Re-Gain

My grandfather was a minister. For me, certain religious individuals who are over righteous lack simple reverence. These Bible- thumpers fervor threatens those of differing beliefs. Their messages appear to come from desperation, not inspiration. Today, this divisiveness is hostile. This victoral comes as violent rhetoric. Spreading such fear increases anxiety and fuels more violence. People who exercise their virtue instead of their vice are those that appeal to me. These individuals honor others even though their beliefs are different. Unity happens when there is peace and cooperation. Jesus taught us to be unified, or one (John 17:21). Jesus preached to avoid corrupting talk. He warns the Galatians against the dangers of “rivalries, dissensions, divisions” (Galatians 5:20). God gives us his glory, so we'll be unified (John 17:22). May we exercise virtue to unite, not divide. Let's respect our differences. May we pray together not prey on each other....

Last week I was talking to a forest ranger who told me that burning of trash sometimes starts forest fires. The President's son, Beau, was exposed to a burn pit in Baghdad and came down with stage four neuroblastoma, a brain tumor. My expertise in exploring burning waste was when I helped build a used oil recycling facility in the middle of Alexandria. Unfortunately, used oil may contain numerous other automotive fluids that when incinerated contaminate the environment. Roughly, 110 million gallons of used oil is burned as fuel in 75,000 small used oil space heaters. Since 1999, Virginia has given a 50 percent tax credit for up to $4,000 for the purchase of these heaters. In 2002, I was reading a brochure written by my county fire department. I was amazed how it allowed for the burning of household trash. I researched all manners of how best to proceed. After working with my fire marshal in Shenandoah County for more than nine months in the hope to develop a brochure informing citi...

Accepting that we are creating our own gas chamber is challenging. Recently the U.N Secretary General said, we playing Russian roulette . Each day new heat records are broken. The cost of climate change is similar to its very weather--catastrophic. America's resource mismanagement and poor pollution prevention impacts our future. Unfortunately, we have not created a market system that accounts for clean air, water and land.  As wastemakers and consumers there's the consequences of our throw away society. We're kicking the trash can down the road of unattended consequences.  Tragically many Americans believe there's such a thing as a climate crisis. Over 50 years we have subsidized fossil fuels that is putting gasoline on the fire. As climate-related disasters happen such losses will bankrupt our public/private insurance funds. Improved risk management analysis will identify environmental liabilities and stimulate corrective actions. Also better cost accounting and actua...