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devastating to one's self-esteem not knowing
what mood that person is going to be in when
you get home. Not knowing what may set them
off and knowing that they love their “little se
crets" and they revel in them. You see, I don't
have much sympathy for someone with this
disease if they're a liar. A liar to their partner,
their family and most of all to themselves. They
use their "disease" as an excuse to sleep around
and hurt those who they claimed to have loved
and think that their conscience holds no bear
ing on them because "they're sick." Bull shit. If
you have manic depression, I have the deepest
sympathy for you and agree with the writer of
the article that you should seek out help and
surround yourself with those that love you and
have your best interest in mind, but don't for
get that the moment you start taking them for
granted, the moment they become "convenient"
for you, you lose any validity in my book to be a
voice for those who truly are sick. I hate when I
hear people say, "but you don't understand what
it's like." You know what, life's hard for everyone.
There are those in this
world who are dying of
AIDS, cancer, who were
abused and sexually
molested. Those who
get beat up because of
who they sleep with,
those whacan't identify
with their own gender
and who have no one
in their family who has
one iota of sympathy
for them, and there are parents who've lost sons
and daughters to a bullshit war. There are times
I want to scream out and make an ass of my
self. There are times when I want to physically
hurt myself in the darkness of night when I'm
alone, but I don't. I don't because "this too shall
pass." I don't dwell on the negative, I don't use
the challenges of my life as a crutch, but as a
strength to draw from.
Named Withheld
Athens
FIFTH-GRADE
I just read Joe Havasy's comic [Feb. 8], and I
have to ask, since when is animal cruelty funny?
Seriously... if he's not doing strips about how
big of a loser he is, ne's showing birds shitting
in people's mouths or whatnot...Now he's doing
people cutting up turtles and using them as hats.
Is that supposed to be funny? Can't you guys
find any comics for the "100% Local" page that
are above a fifth-grade reading level?
Alex Gural
Athens
A LONG-TERM OUTLOOK
Small college towns don't need to grow to
become big cities. The long-term outlook for us
is not completely dismal. We retain only some of
the oil reserves that helped power the industrial
revolution (about 35 to 45 years), and we are
just beginning to deal with the toxic waste pro
duced by nuclear power plants and the nuclear
arsenals of the Cold War. The coming environ
mental revolution will see us using renewable
energy sources including geothermal, solar,
wind, hydro and wave energy. We could become
nuclear-free countries.
I would like to address the question of popu
lation in our county before we are too dependent
on surrounding counties to suggest mutually ben
eficial relationships. Our county already has over
seven times the average population density of
the planet. This means that we are at 1.2 times
the carrying capacity of the planet locally. The
carrying capacity of the planet is about 40 billion
people. I like to solve problems, but if we don't
act locally, soon many people will give up on the
problem of becoming a self-sufficient community.
This disturbs me. I believe every community
should try to become nearly self-sufficient in wa
ter, food, natural resources and energy.
Rooftop solar panels are only 20 percent ef
ficient. but we should not neglect encouraging
homeowners to replace existing systems with
solar ones. If everyone did this, it would only
supply about one half to one third of our current
electricity needs. We need about five percent of
our county's area in solar panels to meet our cur
rent electricity needs, and upwards of 10 percent
if we were to consider producing all of our food
inside buildings to reduce water usage and trans
port costs as well as to better prepare ourselves
for emergencies. It would be good to provide free
non-meat sources of protein and other plant-
based foods. If the goals are the same, perhaps
arrangements can be made with the neighboring
counties.
We should construct buildings at or about
10 stories high on the outskirts of our city for
use as civic buildings, parking decks, university
buildings, university housing and public housing.
In exchange for similar buildings constructed in
neighboring counties, already cleared and unused
farm land can be used to generate electric power
for our county. The buildings could be adjacent to
lines which might eventually form the hexagonal
gridwork of an under
ground transportation
network. This would be
the most efficient net.
The buildings would be
tall to reduce the foot
print and allow more
space for community
parks and greenways.
There are some
things we could do to
avoid trouble later. One
of these is to create a public housing system for
everyone. This system would discourage large
families, yet work to eliminate the problem of
homelessness. Square footage might be 1600
square feet per family, no matter what number
of children you have had. This would amount
to 800 square feet for someone who has had no
children. People who are 18 should be allowed to
sign up for public housing. He or she would then
get 800 square feet. Public housing might be in
termixed with university housing.
We could encourage zero population growth
groups. These might include oneself and one’s
spouse, arrangements between related or unre
lated couples, or they might be family groups or
larger groups. Free birth control, sterilizations,
abortions and deliveries would have to be avail
able to the general public. A universal healthcare
system woutd be necessary as welL It will elimi
nate much of the paperwork expense by exclud
ing the private insurance companies entirely.
We could discourage the use of large vehicles
in the city. Larger vehicles should be taxed much
more, and parking costs should be proportional
to the amount of space your vehicle takes up.
We should also give special incentives for hybrid
electric or electric cars under a certain power:
7,500 Watts to 15,000 Watts is between 10 HP
and 20 HP, and it ties in rather nicely with own
ing a low-powered city vehicle in order to use
the additional power to produce food. We could
use the savings to produce about one-fourth of
our food. Perhaps the day will come when all of
our transportation energy needs will be met by
using hydrogen storage batteries charged on our
solar power grid. In this case, the fuel station
would be one's own home. Before an underground
transportation net is constructed, we should en
courage people to ride our city buses. This makes
sense to me.
Here is an idea about solar power. This coun
try's roads cover about 1.27 percent of our land
area. If a double-decker system of solar panels
could be built over much of that paved road area,
all of the United States' energy needs can be met.
Finally (if it can be done), we should prob
ably put population caps on cities so they don't
exceed an arbitrary figure of, let's say, one times
the carrying capacity of the planet locally (or
about one acre per person). This is reasonable,
and it amounts to about 87,135 people for our
county which has already exceeded 100,000 peo
ple. If we can do many of the above-mentioned
things, we can enjoy the benefits of a small col
lege town without the problems associated with
big dties.
Keith Priest
Athens
BUMPERSTiCKER OF THE WEEK:
Blind Faith in Bad Leadership
is Not Patriotism
Thanks Lucy. Keep sending them in. 549-9523 or
ben@flagpole.com.
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