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Drill, Baby, Drill: Obama Administration OKs Oil Drilling in Arctic off Alaska
WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department today gave the go-ahead for Shell Oil to begin drilling three exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea, a move that opens the door for production in a new region of the Arctic.
A Walrus sitting on melting ice, basks in the sun on the Chukchi Sea, between Alaska and Russia. (Photo: Greenpeace)
"This is progress," said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican
on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "Today's
announcement from the MMS is an encouraging sign that Alaska's oil and
natural gas resources can continue to play a major role in America's
energy security."
The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service signed off on a plan that allows Shell to drill up to three exploration wells during the July-to-October open-water drilling season. The company's proposal calls for using one drill ship, one ice management vessel, an ice-class anchor-handling vessel and oil spill response vessels, the Interior Department said. The closest proposed drill site is more than 60 miles to shore and about 80 miles from Wainwright.
"Our approval of Shell's plan is conditioned on close monitoring of Shell's activities to ensure that they are conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today in a statement announcing his decision. "These wells will allow the department to develop additional information and to evaluate the feasibility of future development in the Chukchi Sea.
Shell, Conoco Phillips and other companies last year paid more than $2 billion for leases in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska. The companies and state officials believe the offshore reserves could power the Alaska economy for decades.
But the potential offshore development is of concern to native Alaskans and environmentalists. Native groups along the northern coast worry the noise of offshore development could chase away bowhead whales and other subsistence foods. They, along with environmentalists, are concerned about the limited technology for cleaning up oil spills in icy water.
"Obviously we're disappointed," said Marilyn Heiman, the U.S. Arctic program director for the Pew Environment Group. "A spill could happen from an exploratory well just as easily as it could from a production well. They have not yet demonstrated they have the ability and the expertise to clean up an oil spill, especially in the darkness, the extreme weather and the icy conditions."
The Bush administration's five-year plan for oil and gas exploration off the U.S. coast is under review by the Obama administration. Salazar has held public hearings, including a meeting in April in Anchorage where then-Gov. Sarah Palin and her replacement, Sean Parnell, spoke in favor of offshore development. The agency is still considering whether to let the plan continue through 2012 or write a new one.
- Posted in
48 Comments so far
Show AllTen years development = six months of oil.
This is plain evidence that Peak Oil is closer and more dire than you think. This is a desperation move to keep American 'happy motoring' (as Jim Kuntsler calls it) going just a wee bit longer.
This region is home to some of the worst storms and wave action on the planet. Drilling ships and rigs *will* be smashed and massive oil spills *will* happen.
I guess this puts the 'Big Lie' to Obama's trip to Copenhagen, doesn't it?
It would appear as if the Obama Interior Department has decided to follow the example of the Russians and use retreating Arctic ice as an "opportunity" for off-shore oil drilling. Truly the wrong decision.
What can I say except "Boycott Shell."
I thought Obama was a Democrat. I guess I was mistaken.
Just wondering how we could have had 2 Republican candidates on the 2008 ticket.
smoke mirrors and a paul bunyan sized bull shit shovel!
No, Obama IS a Democrat, that's the problem. Those who voted for him thought he was progressive, that's the mistake.
Okay, I'm going to step in it here and get called an Obamabot (or something worse). I can just feel it. But, fools rush in...
The issue isn't whether Obama is a Democrat (he is), or whether he is progressive (apparently not), or whether the Democratic Party is progressive (the majority are clearly corporatists), or whether a third party would be better (I'm convinced it wouldn't). To my feeble mind, the question was, is, and will be: What are we, the people, going to do about it?
Remember when we voted for someone and got what we voted for? No, I don't either. That's because the system don't work that way. It's been ginned for those who pay the way, not for us. So, why do we keep banging on the same door that won't open. Hell, it isn't even the right door!
(Let me see if I can count this up...) For the two hundred and seventy fifth time - This is up to us! We need to do something other than voting then retching and complaining. It may feel good, but it isn't helping our kids' future. We need to work as individuals, blocs, groups, communities - however we can, to undermine this system, AND, create a better one. Working within this system is a fool's errand - it will lead nowhere. We need to pull the rug out from under this military-industrial Ponzi scheme in whatever way we can, AND, we need to work on creating a new society based on whatever we hold dear.
