Morning Guide

After a year of extremes, which saw us endure 

a hot summer in 2013 that became an interminable 

winter, 2014 had an extremely short spring. 

That turned into a summer that is flying past; July will 

be one of the coolest on record and, as we ease 

into August, the area has seen near daily thunderstorms

as the West Coast endures drought conditions

for the third year in a row. There's something wrong

here; while weather cycles are to be expected,

at least a portion of the problem is due to man's

selfishness, his narrow expectations that the basic needs

will be satisfied at the turn of a faucet.

And in Detroit ... by the end of the summer, 

the municipal utility is expected to shut off water

supplies to roughly 150,000 residents,

over 20% of the city's diminishing 700,000 population.

Telling people to "just pay their water bill,"

the utility is threatening 38% of a population that is 

living below the poverty line, underemployed, unemployed,

and trapped in what is becoming "an urban desert."

Increasingly, as those who pay for and control

the Congress sip their triple-filtered bottled water,

scenarios such as these will become common.

With cutbacks and laws weighted towards the

wealthy and their interests, they will one day

wonder why the masses are at the gates.

In spite of the fact that they enjoy privileges

bestowed upon them by their massive pocketbooks,

one day, the people who toil in the shadows

of the corporate boardrooms won't be there

to kiss their masters' asses. Instead, they will be 

in the streets looking for water.

Of course, one can't think along these lines without

considering the old saw attributed to

Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake."

There's another to be considered --

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; 

I was not a communist.

When they locked up the socialists, I remained silent; 

I was not a socialist.

When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; 

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews, I remained silent;

 I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me, 

there was no one left to speak out.

~Pastor Martin Niemöller