Another Compelling Reason for Obama

So Romney wants to talk coal!  While we wait for new post-second-debate polls, let's take a look at coal.

Let's go to an auction!  It's at a "modest home" (in mediaspeak this means poverty) in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about fifteen years ago.  The poor old lady who has just died and left her possessions to the mercies of an auction has lost the battle against coal dust.

It covers everything at the auction sale.  It coats the house inside and out. It coats the neighborhood,  which is right next to the coal-burning Pennsylvania Railroad yards of yesteryear.  It undoubtedly coated the lungs of the poor little old lady who has lived here and died here.

It is disgusting.

But it is also a grave warning.  Specifically, it is a warning of the early grave that awaits those who mine coal: black lung disease.  And those who use it.  And  -  most of all  - it warns of the grave of the entire planet if coal-burning is allowed to continue unabated to increase global warming.

So who has the muscle to fight this scourge of cheap but deadly fuel?  The so-called "least of our brothers" (and sisters),  the Native Americans, and the president of the United States.  Right now fifty of the tribes of the Northwest are fighting the building of coal export facilities all along the beautiful Northwest coast.  Coal use in the USA is  -  thankfully  -  dropping precipitously.  But there's still the Asian market.

Fortunately, the Native American tribes of the Northwest have some pretty cool treaties which focus on the protection of the tribes' right to fish.  These treaty rights have been increasingly protected by the federal courts and now offer the best shot at banning the proliferation of coal transport and the scarring of our magnificent Northwest coast with coal shipping facilities.  The facilities would not only ruin the scenic calibre of the coast but also the fish population.

Now enter the villains.  The coal industry is spending millions and millions against Obama's re-election in hopes of getting a coal-friendly federal decision on the Northwest coast facilities.  Romney has repeatedly promised he will be coal-friendly.  You get the picture.

So this election is not just about the joy of beating the GOP and Karl Rove and the likes of Romney and Ryan.  It's about saving ourselves and the planet.  Those are very high stakes.  They couldn't be higher.  

It's also about our national treasure:  the magnificent Northwest Coast.

And it's about our Native American brothers and sisters.

Haven't they suffered enough from all we have done?  Why should they have paid the price for our great America coming into existence with its liberty and freedom for all if they are to get nothing from history's great experiment except the driest crust?  If that.

Obama has done more for the Native Americans and for justice toward them than all prior presidents put together, as I've noted in earlier blogs.  There was no political gain for him in doing so.  He did it because it was morally right.

Let us now help him and thereby help the Native Americans and ourselves.  Let us now literally save the world by helping stop the proliferation of deadly coal.  Let's fight back against the coal conglomerate with our dollars and our efforts by helping Obama.

Can we save the world by helping Obama?  Yes we can.

We are the ones.  There's nobody else.

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Well, Romney, so you're taking campaign money from the coal industry.  And do you and Bain own some coal interests?  Is that what your tax returns would show?  Hmmm?