[New-Poetry] bob's art for art's sake

[Suzanne Burns]

On 1/5/07, Linda Sue Grimes <suelin7184 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  "the planet (to say nothing of the polar ice caps) would be just fine
> without us."
>
> "Committing suicide would not have any affect at all on a plant or the
> polar ice caps"
>
> So the planet and ice caps are just fine with as well as without us.   I
> see.
>

No.  That is not what I said, thank you.

I said that mass suicide of all human beings is completely implausible and
not a realistic solution-- its hard enough convincing people to stop driving
SUVs, for heavens sake (warning: I say this facetiously)-- and also would
not reverse the damage we have already done.  Our presence on this planet
and our senseless consumption is the reason why the icecaps are in
danger---  Suicide however will not save them. I am terribly sorry that you
have to reduce this to such an absurdist and unimaginative position.

Increasing death is like trying to bail out a sinking boat without plugging
the leak. People are flooding in twice as fast as they're bailing out.
Shortening an existing person's life by a few decades doesn't avoid or
change the damage of many years of human impact.  I would suggest rather
that we have a responsibility to help the world as much as we're able before
we die. Leaving the work for others to do would be irresponsible.

Got that?

Acknowledging that the planet would be just fine without us and that we are
not the center of all creation and in fact have done a lot of damage does
not mean that suicide is the best and most reasonable solution.  Its
reality:  We are parasites.  We are not here for a noble reason.  We have
done more harm than good. Ice caps, lions, tigers, and bears actually would
really and truly be just fine without us.  Seriously:  you are not a special
flower. You are a blip on the radar.  So where do you go from here?  If
suicide is the only thing you can come up with, I am sorryu.

We are here, and since we are here we can use our imaginations and at the
very least find ways to make ourselves more useful-- or at the very least
less destructive.

Pontificatingly,

Suzanne
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