Blogging, like other forms of communication, not related to face to face exchanges, has a tendency to wither your sense of perspective. The blogger, and in this case me, could be swayed by the very dribble I pronounce, not that, that would ever happen, but it is a possibility. Blogging like logging requires a singleness in motivation.
Loggers see trees. They see big trees and little trees, diseased and healthy trees. They see trees of all kinds. But primarily they see trees that are on their list to be cut and hewn down, processed and shipped to homeowners like me, a simple blogger.
If I were a logger and not a blogger, I would enjoy the outdoors, the smell of the great pines and various hardwoods that are grown to be cut down. I would enjoy driving and bouncing on the rudimentary logging roads that snake through the backwoods and rural areas of America. My life would be fairly simple in that my goal each day would be to check my saw, make sure it was filled with oil, check my chain to make sure it was up to the task and start cutting. I’m sure there is more to it than that but I am not a logger, I’m a blogger.
As a blogger, I also enjoy the outdoors but while I’m blogging I am mostly indoors, wishing I could roam the great outdoors and smell the pines and various hardwoods, but alas, there are only a few trees in my neck of the woods, actually no woods at all really only urban sprawl. I also enjoy snaking through the back roads of Wine country (yes we have a place called Wine country) but we have no logging roads only rabbit trails and their much too small to safely drive my Mercedes.
The real differences between a blogger and a logger are, they have the ability to thin the forest by actually cutting down those trees that need to be cut. As a blogger I can only hope that my words cut deep into the souls of men, helping them see the errors of their ways. Loggers are able to see the results of their work at the end of each day. Bloggers have to judge their effectiveness by the number of comments and readers generated, with no real discernable gauge of success.
One of the past issues with logging was their willingness to clear an entire mountainside, leaving nothing behind but forgotten stumps where the trees used to be. This process of clear cutting has been mostly replaced with select cutting, where the loggers chose select trees to cut leaving about a third of the crop (yes it is a crop) alone to continue growing. This process takes longer, is more costly and requires more time, raising the cost of lumber but environmentally it is preferable. It also required more thought and more planning, with less waste and better wood supposedly. But the last time I was was at large Box store all I noticed was marginal quality for a high price.
It’s too bad we cannot select cut our politicians. Even better perhaps would be an ability to select cut the thousands upon thousands of bureaucrats that have been in place since the Clinton years. These career politicians are not elected but because of their ideology, they create difficulties for the politicians, who are elected and accountable.
Some would quantify these bureaucratic employees as working within a shadow government, still keenly devoted to past leaders, with no real intent to follow the admonitions of the new leader. “President Donald Trump dismissed acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday night after she ordered government lawyers not to defend his executive order on refugees.” http://www.infowars.com/
An order that I wish to mention was 100% constitutional and legal.
Whether you agree or not, is not a consideration. Yates was Trumps acting Attorney General and had the obligation to perform her duties or to quit, not to countermand the orders given by the President. You may say that what she did was right and courageous but that was not a choice she should have made. Her only choice was to quit or obey. After quitting she could have held a press conference or done a number of things to show her displeasure but she was obligated, by virtue of her role in the government to do as she was instructed.
It would be like a logger choosing not to cut down the selected trees because he or she (don't want to offend those that are easily offended by sexual innuendo) had recently decided to become an environmentalist and activist. Sure he/she could easily not do as he/she was told but he/she would be fired, as Yates was because she had told her employees not to follow the rules set by her boss, the President, that is anarchy.
Merriam-Webster defines Anarchy as a: absence of government b: a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority c: a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government. (good luck on that last one)
What kind of government would we have if all our shadow leaders did as Yates did? The impending chaos would literally destroy the rule of law. Good or bad laws are designed for our benefit. I am the first to admit that many of our laws are counterproductive with some that are downright destructive to economic growth, health, and free enterprise, I will also admit that there needs to be a balance between the many voices that proclaim whatever they want to proclaim.
In the old days, there used to be individual loggers, there were no bloggers, except for the tavern storytellers, spinning a yarn or two for a free drink or food. These loggers were on their own, quietly moving into the forest and cutting a tree or two to build a house or a fence. Logging was, mostly an individual endeavor. As society grew so did the demand for wood and wood products and so did the need for laws for those loggers.
We need laws, not all of them, however. We need rules and we need people who define those rules. We need government, not all of it, however. We need people who define that government and who can be trusted to do as they are told to do.
Whether you're a logger or a blogger, we all live together and togetherness demands that we accept and live by certain laws. If you don’t like the rules, you're welcome to change them but only within the rules that have been outlined to do so.
Follow and Share Please, you don't even have to be a blogger or a logger to do so...
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