The Help

Very clearly, yesterday morning began the crush of Land Rovers, Acuras, Infinitis, Armadas and Audis on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., each one a carapace for a wealthy Christian and one or more children, shuttling them to the first day of Catholic high school for 2009.

I had mentioned before the odd spectacle of driving an expensive rig through a poor neighborhood, a vehicle whose value is equal to or in excess of the housal unit values it commutes by. A similar but opposite event occurs in the Laurel and Topanga Canyons in LA, where the help emerges at 5:00 PM to get themselves down to the bus stops to grind out transit commutes back to their own neighborhoods.

I am not making any claim that such wealth distributions are wrong or right. It just is. To me, it's fascinating to watch the march of wealthy whites through poor neighborhoods, and vice versa. Even I do it -- a white guy on his "expensive" Cannondale riding in a Huffy neighborhood. The difference in my case, however, is that for as much commuting as I do a quality bike is essential...a cheap bike cannot do; it would not survive the rigors of daily commuting. This is not an intentional public display of wealth, unlike these Christian Brothers parents.

My Franklin Monologues are all about our relationships with energy -- every post is a commentary on these relationships in a very real sense, although sometimes I stretch this idea some. However, there is stark correlation between these people and their public damning of the environment we all live in. They do not allow their children to bicycle to school. They do not give a damn about their vehicular efficiencies as is clearly evident. They think nothing of the damage their motoring through other communities causes, regardless of how much or how little charity exists. They think little of the air we all breathe, and fail to understand the lunacy of a world population allowed to consume the level of natural resources they themselves consume.

Obviously this applies to everyone, pious or otherwise, but these aren't the actions of a life of supposed humility, of respect for others, of respect for the world they share with others. This is a microcosm of the USA at large, a population of 305,000,000 who all think the same way, sharing a culture of excess and greed. If the supposed faithful of the most humble figure can't won't follow the principles of compassion for the environment or for others, then what of the balance of America? Should we expect this of Muslims? Of Buddhists? Of Atheists? Doubtful.

Although I try to do what I can, I reserve no hope that we will ever willingly change our culture of excess and greed. That's why I'd like us to be forced to change unwillingly.