Susan Herndon

Hurricaine Isaac has been sitting over New Orleans and they say the price of gas will go up.  I wonder how BP is doing out there.... how nice it was of them to air public service announcements about how much they're doing to help out after their big oil spill several years ago--  encouraging vacationing on the Gulf Coast.
  I'm sitting in my garden hoping to see that the beets and the carrots and the peas that I just planted have come up, when i hear a commotion.  It's a couple of dove that fly up onto the fence, their feathers are ruffled, they seem bothered and they're saying something.  A moment later, I see the ground move about a foot from where I'm sitting.  It's a snake!  It's s about four feet long and an inch and a half in diameter and it's slithering in between the tomatoes and the basil and the peppers and the onions.  I get a closer look and there in the middle of the bed is a little baby dove.  It looks up at me with its big black eyes, completely unaware of the snake.  "NO!"  I scream out.  The snake looks up at me and sticks his tongue out several times.  It doesn't seem poisonous but it could probably wrap around a little dove and choke the life out of him.  I grab a stick and try to scare the snake away from the bird.  The baby dove waddles away and the snake slithers out of the garden, but not without trying to get at the bird again before he goes back to his den in a big tree trunk down the back alley.   I follow and get a good close look at him.  He is BEAUTIFUL.  He moved with such power and stealth.  And how he could hide and you would never know he was there.
My neighbor had mentioned to me that the pile of limbs that sat next to the fire pit probably made a good hiding place for snakes.  But the drought has been so bad, there's been no burning, so the pile just keeps growing as the dead branches fall.....
It's a wonder that anything in the garden is still alive.  The temperatures were so intense for more than two or three weeks this summer, with a heat index at 115-120 degrees, watering felt nearly impossible.  The heat was unbearable, NOTHING can live under those conditions.  And I didn't think I could.  It made me ill.  Sick to my soul.
Last night on the news, Brian Williams says that statistics show the polar caps have melted more than ever this year.
What are we doing?  And why are we doing this? 
And now there's a national convention going on..... is climate change and global warming even an issue?  Is everybody bought and sold?   Do these people REALLY represent us?  One candidate has so much money, it doesn't seem like we're even from the same planet Earth; the other candidate bailed out the banks billions of dollars with no strings attached, it kinda makes you wonder.....  And then, does it really matter whether we vote or not when somebody can steal the election if they so W-ill to?
I know I know.  Very unfashionable for a singer-songwriter to talk politics.
But this is not about politics.                                                                                                                      This is a matter of survival and what we value and hold dear.
Several days ago, I'm running errands, driving around in my car, burning fossil fuel, listening to NPR.  Peter Byck, the director of the film, Carbon Nation, is on.  He urges that people are not polarized in opinion here, we're in agreement about energy efficiency and alternatives. The solutions will make life better for everybody.  (www.carbonnationmovie.com)
....he also says that we're "close to toast."