As we near the two-year anniversary of our meetings, I am challenged to contemplate the question: Why do we meet?
We meet because we know the culture – and thus our fellowman – is going in the wrong direction. And when I use the term, “wrong,” I do not mean it in the sense of a simple disagreement with me. I mean it in the sense of “rushing toward evil.” We meet because we know many well-intended people – loved ones, neighbors, family, and friends – who sincerely believe they are doing good when they join the march into darkness. We meet because we are trying to find our voice and craft our message and cultivate the vision that will drive us to become the salt that preserves what is good and what is true, what is righteous and what is just. We meet because we are still free to do so, and thus must do so. You see, we care, we truly do, about the path that society and culture is taking, painfully aware that the direction will impact the real lives of real people. We meet because humanity is at stake. We meet because we must not forget what has been done to our culture, to our families, and to our lives. We were told lies and we were made to live by them. “Cover your face, stay home, stay safe” and “Your mask protects me and my mask protects you,” and the underlying message that “he who refuses to cover his face is a danger and a threat.” We meet because our churches, businesses, and schools were closed while Walmart and Amazon and liquor stores carried on. We meet because civilization and humanity took a blow by a State that had no Constitutional authority to strike us and toss us to the ground and stomp upon our lives with the heel of Big Brother. We meet because we knew then – and everybody knows now – that this was NOT a pandemic of the unvaccinated. We meet because we sense the creepiness of mandates in general and the eeriness of mandating the COVID “vaccine” specifically. We meet because we know that it is wrong to even consider mandating such a shot – one that doesn’t even stop transmission – to children – who are not at risk from COVID and who most likely have already had it. We meet because such a forced mandate makes no sense. We meet because the State is not the parent. We meet because we no longer trust the medical establishment. When we must, we go with skepticism into the doctor’s office or the hospital. And when we do, we wonder, “To whom does their loyalty lie, with me the patient or with it, the bully of the State?” We know the answer to that question, and we meet hoping to develop a solution to right the ship that now is floundering. We meet because we know that many good healthcare workers lost their jobs because of the reckless – and yet intentional – unreasonableness of the State to force upon individuals a decision the State had no right to make…and the NYS Supreme Court just agreed with us. We meet because the State is purposefully wrecking health care. We meet because people died alone in sterile, cold hospital rooms all because the State told families they were forbidden to hold the hand and be at the side of their dying loved ones. We meet because we remember this happened, and we do not want it to happen ever again. We meet because funerals were barred, and weddings were verboten and high school graduations were made weird with cohort models held at drive-in movie theaters for those who wore masks and tested negative. We meet because these perplexing, tragic moments happened, and we do not want them to happen ever again. We meet because evil plotted, and masses complied. We meet because fear was used to weaponize institutions against ordinary citizens. People may not fear COVID now like they did then, but the posture of fear and the habit of silence has taken hold, feeding the beast of the State and the belly of the bureaucrat. The State commands, and institutions bow. Consider… The State tells schools, “You must have an all-electric bus fleet by 2035 and discontinue purchasing diesel busses by 2027.” And the schools say, “OK” when they should say, “No.” Why don’t they say, “No?” It is because they have assumed the posture of fear and the habit of silence. They fear IT who holds the purse strings. And thus, they are controlled. The State orders that “You must affirm boys as girls and girls as boys or both as neither, and you must not communicate that this is what you do to the parents whose children you are doing it to.” We meet because strange, Orwellian terms are infiltrating the thinking of our fellowman, and the minds of our children. We meet because we actually can define what a woman is, and we understand that hormones and mutilation masked as "surgical sex reassignment" have devastating and irreversible consequences to individuals and cultures. The State has decided that carbon is bad and that the people who exhale carbon dioxide and drive gasoline cars and live lives that are free and pursue dreams that are bold are a threat to the planet…or at least to their power. We meet because this same State is using the foil of “climate change” and the cover of “environmental justice” to twist our lives to fit into the coffin they are constructing for us. In the name of saving us, they are seeking to control us and to destroy what we love: Liberty and the God who gives it. We meet because we intuitively realize that the theft of local autonomy through the bribe money of the State and the slick tongue of the “renewable” energy developer is wicked. Industrial wind turbines and solar facilities covering hundred and thousands of acres will decimate farmland, delivering the death blow to local control, and someday crashing the grid…the grid upon which we depend and that they shall control. We meet because we see what is happening and we recognize it for what it is: corruption and death. We meet because justice matters. The justice to which I refer is not the trendy type of social justice that is being used as an anti-moral instrument with which to bludgeon traditional society. No, the justice of which I speak is Biblical justice. It is based on the law of God and stirs in the heart of man. While the mission of social justice is revolution, the mission of Biblical justice is redemption and the pursuit of love and respect for the law of God. While the mission of social justice is equity requiring State power and resulting in mediocrity and the death of liberty and private property, the mission of Biblical justice is equality resulting in excellence and blooming in the concepts of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the right to private property and its protection. Social justice provokes revolution. Biblical justice pursues the law of the Holy Lawgiver. The holy trinity of social justice - “diversity, equity, and inclusion” despises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as evidenced in its rabid pursuit of overthrowing the law of God. We meet because we know social justice is a vampire and the culture shall be the corpse if good people say and do nothing. We meet because we know we have a duty to stand, to speak, to slay the monster of propaganda and deception with the light of truth. We meet because Goliath is here, and God expects His people and His bride to rise as David did, and ask, “Who is this that defies the armies of the Living God?” And ultimately, we meet to proclaim the LORDSHIP of Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. He is Lord over all. Yes, He is Lord of our individual lives, but He is not just Lord of the personal. He is equally Lord of the cultural and the corporate. He is equally the Lord of institutions and nations. He is. He was. He is to come. And, He rules and reigns, supreme and secure forever, ever and always. We meet to prepare to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ wherever we go and whatever the cost.
