Jackson Free Press

As I sat and watched Fox News a few Sundays back, I had a moment of clarity.

For all of the debate we have going back and forth about the war in Iraq, for all the talk of homeland security, for all the warning that the enemy will bring the fight to our shores, all of it pales in comparison to the wrath of God and the fury of nature.

As a child, I often marveled at the images of tornadoes on TV. I confess that I'm a closet weather junkie who one day hopes to see a twister up close and live to tell the tale. But if you're one of those who have yet to give nature its props for the awesome power it can release, you're crazy! Whether it was the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, an F-4 tornado in Kansas, a tsunami in Indonesia or an earthquake in Mexico, the lives of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people can be changed in an instant.

I watched in awe as the folks in Greensburg, Kan., saw their entire town decimated by a deadly tornado. The storm destroyed over 95 percent of the town. Ninety-five percent! A town of 1,500, that took decades to build, completely wiped from existence in mere seconds. Those folks will have to rebuild their lives from nothing. The kids have no school. Men and women have no jobs. All because of a calamity that they, as human beings, have no control over.

Imagine that. For all our "smarts," all our arrogance, all our modern advances, do you realize that our world could be ended tomorrow? Not by war, but by natural disaster. That's why I find it ridiculous that some folks mock Al Gore and his efforts to bring more attention to the environment. Sure, he may be fanatical at times. He may even be a little hypocritical when it comes to his own personal practices. But in my opinion, it's good, common sense to be aware of what we're doing to this big green ball we call Earth.

Ours is a culture of excess. I, like many others, conduct everyday life as if Earth produces things in infinite supply. We take for granted the fact that we may slowly be eating away at our resources. It's OK as long as tragedies like Katrina or the Kansas tornadoes happen to someone else. As long as my house isn't flooded, or blown away, or ripped apart by a quake, it really doesn't matter. But it does. And it's high time that even the most uninformed layperson start asking questions about our environment and the atmosphere around.

The hurricanes are coming with more frequency, the tornadoes are getting stronger, and the oceans are rising higher. Let's not be fanatical, but let's not be stupid, either. God is telling us something: Take care of Earth, your home. Those folks in Kansas wish they had homes still to take care of. And that's the truth ... sho-nuff.