No specifics here. There are NO specifics. Don't trust anyone who claims to have THE answer because the answer lies in each action each of us decides to do. It is organic. What I am doing is getting people together to learn to live on less and to develop a local, alternative economy. We are forming a community based on the future, not on the calcified, dinosaur past. The past is killing us!
I'm interested in hearing what others are doing in their own lives and communities to deconstruct this MIC and what they are doing to replace it. Otherwise, it's just a lot of hot air.
I think the only answer, short of outright American Revolution II is establishment of a viable third party. At present the Green Party seems the most likely to succeed. The Republocrats are obvioulsy representative of the ruling class only. We can't seem to give them an adequate salary to support their coddled lifestyle, so, we need to find some qualified candidate (certainly in these days of lean living for the majority there is someone who would qualify) to get behind and rally to victory. We could even use the 2010 congressinal elections as a trial run.
i appreciate the values of the green party; they are very much my own. however, until senatorial, congressional, and presidential seats stop going to the highest bidder, i feel at a loss. on the other hand, i'm truly sick of hearing ppl say that the greens have no chance b/c they can't get enough votes. if ppl who like the greens all got active, campaigned for, raised grassroot funds for, and then voted for the greens, then maybe, just maybe we'd see more greens in power and, voila, a sustainable, just world. or maybe ted's got the right idea starting at the local, organic level. *or* maybe it's all part of the same beautiful puzzle.
Yes, it really is that simple. Vote third party or start fomenting revolution. I'm not sure why people don't get this. If you vote Dem/Repug, you always vote against your interests. The Dem/Repugs are funded by corporations and plutocrats and they vote accordingly.
-TIA
Dear Ted, I have been "in the depths of despair" about the state of our nation and world. Others who have read some of my comments lately have noticed. Your comment kicks arse. I hope you won't mind, but I am going to print it out in large font and plaster it like wallpaper in viewing area of my home office desk (and possibly as good and inspiring reading material for those spending time on the throne here in my simple abode). Words are power and your words in particular tonight have truly struck a chord in me. Thank you for having the courage to "step in it." You are not an Obamabot. You are an original creative thinker and change-maker of whom we need many, many more. Don't know where you live, but I wish you lived in my little city; we'll get there too I hope. We simply must now, mustn't we?! Oh, btw, the voting, retching, and complaining thing - it ain't so fun, not one single bit. Blessings, courage, and continued brilliant ideas and actions.
I think what you say has plenty of merit.
I think that Mike Gravel introduced what could be the answer. The National Initiative. We need to take power back from our representatives (that don't seem to do much to represent us anymore). PLEASE consider voting for this: http://www.vote.org
Oregon recently implemented a portion of what the National Initiative aims to do (having citizen based reviews of initiatives). The National Initiative seeks to improve upon the various initiative and referendum processes that many states currently employ.
Another thing that we might want to try and implement is more proportional representation similar to how the UK does it. They definitely seem to have more variety of parties representing them as well. But then, it seems like most other industrialized nations do have more variety of parties that are actually valid.
I've been giving the same practical answer since February 2008: study the candidates' voting records before casting your ballot.
If there's "not a dime's worth of difference," as Ralph Nader famously said in 2000, then mobilize, organize and vote third party.
On the other hand, if there is a significant difference, then consider voting for the Democrat.
In 2008, comparing the candidates' voting records was relatively easy since the big three -- Hillary, Obama and McCain -- were all in the Senate together for five years. Comparing the most important votes during that time, I found Hillary Clinton's voting record was surprisingly liberal, and Obama's voting record was closer to McCain's than to Hillary's.
Realizing the significance of that, I shared the details in these forums repeatedly.
Unfortunately, corporate media, stealth Republicans and Obama operatives were able to overwhelm that reality. They created the perception -- the opposite of the truth -- that Obama was the "progressive" and Hillary was the centrist. Obamabots here told me that Obama's campaign speeches were more important than his voting record?!! And, they used deceits and vulgar attacks to smear Hillary. (Even now, some of them are still laying the blame for every Obama policy at Hillary's feet.)
The lesson's from the 2008 election are:
1) Never take corporate media's spin at face value.
2) Never believe a candidate's campaign rhetoric, unless it is verified by his/her actual record.
3) Do your homework. Trust the voting records at Senate.gov, and not the smears of partisans posing as progressives on the Internet.
too true, tom. too true.
The above article says gov were paid more than 2 billion. I thought that sounded kind of vaguely off, so I went to find an article I read here on CD a year ago.The oil companies bidding secured $2.6 billion last year.