0 Comments
Some things in the renewable energy conversation just don’t make sense.
Why were Al Gore and other elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos bemoaning carbon emissions after arriving in Davos on private jets? Why do they live one way – heavily dependent on fossil fuels – while demanding we sacrifice our way of life to meet their “climate goals?” Why do those who say they want to reduce carbon emissions reject the best sources of energy for actually reducing carbon emissions – natural gas and nuclear? Why do those who despise fossil fuels, natural gas, and nuclear refuse to acknowledge that the solar and wind they love require a fossil fuel back-up? Do they not understand that this actually solidifies a dependence on fossil fuels? Why is Upstate NY – and her farmlands and forests - going to shoulder most of the burden of renewables, despite the fact that 90% of Upstate energy is already clean - thanks to hydropower? Doesn’t Downstate know the grid does not support effective transmission of electricity from here to there? I think our “leaders” in Albany may well be aware of this. It doesn’t make sense to do what they are doing. So why are they doing it? Why do renewable energy corporations call themselves “renewable?” Yes, the sun and the wind are renewable, but the infrastructure used to capture them is not. Indeed, I suspect that a life-cycle energy study of industrial wind turbines and solar cells would reveal that more energy is used to mine, manufacture, transport, install, and decommission these beasts than is ever gained from them. Why doesn’t the State demand life-cycle energy studies? Why aren’t the people told that the solar arrays and the wind turbines will not be recycled? There are no affordable recycling options. Even if there were, the recycling would need to be done in a thermo-plant using very high temperatures… with energy from fossil fuels to reach those high temperatures. If recycling will not occur, and if solar arrays and wind turbines – at their best – last 25 years – what will become of them at the end of their lives? Landfill? Is that even allowed? Does not sound very environmentally friendly! Or will the dead turbines and solar cells simply stay put and idle while decaying and rusting and dotting the fields and hills of our communities? Why build solar facilities in Upstate New York when Upstate New York is one of the worst places in the country for them? My fellow Western New Yorker, I ask you, how many days have we seen the sun this winter? Why would corporations and the State want solar facilities here, a place of low productivity and low efficiency? It does not make any sense. How many carbon-absorbing trees are cut down to make way for wind turbines and solar facilities? How many food-producing (or potentially food producing) fields lie fallow under the shadow of solar and wind? When food is scarce, will carbon credits fill our bellies? How many local laws will be preempted and ignored by a State with an agenda? How can it be that the NYS Constitution proclaims that local municipalities have “home rule” authority over land use, and yet elected officials and unelected bureaucrats and renewable energy developers with their pockets lined with taxpayer money now look town boards and the people they represent in the eye and say, “What you want doesn’t matter”? New York State says they want to protect us and our children and grandchildren from climate change. But I remember COVID. And I remember bail reform. And these remind me that the State does not have the best interest of the people in mind. Why aren’t people paying attention? Where are the people that should show up at town board meetings and work with local elected officials to write local laws to protect our rural communities? Where are you? Why are renewable energy developers and their attorneys more populous at local board meetings than the people of the community? I do not understand how this can be. I introduced myself to my town board last night.
