'>Click Here</a><br></html>
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