Here is a link to the earlier article for anyone interested. An op-ed by Rick Steiner, professor and conservation specialist at the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program in Anchorage.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/08/6938
If it was my land, I would demand a % of the oil revenue - in addition to a flat fee - wouldn't you? Oh that's right, guess it is my land..doh!
fwd:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund
Its the ruling oiligarchy - again.
Check the bank accounts of admin officials - elected and appointed.
But I could be wrong !
Focus, people, focus! All that you hold dear is hanging by a slender thread.
If the Brits can get it, why can't we? (See the video on www.huffpost.com of their massive demonstration over the weekend in support of climate sanity.)
See 350.org for what we need to be pressing our elected officials on.
Check algore.com daily for climate news via Environmental Health Network link.
For those of you who believe climate change is an act of God, don't expect insurance companies to reimburse you for what happens to your property from now on.
Maybe the Brits are closer to sanity?
We are a nation held together by a main stream media which defines us. Reinforcing what we would like to think of ourselves. Writers, painters, and composers as cultural definers are pretty much gone. It's all electronic and corporate today.
Work all day, come home, flip on the TV. And Wolf Blitzer will tell you all about the latest developments in the "American Family Saga." We will learn what Sarah Palin did that day. Unless, of course, something really important went on. Like, for example, the saga of the Balloon Boy. That can take up all our viewing time.
So we are quite a large country, thousands of square miles, thousands of miles coast to coast. With huge empty spaces. What gives us our sense of community? As a nation? Or conception of ourselves? That self-image is fueled, shaped, and described daily by profit driven corporations. We feed it, it feeds us.
Perhaps the Brits have their feet more firmly on the ground? Or at least more so than we do at this time, with our unwielding religious fantasies and notions of libertarian freedom? To name two.
Where's the DEM crash program drill to produce an electric car in every garage and solar film panels on every roof to power both our homes; create new jobs and allow the recall of our "heros" to ACTUALLY defend our HOMELAND?!
I try to be polite here, it may not seem that way to some, but I do try,
With that said
If you drive a car, truck or any other internal combustion vehicle, use a city bus you are part of the problem.
If we do not turn this around, and soon our world is lost, our children are lost and all that we know is lost.
Perhaps next time it will be bees that rise to the top of the system, well they would have except we poisoned them too
In September 2008, the Inspector General of the Interior Department released a report that implicated over a dozen officials of the MMS of unethical and criminal conduct in the performance of their duties. The report stated that MMS employees accepted gifts of sex and drugs from oil companies for royalties in kind. The NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html) states that these royalties, costing industry $10B/year, is the Govt's second-largest source of revenue after taxes. This culture of corruption within MMS existed largely during the Bush regime.
Yep, this is the same MMS that handed the permits to Shell..... during the Obama regime.
I guess we have decided that our grandchildren should not have even one drop of oil left for them. After all, don't we deserve to have everything?
jimmytwoshoes, I do hope you're being facetious. One drop of oil??? As one wise writer says below, "If we do not turn this around, and soon our world is lost, our children are lost and all that we know is lost."
Give me windmills, give me solar power. Who the hell needs oil?!
I keep asking this: What do you make the alt energy machines/technology out of? How do you extract, process, manufacture, and transport these technologies to market without using oil or gas?
Galen, You are very wise as I see from your comment below. Surely you can figure this one out.
Windmills can be done with old tech, using wood.
But solar (and almost every other alt energy system) is dependent upon modern tools and technologies for their very existence.
Maybe it is time to look back, instead of forward...
Ah, now see, that wasn't so hard....;) Not sure I entirely agree with you about solar, but, still, looking back is a very smart thing for all of us to do in the terms to which you refer. Living simply, building with our own two hands that which will sustain us and our world....
In terms to which Ted refers, "The past is killing us!" ie., the past of our political system (and the current system playing itself out) is a looking back of another kind altogether and it ain't pretty.
I'm a big believer in old tech.
A saying from Arabia: "My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet. My grandson will ride a camel."
