Day Fifty-Nine

So, I was doing my traditional post-coffee business this morning, which happened to include the Baltimore Sun. It is certainly not the best paper in the world, but it gets its job done fairly well. Keeping me informed and the like.

I was reading an article entitled 'Developers distressed over O'Malley proposal to curb septic systems'. Sounds like a hoot, right? The article was about Martin O'Malley's - not this Martin O'Malley - plans to step up Maryland's environmental responsibility by not only stemming suburban sprawl - by making it more difficult for developers to create developments outside of existing public water infrastructure - but also limiting the amount of new septic systems, which pollute both our soil and water supply at a higher level than the public water and waste model. Maryland is a beautiful place, with a lovely natural landscape, and I am all in full support of not allowing my current home state to follow the present course of my former home state (New Jersey) by transforming into a vast suburb of shitty, cookie cutter prefab bullshit ugly fucking houses. Blah!

Toward the end of the article, the writers included the voice of a septic system contractor from Fallston who said, 'he'd have to lay off up to a third of his 15 employees if housing developments using [septic] systems were banned'. Hm. One-third certainly seems like a large percentage, but one third of his fifteen employees is barely a drop of water in the ocean. Now, I don't mean to be insensitive in these difficult times, but there are two things I would like to point out. One: the misleading power of numbers. One-third compared to five. One-third sounds much worse.

The second is more of a question: whatever happened to the concept of ethical pride in one's line of work? I understand, again, that one does not necessarily have the freedom to pursue any job he/she chooses in these times where people with Masters degrees in English must resort to waiting tables (...). However, why do we not expect people to make their decisions based on a certain mode of ethics. Yes, jobs are good, but so is a sustainable community and environment!

Last night, I was watching the second season of Mad Men where Don and his family are picnicking after he purchases his new Cadillac and was absolutely disgusted to watch him throw his empty can of beer into the woods and leave all of their trash on the side of the road. They didn't think anything of it then, but now we see where the trash goes. We know how disgusting the Chesapeake Bay is and that clean water is becoming less of a commodity and more of a luxury.

So why do we blindly accept the argument that 'jobs are good', regardless of the consequence of that particular job? Is it really OK to afford someone a job that disrupts and destroys the prosperity of the planet? Who the fuck is going to work when there is no more sustainable, habitable earth? Talk about job killing...

Read the article...