Leo's Articles - The Writings and Ideas of Leo Crocker Rogers

Topic: Dailies

The Mississippi and We

Leo Crocker Rogers

Perceived Strategies

Picture this fictional situation. A town up stream of Alton, Ill has a levee that is holding back the Mississippi River. The town of 1,500 people spent a large portion of their civic income to build their levee some five feet higher than that needed to repel an equivalent flood of the 1993 surge. The town itself is in a flat plane area where hundreds of acres are near the normal level of the Mississippi River. Thus, if the levee broke, the river would flow not only into the town but all the farm land in the area, perhaps putting the crops of hundreds of acres one foot under water, a devastating situation if the water did not peculate rather quickly. The consideration is, if the town’s levee did break or it was intentionally breached, large amounts of water would be draw from the Mississippi river and the river would crest, down stream from the town, at much lower levels and the smaller levees of ten if not 20 or more towns of larger population down stream from the small town would be saved. And so the Mississippi River had its surge in 2008, and the down stream levees failed and continue to fail even today.

What to do? Is it even a consideration? Do we not know that all cities on the Mississippi have a connection to one another? We do. Should they work together? They should. Do they? Not really. What would prevent the flooding of so many towns along the Mississippi and other rivers? A plan?

And thus the world. It is indeed a difficult plan for those starving and those dying daily for lack of food and potable water even when there is enough food and the water is available. Should we all work together? We should. What prevents this prophylactic effort?

Or is there another story in play? Is it that those to be benefited would rather stand alone and not be dependent on others? Do people build along the Mississippi even though they know that the floods will come? They certainly do. Why? The land has great soil for growing plants. The land is cheep, and what people build is theirs.

"This is my town. This is my country, and while it is not as good as yours, it is mine." The power is of possession and independent ownership. Do citizens cry when the floods come and genocide waves over the population of the world? They do to a degree. Are they helped? They are, and that, my friends, is humanity – helping those who cannot help themselves or choose to place themselves in harms way just to be who they are.

Is it not a world of wonder? It is. Is it understood? We have not a clue. The decisions we make, others think are crazy, and we, their decisions. And yet we live with one another.

The Mississippi flows and the world turns. Life goes on, and the world is better today than it was yesterday. We may think it is not, but that is likely our perception because today we see the entire world via t.v., radio, and the internet whereas 40 years ago, all we saw was home plate which we dutifully swept and cared for.

"Beginning in 1998, seven countries in South America, over 300,000 of the continent's 370 million population, had voted for presidents who campaigned against foreign exploitation [aid]. Despite the proclamations by our [USA] press and politicians, the votes were not for communism, anarchy, or terrorism. They were for self-determination." (page 92 "The Secret History of the American Empire")

Today, the entire playing field is in our view, and it is a challenge to see so much. We are properly concerned. But the direction of understanding is clear: "The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." Ps 24:1

We never did have control even of home plate. It was just easier for us to clean when bad things happened.