Galenwainwright, assuming you asked a sincere question, here's a sincere answer:
Let's not confuse the issue, deliberately or otherwise. Sustainability is a simple concept - which is to ensure the survival and the thriving of life on earth - especially human life - which would automatically require the preservation of other species as well. (I agree human population needs to go down as well - but that's a separate issue, and I would prefer a natural decline.) So, a truly intelligent civilization would try to use what's available on a renewable basis - solar, wind, waves and so on. The non-renewable, finite sources of metals and fossil fuels should be used / or could be used to manufacture the machines that would make use of renewable energy. That's probably how humanity lived for the most part, until the last 250 years or so. If something is limited, we can still use it - but intelligently. Burning up fuel to drive up to the gym and running on a treadmill powered by electricity to "lose" weight which was gained in the first place by using too much fossil fuel (fertilizer used to grow grains fed to animals, slaughtered and transported great distances in refrigerated trucks powered again by fossil fuel) and then walking up to a vending machine to buy a refrigerated drink in a plastic bottle or an aluminum can...anyway you get the picture - is not intelligent. I'm not saying you are doing all these things. But similar wasteful spending of a finite resource is what is propping up this so-called civilization, and I can't accept that as an intelligent way of life.
So, use oil, coal or whatever - to "extract, process, manufacture, and transport these alt energy machines/technologies to market". In fact, the manufacture of renewable energy technologies (we no longer stop and think why they should be called "alternative energy" in the first place - they should be mainstream) should take priority. Like I said, sustainability is a simple concept. But I have a growing suspicion that there are powers behind the scene who understand exactly what's going on, and for them, you and me and a few more billion people are expendable, and all this debate will be moot. In fact, it may be the case that we are already living an illusion of having a choice in all these matters. Illusion or not, I don't want to accept that I have already lost my choice.
Alcyon, Extremely well-said. And as discouraged as I've been feeling lately, I'm with you, "Illusion or not, I don't want to accept that I have already lost my choice." Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite folk singer-songwriters (notice the line about "each one must choose"):
DANCING IN FRONT OF THE GUNS
Words and music by Libby Roderick
c Libby Roderick Music 1991
BMI. All rights reserved
From Thinking Like a Mountain
We're facing the guns again, we have faced them before
Humanity's longing after so many deaths
For something more human than war
But part of me whispers "Take your body and run away.
Leave the vision to somebody else," then I hear myself say,
I'd rather be dancing at the edge of my grave.
I'd rather be holding you close as we march forward loving and brave.
I'd rather be singing in the face of my fear.
I'd rather be dancing in front of the guns as long as I'm here.
Life is so dangerous that there's little to fear
Life is so possible, every breath a frontier
They've brought out the guns once again 'cuz they haven't a clue
That we could be dancing, the whole human race, each one must choose
And I'd rather be dancing at the edge of my grave...
To the drum of my heartbeat pounding up through my feet
With millions of lovers urging me on as we take to the streets
As we face the terror, if I leave here before my time
One thing's for certain, I'll go dancing and I'll go alive!
And I'd rather be dancing at the edge of my grave...
Wow...I've never heard this before (couldn't find on youtube either. I've listened to "How could anyone..." and I imagine "Dancing..." would sound just as great and moving...Update: well, I saw some sites where you can download the song for a dollar - hopefully legal :). Well, it's a reminder that we're not alone and change could still happen - for the better. My friends on facebook have been posting about the students' "occupation" of UC Davis (maybe also other universities)...it seems like some people have just about had enough...I just hope change happens peacefully.
Alcyon - THANK YOU!
You understood what I have been saying for more than three years on this site.
We can't keep going on as we have. And we can't trust the Corporations and political Elite to listen to anyone but each other.
So it's time to drop off grid and make our own way.
Wise Crone - Keep up the good fight. It's people like us who will be able to walk away when the Collapse really kicks in.
Good thing McCain/Palin wasn't elected, or were they?
-TIA
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Obysmal will do this, but where are the green jobs he promised? What is he doing to maintain America's R&D lead over enormous increases in green technology R&D spending by China? What is he proposing about using all the idle manufacturing capacity in the U.S. to make green products, goods and services? Greener mass transit, high speed bullet trains, electric cars, high-tech diesel/electric hybrids that already get over 100 mpg., electric recharging stations, wind turbines, solar arrays, more efficient HVAC equipment, more efficient solar water heaters, greener building and insulation products, geo-thermal power systems and related equipment---THE REST OF THE DEVELOPED WORLD IS LEAVING US IN THE DUST ON ALL THIS AND WILL SELL IT TO THE FEW REMAINING AMURKANS WHO CAN STILL AFFORD IT IN 10 YEARS OR LESS.