They were gracious to me and let me ramble on for well over five minutes. I appreciated that. My ramblings included the heart of my concerns: that local government is dying and that the power of the state is metastasizing and creeping into our day to day lives in rural NY. I expressed to them that I don't want our community to become what Albany envisions, rather I want it to become what we decide. Specifically, I expressed concern that the renewable energy agenda - the "green new deal" so to speak - is an anti-local agenda that uses bribery in the forms of subsidies to cause well-intended local officials to be captured by the state. I spoke of the morality of fossil fuels, and how they lead to the flourishing of human life because they are high density, efficient, abundant, reliable, and until recently - affordable. I even pivoted to the bigger picture and suggested to my local officials that We the People need them to hold the line and recognize that liberty is under assault. It's hard to know if my words meant anything to them. Perhaps not since the audience from the community consisted solely of me and a disgruntled gentleman who showed up to voice unclear grievances and a general dissatisfaction with the board. On a completely different topic, the town justice had just that day emailed his resignation. No details were provided. Part way through the meeting, another woman walked through the door. Everyone there knew her. Apparently, the board had contacted her earlier in the day and asked her to come. She had previously served as town justice and was there to take up the slack for the justice who had mysteriously (at least to me) resigned today. She was "sworn in" by the attorney who was present. They kept calling him, "Peter." At one point Peter became visibly irritated by the disgruntled gentleman who occasionally piped up with a complaint, and during one of his comments he referred to Peter as a "lawyer," at which point Peter interrupted him to let him know he is an "attorney." His irritability seemed a little unnecessary, but who am I to say? Back to the story at hand. The fill-in town justice was "sworn in" on a big book from the bookshelf behind the town board. They didn't have a Bible to use, but that didn't seem to bother them, and they indicated any book would do. I actually had my Bible with me. I should have offered it, but everything happened pretty fast. There were other things discussed... constables that couldn't pass the physical training necessary and the need to use Cattaraugus County Sheriffs as security during court nights. Then came the reason I was there: discussion about the renewables.... I asked permission to ask a few questions of Chris (he was there in a number of capacities, but one of them was as a representative of the planning board). I asked him if there are solar farms on their way in our town. He told me that there is one that has gone through the application process and will soon be breaking ground and one that is just beginning the process (Olivewood - the smooth talking young guy I met at the last board meeting). I asked Chris how many acres were being dedicated to these projects. He told me, "About 15." At that point, the lawyer....oops...attorney....stepped in and spoke up and said, "No. It's more like 9." I have to say... I'm not sure that I believe either one of them. It seems like that is much too small a number and that it wouldn't be worth it at all....but again....I am still learning. In any case, my accuracy detector was alerted that I will need to research this out. I also asked about the decommissioning plan and whether the panels will be recycled as part of the decommissioning plan. I was assured by both Chris and the attorney that a great decommissioning plan has been developed. I'm not sure what great means. I guess this is one more thing I will have to do some research on and see if I can get more specific information. And then came the conversation about Article 10 and Article 7 and the Alle-Catt Wind Farm and how once renewable projects are past a certain size the state zoning regulations override the local ones. They talked about how the County Planner - someone named "Marie" would work with the Yorkshire Town Board to review and update and revise their current zoning codes and how Marie and the County have offered to "guide them through the process" for free. Peter the attorney indicated that either the supervisor of Yorkshire or the supervisor of Freedom would have to become the "point person" to keep track of the invoices and payments using the $50,000 available to hire consultants and prepare as "stakeholders" to go before an administrative law judge in the near future. The Yorkshire Town Supervisor asked if there was a benefit to Yorkshire doing this, and Peter the attorney stated "no" and that he would "ask the Town of Freedom to do it." I timidly raised my hand and asked if I could ask one more question. The board said, "sure." So I asked Peter the attorney if Dustin - supervisor in Freedom - has a wind turbine and transmission lines on his property - wondering if this is in any way a conflict of interest? He told me he had no idea the status of Dustin's property, but that even if he did have turbines and transmission lines, it wouldn't be a conflict of interest as this is simply an administrative process, a paper-pushing sort of thing that they are talking about. He didn't seem too happy that I asked such a question. Perhaps his unhappiness was because it was a stupid question. Maybe it was a stupid question. I don't know enough about the ins and outs of all this. Or maybe it wasn't a stupid question and that is what was so annoying about it. Clearly, I'm an outsider with a lot to learn. But I will keep showing up and asking questions. Someone has to. Last month, on a quiet Monday evening, I stepped into the town office building (or whatever it may officially be called) in Yorkshire, NY. I was there to attend the monthly meeting of the town board. I arrived a few minutes late, so the meeting had already begun. I stepped in quietly - but obtrusively since the audience peanut gallery was nearly empty. The only other people attending were two gentlemen, one young and one older. The young fellow was speaking from his seat to the town council members. His words were smooth and confident. I cringed as I discovered that he was there to pitch the idea of a solar farm. One of the council members asked him about the life-expectancy of solar panels. He opened his mouth and said (I'm paraphrasing, of course), "Well, the technology is constantly improving. We are hoping that at some point the life expectancy will reach 40 years. But for now, we are only able to 'guarantee' 20."
I bit my tongue. I wanted to spring from my seat and cry, "Liar! You know as well as I and as well as anyone with access to google that every year the efficiency of the panels decreases. Even suggesting that the technology will improve to 40 years is disingenuous. Just answer the question straight. You hope for 20 years, but every passing year is less efficient than the preceding one." I stayed in my seat and kept my mouth shut. The time to speak was not tonight. This was the night to get my bearings and to show my face. The words will flow later. But not too much later. The smooth-talking young man soon ended his pitch and rose to leave. As he and his older friend turned to go, he noticed me in the otherwise empty room. He approached me with a smile and a business card. I ignored the smile but took the card. Clearly, I had chosen the right night to show up at a town board meeting. The wolves with federal subsidies (a.k.a. bribe money) and state initiatives (a.k.a. orders) are at the door. I have so much to learn about interacting with the town council members. But I know I have to start. My plan? Show up...every single time. Soon I will attend my 2nd meeting. This time, I will speak. Getting started means showing up. |
Written by Brenda HansonArchivesCategories |