Severe Weather Alert

Sirens in the Night

“Fanatics in power and the funnel of a tornado have this in common—the narrow path in which they move is marked by violence and destruction.”

                                  Oscar Ostlund

         I was awakened at three a.m. by sirens. I turned on the light and fumbled my way to the TV. There, once again, was the angry red and purple swath of severe weather bearing down on poor, old devastated Tuscaloosa, and headed our way. Without protest, I gathered my bedding, a flashlight, my cell phone and the dogs and headed for the basement. In years past, I would have put the covers over my head and gone back to sleep, but last April put the fear of God, so to speak, in me. Now, I don’t second guess tornadoes. We, here in Alabama know first hand, just how unbelievably devastating they can be.

         I lay in bed thinking about weather and the general ‘climate’ of the of the world at this time. I remembered hearing the Secretary-General of the United Nations just last week telling the assembly that the time for unitary rule by dictators is over. I hope he’s correct, but I suspect that the time for fanatics is not over just yet. Any time there is a potential leap forward in human consciousness, those whose power is threatened clamp down and redouble their efforts to stop that movement. But consciousness flows in only one direction— toward more openness and freedom.

         Even the Inquisition could not stop the Renaissance, and fanatics will not stop the dreams and desires of people for self-determination. The problem for Americans is that we tend to think that these violent uprisings happen in other places, but not here. The day we allow either the fanatic right, or the fanatic left, to gain control of this country, we will see that we, too, are susceptible to the backward pull of despots. I’ll take a good old tornado over that any day.

                                  In the flow and the flood!

                                  Jane