American entrepreneurs are having to go to places like Denmark to get enough government backing to create newer greener visions. There is an American company working with that government to create a nationwide chain of electric re-fueling stations for electric vehicles and all these electric re-charging stations will be powered by high-tech wind turbines. Government subsidies for the company and the electric car makers and the electric car buyers who will also get a break on urban parking costs for driving an electric. 20% of their grid is already renewable energy sourced.
Germany wants to see 30% of its electricity grid alternative energy-sourced by 2020 and has ALREADY MODERNIZED its grid to allow nationwide re-sales of surplus electricity produced by private landowners who use government subsidies to install wind and solar arrays on their property.
Japan and the EU are both planning immense wind farms in Africa to supply power to several other countries.
The biggest wind power project in Texas is being financed by Chinese banks and all the wind turbines are being built in China.
WHERE IS VISION AND POLITICAL WILLINGNESS LIKE THAT IN THE DIVIDED STATES OF AMURKA?? UP SENATOR JAMES M. INHOFE's FOSSIL FOOL ASS? OR STRUMMING RAHM "LOFTY" EMMANUEL'S "PRAGMATIC" MUSSOLINI-ESQUE TAINT LIKE JETHRO DE BODINE'S BANJO?
The U.S. patented most wind and solar technologies. Why isn't America dominating the international market in green products, goods, services and energy systems designed and built right here in the U.S.A.? We know these things aren't receiving major federal government subsidies as they are in our economic competitor nations. We know they aren't being financed by U.S. banks because they'd rather mainline tax-payer billions like heroin/meth speedballs while they masturbate over their billionaire betrayal bonuses and speculate on another derivatives bubble in the market.
I say I want a revolution and I have the plan.
And all these technologies will be made from... what?
I know I keep saying this over and over, but the techno-fetishist pie-in-the-sky 'we can invent our way out of this' wish is BULLSHIT!! Complete and utter BULLSHIT!
We will only use up our remaining resources faster by buying into these large scale attempts to preserve a way of life that is really a shambling zombie that is to damn stupid to fall over.
We need to down size. Radically.
Not only our technology, but our expectations of the life we want to lead.
No more trips to far off destinations.
No more exotic foods from far away.
No more plastic crap sold to us on TV.
No more goddamn 'happy motoring'.
No more air conditioned condo towers in deserts or near the tropics.
No more large scale agri-corp farms.
And cut back on the number of damn humans.
Live local. Live small. Live close to the ground.
And maybe you will live.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Gailenwainwright: You are smoking too much of your own doobage. Nowhere in my post did I say I was against downsizing, or pro-exotic food imports, or pro-jet setting, pro-cruise ships, or pro plastic crap sold to us on TV, or pro-wasteful motoring, or pro-large scale agri-corp farms, or pro-human over-population, or anti-organic farming. You are projecting too much.
The energy, transportation, heating and cooling systems I describe are superior to the current global paradigm and humans will try to satisfy those needs in some way. It had better be the greenest way possible relative to current population demands on the biosphere.
But the rub is in humanely cutting back on the number of humans and carrying out planned economic downsizing in a manner that avoids things like totalitarianism, starvation, food riots, clean water and energy riots, general social upheaval, breakdown and bloody armed balkanization. No form of capitalism or socialism of which I am aware has ever comprehensively addressed the problem of a planned economic "down-growth" commensurate with a planned population reduction.
Instead of assuming that I support things that I don't you need to come up with the nuts & bolts of how to achieve even the down-growth and population reductions you advocate (I've already previously posted mine and boy, are they sore), let alone how you are going to persuade people to give up ALL kinds of car technology (even electrics and hybrids), heating and air-conditioning. Tain't gwine-ta happen in the Deep South, I can tell you that for sure, unless Planet of the Apes ruled by Don Rickles as General Urko occurs spontaneously around the world when the Mayan calendar runs out in 2012.
America has too large a population now to suddenly revert overnight to a 18th century Jeffersonian agrarian ideal overnight.
Its people need jobs and economic hope. India couldn't do it under Ghandi, for all his admirable traits, and the US is pulling in the opposite direction back towards 1955 as hard and fast as it can regress.
General Urko! lol... ;)
Remember the Exxon Valdez.
Remember the oil industry never had a real oil-spill containment plan, but only a fake plan that served a PR purpose.
Remember that ocean oil spills can't be contained or cleaned up.
Remember the deaths of millions of fish, birds and other wildlife in and around Prince William Sound.
