Being selfish and doing good
I was watching a story about the demise of incandescent light bulbs on the nightly news recently when my oldest son walked into the room. On screen, a Texas Republican congressman (I don’t remember which one, but they have become pretty much interchangeable lately) was speaking on the House floor, decrying the “do good” Federal government for telling people what sort of light bulbs they should be using.
My son, in his boil it down quickly mode, asked “when did it become a bad thing to do good”? OK – you folks out there, when did doing good become bad? When did saving electricity, burning less gasoline or recycling more waste become not goals that we should aspire to, not the least we can do to be good members of society, but instead attacks on our personal liberties (as defined by the TEA Partiers)?
The story went on to interview people who oppose the mandate. Of course Michelle Bachmann was in there, as usual looking like her shoes were just a little too tight as she whined on about this liberal attack on freedom. Let’s ignore the fact that the bill to eliminate incandescent bulbs was signed by George W. Bush. Then there were the two unhappy consumers, complaining that the new lights did not come on fast enough, and that they did not like the color of the light from the new bulbs. Now let’s ignore the “fast on” feature and more natural light spectrum available in the new generation of lights. These consumers were stocking up so that when only the energy saving (fluorescent and LED) lights were available, they could continue to burn more wattage the old fashioned way.
In December, NPR ran a story on how dishes may look less sparkly coming out of dishwashers because phosphates had now been eliminated from dishwasher detergents. The reason for the change is that phosphates dramatically increase algae growth when released into waterways. Consumers interviewed for the story were not concerned with the environmental damage phosphates were causing; they wanted cleaner looking dishes. One went so far as to buy trisodium phosphate at a hardware store to mix into her detergent. We all have our priorities, don’t we?
What have we become? When did we lose our obligation as citizens to try to work for a better community? When did selfishness and perceived personal comfort (in both cases there is no real “damage” in doing the right thing) become more important than society and the world around us? One popular bumper sticker around Alabama proclaims “Freedom Isn’t Free”. No, it isn’t, so shouldn’t our obligation extend further than our car bumpers?
What have you done lately to make the United States of America a better place lately? We ask our troops to risk the ultimate sacrifice. We now ask our teachers, firefighters and policemen to sacrifice part of their middle class pay so that we don’t have to pay more taxes (more on this in another posting). Republicans in Congress are asking poor kids and pregnant women to sacrifice their food assistance because we have to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy (this will be another stand alone posting).
Should society have to suffer the effects of more coal burning power plants and algae clogged waterways simply because I think it might be inconvenient to change? So is it really too much to ask of me, as I sit here in my comfort, to change my light bulbs and dishwashing detergent?
Finally, one of the critics of changing to compact fluorescent lights also pointed out that the bulbs contain mercury, and that if a bulb were to break, her family might get mercury poisoning. Yes, the bulbs do contain mercury, and when they burn out, should be disposed of properly. When asked about this one expert on the bulbs explained that the amount of mercury in the bulbs is minor, and the only way that you could get mercury poisoning from the bulbs was direct ingestion.
So to critics of compact fluorescent lights, to those who worry about the health issues associated, I have one bit of advice. Don’t eat the light bulbs!
