‘Commentary’ Archives
i think i can i think i can-“Thinking I can,” just ain”'t enough
Commentary By Harvey Winje For decades neighbors here have said, I think I can. I THINK I CAN! That “Little Engine That Could” chant became “We think we can. WE THINK WE CAN!” Thinking alone wasn”'t enough so they added hard work””phone calls, meetings, leaflets, lobbying, money raising, and much more. Finally, they were often able to say, We thought we could, WE THOUGHT WE COULD, We Did, WE DID!” Remember this old ad? “When America has a problem, America turns to Black and Decker.” In America, after 911, when the United States government had a problem it began increasing employment of Blackwater and other private, profit making companies for high level security intelligence work. Locally, when we have a problem, we don”'t turn to Black and Decker or Blackwater. Initially, we don”'t turn to private companies, politicians, or bureaucrats to solve our problems and innovate. We depend again and again on neighbors. [...]
The Great Extinction
by Peter Molenaar July 17, 2010, a storm is brewing”¦ In the past 540 million years there have been five major events during which over 50% of animal species died. The most recent occurred 65 million years ago with the extinction of nearly all dinosaurs. What an incredible bonanza this was for the tiny ancestral shrew-like mamaliform whose gene pool was to explode and then radiate in every direction. As for the birds, they descend from that line of dinosaurs which included T. Rex. Surprisingly, the more archaic of present day birds have existed unchanged in form for merely one million years. The cormorants residing at Powderhorn Lake appear more ancient than that. From their island perch, our cormorants display horizontally spread wings bent vertically at the joint to declare: here I am. Their oil-drenched cousin, that iconic pelican, posed similarly before the camera. Moreover, elements of the old hadrosaur culture have been revived by our Powderhorn geese. Some [...]
