A Mom Too Old, Cheap Gas Is Bad
Wednesday - December 17, 2008
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Del.icio.usNEW DELHI - An Indian woman who got married 50 years ago has become a mother for the very first time at the ripe old age of 70, Agence-France Presse reported.
Oh, this one is just creepy. What woman in her right mind would want to be changing poopy diapers and wiping up vomit at the age of 70? What woman past the age of 70 is spry enough to chase a hyperactive toddler around? What kind of mother thinks it’s OK to sit her 10-year-old child down and explain that, since mama is now 80 years old, she probably won’t live very much longer? And what are the ethics of a doctor who impregnates a 70-year-old woman, no matter how much she begs?
It’s not In Vitro Fertilization, the process that has helped millions of women have children, that’s bad here. IVF is one of the modern miracles of medicine. It’s the inappropriate use of it that stinks. What moves it from marvel to madness is the careless disregard for the welfare of a child - a girl who has been brought into a world in which she is guaranteed to lose her parents before she’s ready. She may be taken care of financially and physically - her parents are obviously well off - but emotional health is important, too.
I’m all for pushing boundaries and going where no man or woman has gone before. But with great knowledge comes great responsibility. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.
Looks like we’ve got an early Christmas present - cheap gas!
It has to have come to your attention, even amidst all the bad economic news, that lately we can afford to fill up our tanks and our electricity bills are going down. Gas prices are plummeting. In fact, today I saw a headline speculating that they may go as low as $1 a gallon.
But don’t let cheap gas fool you. I know it feels like the nightmare has passed, but the reality is it’s only temporary. The worst thing we can do is to let down our guard and abandon, once again, all efforts to wean ourselves off imported oil. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. And we ended up in worse trouble than before.
I have a feeling we’re smarter this time around and we won’t go back to our gasguzzling, non-recycling, energy-wasting habits. I’m hoping we continue to do the right things like changing our light bulbs to CFLs or LEDs, installing solar water heating systems on our roofs, and buying Energy Star appliances.
I hope we don’t lose our newfound desire to buy more sensible cars. The glimmer of good news out of Detroit is that if the big automakers survive it’ll likely be because they’ll be forced to give us what we need and increasingly want - fuel-efficient, cleaner cars. Not only is it good for the environment, but it just might help us all find decent parking spaces again. Just the other day I pondered this as I watched a lady in a giant SUV try to back into a parking stall obviously designed for a compact car. In, out, forward and backward, she tried in vain to squeeze into the teeny, tiny space. She finally gave up and off she drove, forcing the sissy cars off to the side as she continued her hunt for better, wider possibilities. I had no doubt when she found one she would take up one-and-a-half stalls.
Here in our isolated island state some leaders with foresight have begun to push hard for clean, renewable sources of energy and true independence from foreign oil. Whether or not they succeed will depend on whether we, the people, want to back them up. If we don’t have the will, our political and corporate leaders may find it easier to shrug their shoulders and move on without getting the job done. Just like before.
You’ve heard that old saying about the definition of insanity? Right. Let’s not do it again.
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