A Renewal of My Spirit: I have written many many letters over the past few years which have been printed in many publications and very often in my local newspaper. When they post it online bloggers may respond. Most who respond to letters (and I am not sure why) are less than progressive. Actually they are down right mean-spirited nasty often fanatical religious wing nuts. Their criticism used to upset me but after so many years one becomes slightly inured.

Today when I just happened to click on to my local letters page to simply peruse it I found this letter which appeared today, Sunday, April 3, 2011. If you do not mind I will humbly share it. It said:

I would like to thank a few people who have written for and to your paper for quite a few years.

The late and sorely missed Jack Rivers, Rick Holmes, present opinion editor, and two readers, Natalie Rosen and Nancy T. Lindsay.

They are the type of people who make me proud to be human.

RAY LESABE

I do not know who Mr. Lesabe is but you can be sure I thanked him. Compliments are always welcome as opposed to those who take particular joy in tearing one down. This letter from Mr. Lesabe comes at a particularly good time and I thanked him very much!

De ja vu all over again -- Drilling for oil in the Gulf: I link the New York Times article below entitled "BP Seeks to Resume Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico." The title of the article makes clear its content as it says "BP has asked United States regulators for permission to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, two company officials with direct knowledge of the application said on Sunday" and we know others have again gotten permission to do so. BP probably will as well too. My blog should appear in the NYT Blog soon. I said:

It is SICKENING to watch and ever so difficult to believe that no matter how horrific the disaster, no matter how poisonous the effects to our water, our land and our earth, no matter how toxic the foreign policy effects, no matter how many lives have been lost to the insatiable quest for wretchedly polluting and poisonous fuels, our president in whom I entrusted my life, my hope and my dreams continues to be anything but what I thought he was a mere two and one half years ago. 2008 may as well have been 2001 as our president's policies leave many from his base in SHOCK and utter disbelief.

What will it take? How many disasters, how many sickening and horrific oil spills, how much ruination to our balance of nature, how destructive to our beautiful earth, how many Japan disasters will it take to convince this unknowing, uncaring, somambulant populous that FOSSIL FUELS AND NUCLEAR POWER WILL ULTIMATELY KILL. Few care as they simply go back to their couch, their basketball games and burp from their beer staggering into bed after a cushy day doing nothing.

DO SOMETHING, AMERICA, WAKE UP. Either we or the generation that comes after us WILL pay this sickening price and our president who could have been great, bows down at the corporatist alter, eschews the ones who loved him and brought him to the dance so that he too can plunder the American public's lives and treasury, to stuff his own pockets with fame and the fortune that comes with being a corporate lackey.

Alas, he is NO different than those who came before and maybe worse because he promised to be so much better and we believed him. Shame on us we should NOT be fooled again! Speak OUT for things you know are true, that science TELLS us are true and do not let these corporatist jailers STEAL your lives before you have even lived them!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/business/energy-environment/04bp.html