Remember the deaths and terminal illnesses of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of clean-up workers who sprayed toxic solvents on crude-soaked beaches in vain.
Remember the suicides, bankruptcies and broken families of the commercial fishermen in the town of Cordova, and the permanent destruction of their fisheries.
Remember the devastation of the subsistence life-style of Alaska natives around the Sound, the suicides, the alcoholism, the broken hearts.
Remember the arrogance and lies of Exxon executives, and their disdain for the lives of the people they destroyed, and for the Earth itself.
Remember the venal U.S. Supreme Court, which reduced the $5 billion punitive-damages jury award to less than $300 million, to be shared by 32,000 commercial fishermen and others who have lost more than $100 million in revenue each year for the past nineteen years.
Remember that Exxon is the richest corporation in the history of the world.
Now, Obama wants the Chukchi Sea and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to suffer the same fate as Prince William Sound.
The Bush Administration couldn't get it done, so Big Oil hired Obama, who is clothed more conveniently, as a "Democrat."
So true, and I believe they still haven't paid reparations and it's still in court...
Not in court. It's over. They got screwed out of their money and nineteen years of their lives ... those that are still alive.
STILL in court and neo con judges have knocked billions off the verdict!just like we knew they would.
and here's the funniest part of the equation after
they pump out the oil where does it get shipped?
everywhere but here mainly china so they can use
this to import cheap crap that stupid american
consumers will snap up to further the trade
deficit between the us and china! if we stopped
those oil companies from shipping that oil abroad
and it was sold here lessening our oil dependence
on the middle east plus not buying chinese junk
we would be in MUCH better shape then we presently
are.
So, another Obama policy disappointment. Environmentalists thought he would be on board to seek new alternative energy sources. Looks more like he's on board for the big oil corporate interests now. Change we can believe in - yeah right! Political expediency and opportunism are rapidly becoming his modus operandi.
Maybe I'm not up to speed. For many years Alaska oil could only be shipped to U.S. ports. Did that law change? I never heard about it.
And, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008. What court is still hearing the Exxon Valdez case?
I was born during the last "great depression" and grew up during the last war (WW-II) the United States fought for justifiable, or reasonably justifiable reasons.
We all had "Victory Gardens" in our back yards. We recycled everything. We raised food animals for our own and neighbor's use. Rabbit pelts were turned in to make linings for parkas for troops in the arctic areas. Nothing was wasted. Whatever you had, you repaired. If you had a lathe, you repaired broken pulleys by turning new ones out of wood. You learned how to repair your own radios, power tools if any, or learned how to work with hand tools.
Gasoline was strictly rationed, as were most foods, clothes, shoes, etc. We stayed home for the most part, or visited with our neighbors. Gasoline rations were mainly for those who worked in the defense industry. Dad was a machinist and worked at the old Boeing plant in Seattle. He worked the "graveyard" shift and his old 1920's Plymouth transported about six people to the plant and back every night.
We kids made our "pin money" by searching out pop bottles and turning them in (2 cents each if memory serves). Scrap drives were held and anything not usable was turned in.
It worked well. We suffered shortages, but no real hardships. We read, played games indoors and out, listened to the radio. Baseball, football, tag and tree climbing kept us fit.
It wasn't until a few years after the war that we turned into the trash it, throw it away, buy something new, run up bills society and it has been down hill ever since. Fits are thrown over getting the latest "Game Boy" attachments or programs. Clothes are discarded after being worn once or twice. Nobody knows how to use a needle and thread anymore. That is doubly bad when you look at the quality of the clothes that are being bought. Seams come apart after or during the first wearing. Everything shrinks two or three sizes after one washing, and usually the colors run.
People think we live in such a great society today, but the times I write about were actually great. They stimulated the "can do" spirit and challenged our ingenuity. We learned to live well on less.
So, that is just the opinion of an "old fart" who has felt we have been doing it wrong for the last fifty or sixty years and has seen nothing to prove him wrong.
Bravo minitrue! As a young boy growing up in post war Mayberry RFD I was fortunate to have experienced your America for a while, 1950's. At the age of 10 I shook hands with Roy Rogers as he rode Trigger, life was good and times were indeed great. But now at 60 I'm watching Obama, that once bright light on a dark horizon, constantly cave in to Corporate America and the Military Industrial Complex and I wonder if this Country, Mayberry, are gone forever.