Residents Bring Key Points to the Public Dialogue
November 30, 2005
Just a quick tip of the hat to Stan Crocker and Kevin Woods for their letters to the editor in the current Sun. Stan addresses issues of growth and development in MV, making the point that we citizens do not have to be helpless victims of unchecked, purely market-driven growth which would turn the whole area from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City into one large tract of sprawl. Through our elected representatives we have the power to determine our towns’ futures. That point often goes underappreciated as people resign themselves to the supposed “inevitability” of growth. It’s not inevitable; it’s up to us.
Kevin, justifiably famous for his valued participation on the Small Town Project ;), writes about the connection between peak oil and our military action in the Middle East. Our lifestyle, our whole society, depends on oil, and the depletion of cheap oil heightens our efforts to preserve the flow from the Middle East. It’s hardly surprising, Kevin points out, that one result is war. Of particular interest for our purposes here is Kevin’s observation that we tend to fail to make the connection between oil and war as we continue our massively oil dependent pursuits, including our ongoing suburban expansion.
Hats off to to Stan and Kevin for bringing these key points to the public dialogue!
The Small Town Project 
December 1, 2005 at 9:57 am
John,
Thank you for your kind words.
The issue of “resource wars” has long been an interest of mine. My wife has suggested that I perhaps rant a bit too much about oil and its co-signature for our society, but I think it is important to make the connection, and to have the public debate. There are probably better read persons than myself on the subject, who may be able explain why we have the huge military commitment in the Middle East, if the cause is not primarily the stability of oil supplies. I would be tickled to be enlightened.I know that we currently get more oil from Canada,Venezuela and domestic wells than we get from the Middle East, but the mother lode of proven reserves is still under the Middle East.
I am not advocating in any way that we pull out of the Middle East. Personally, as much as I feel that Mr. Bush is way off base in almost every aspect of his presidency, he is correct in that something must be done to introduce some democratic leanings in the Middle East, an idea that has been front and center in several administrations before his.
I’m not proposing that we devolve into an Amish style of living;just that we recognize the fact that whoever controls the Middle East controls the future of the industrial world. We have time on our side and there is no reason to panic,but it seems to me we don’t fully appreciate how much of our life is underwritten by a declining resource.