"Tomorrow" by Avril Lavigne

\


Tomorrow is more important than today when it comes to young Americans.  They live their lives preparing for tomorrow while trusting their family and country with their lives today. 

It is a scary concept.  Tomorrow is abstract.  It is 'tomorrow' that most Democrats abide as important over the 'here and now.'  Preparing for tomorrow is more noble then living in 'the here and now.'  It is easier to some extent to ask Americans to see beyond the 'fear' of uncertainty by asking for patience to visualize a better tomorrow.

The 'impetus of the culture of fear' relies on the 'here and now.'  International criminals rely on 'the here and now.'  They rely on immediacy of attending to life when uncertainty is as close as the next plane or train.  The 'here and now' is an enemy.  It taps right into the 'primal' instincts of survival for people.  Those instincts create pyschological disorders such as PTSD.  Asking citizens to deny those instincts after being bombarded with 'fear' for over nine years is a lot to ask.  People in the 'immediate gratification' culture of today, have less patience with their lives and their circumstances.

In 2008, the global economy crashed.  The USA was then faced with a different form of terror and their immediate reaction was not 'let them learn their lesson,' it was 'save the economy.'  Hence, the Bailout.  $700 billion USA.  A lot of money.  But, what the citizens still don't 'pause' to realize is that the banks DIDN'T save the economy even with a bailout, they diverted those USA monies to international venues.  It is why so much of 'the housing bubble' still haunts us today.  The bailout allowed those banks to 'be finished' with the USA to make money elsewhere in 'The Third World.'  Cheaper, more cooperative governments; disinterested in their citizens or to developing those citizens for a lucritive economy.  The citizens of the USA don't stop to realize that the economic collapse was due to abandonment by the banks for other playgrounds.  They are still looking for hope from that mistake.  Somehow 'if' 'the BEST' approach 'can be found' it will all be okay.

Tomorrow is too long to wait.  Citizens have been disappointed not by the current administration, but, by their own simplemindedness.  They are living outside of reality when they don't 'grasp' the degree the USA has been in disrepair on all fronts of RECOVERY.  We were not only left without a manufacturing sector by decades of Republican abuse, exploitation and abandonment, but, also without an educated work force ready with skills to tool a modern economy.  Those 'studies' to know what we were facing didn't even exist at the time of the collapse of 2008.  That dynamic of disrepair wasn't even measured or 'thought about' in 2008.

I mean, without the collapse of 2008 the USA was doomed to repeat every economy between 1950 to 2008 without the fortitude of President Obama to blaze a new path for the USA.  Realizing that, the electorate of 2010 has fallen into the 'culture of fear' trap that demands 'here and now' priorities rather than fortitude.  Any political figure that is willing to promise 'here and now' recovery no matter how misguided and unrealistic that is, sounds good and 'going back in time' has its own comfort.  The electorate of the USA is more scared of failing their own understanding of recovery than they are of surrendering to 'old enemies' called Republicans.  They believe 'this time' it will be different.  This time it won't happen.

There is a lot of reason why that is and has been 'the tone' of the GOP for decades.  Even thought the expression "..we aren't going to change..." seems hideous to Democrats when stated by Republicans, it is actually 'emotional comfort' to the electorate.  In other words, how do the people that have voted know that the day after the election they will still have what 'they bargained for?' 

What the DNC doesn't stop to say to citizens is, "The blockade in the Senate is delaying our recovery."  It is the truth.  But, fear of any more bills being passed  is 'working the culture of fear' than the 'promise of tomorrow.'  The message that the Democrats are 'out of control' is being resonated throughout the country.

I am going to cover some ground tomorrow that may bring some insight to this issue.  Hopefully it will be simple minded enough to be helpful.

So.

Tomorrow, then.

This image is from February 2003. The New Zealand city is still experienceing signficant aftershocks.

Christchurch City (population 320,000) sits at the base of the long arc of Pegasus Bay, (click title to entry - thank you) bounded to the north by the Waimakariri River and to the south by the old crater complex of the Port Hills and Banks Peninsula.

The heavily braided rivers of the South Island of New Zealand bring greywacke rock from the Southern Alps to the west, forming the huge alluvial pan (750,000 ha) of the Canterbury Plains. Braided rivers are rare worldwide, found elsewhere only in Alaska, Canada, and the Himalayas. They form a network of ever-changing channels weaving between temporary shingle islands. In some places, the gravel they have transported from the mountains formed by the clash of the Indo-Australian and Pacific Plates is as much as 500 meters deep.

Banks Peninsula, named for explorer Captain Cook’s botanist, consists of two overlapping extinct volcanoes, the Lyttelton Volcano and the Akaroa Volcano. Since the last eruptive activity some six million years ago, the volcanoes have been heavily eroded, dropping them from a peak of 1,500 meters down to around 500 meters....

...At least three aftershocks have hit Christchurch in quick succession this evening.  (click here)

According to GeoNet, the latest, at 8.01pm, was a magnitude 4 quake centred within 5km of Christchurch at a depth of 9km.

Three minutes earlier another shock hit, a 4.1 magnitude quake centred within 5km of Christchurch at a depth of 7km.
Twelve minutes before that, there was a 3.8 magnitude shock centred within 5km of Christchurch at a depth of 8km.

These followed a 4.46pm magnitude 4 quake centred 10km southwest of Darfield at a depth of 5km, and a 4.3 shock at 9.22am that was centred 20km southwest of Christchurch at a depth of 15km.

Today's shocks were felt widely in the area but it is not believed they caused any further damage....

 From the NASA assessment:

...Breaches in the crater walls have produced two long harbors: Lyttelton to the north and Akaroa to the south....

The land masses on the western side of the south island are significantly larger and denser than that of the east side of the south island.  

No different than the major instability in China and casualties there experienced quakes for some time, I would expect the same here.  The mountains do not provide stability to the eastern coast, they provide instability by their 'mass and weight' alone.

The people of New Zealand's south island have faired well to date.  I am sure they are impatient for 'quiet.'  The geologists need to explore the role the mountains are playing to determine how long and to what extent the peninsula will continue to receive these quakes.