KOSHER DELIGHT - YOUR JEWISH ONLINE MAGAZINE!
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KD MAGAZINE!
Posted:
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - ח' בתשרי,
תשס"ו |
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Did
you
know
that it took almost 40 years for the telephone to be accepted
into society as an everyday object? In fact the telephone was
invented in 1876, but didn't reach from one end of the USA to
the other until 1915 because there was little interest in the
instrument. Because people felt that the telephone would destroy
the warmth of face to face communication and they didn't take to
the invention, there was no real need to rush with the long
distance service.
The
automobile
wasn't
such a popular invention either in its time. It wasn't looked at
as a means of transportation - as we look at it today.
The car was viewed as a nuisance and an impractical toy of the
wealthy. People could not envision a car as the transportation
of the future; the horse was considered the most reliable
transportation around.
Looking
back
now
it seems quite foolish. While most of us feel we can't live
without these two inventions, it took time until they morphed
from an object of scorn to a much used and "can't live
without" item.
I
have been thinking
that
it's time for us to work on and accept a new invention - one of
an alternative form of energy. We have this strange love/hate
relationship with oil and the countries that have it.
We
are obsessed with oil; we can't live with it and we can't live
without it, yet for some reason the USA has not made finding an
alternative energy a priority so we can put the oil threat
behind us forever.
The
newest crisis
with
oil was the slowdown of production because of the hurricanes
that hit the South Eastern part of the USA. The aftermath has
caused prices to jump and sparked investigations of
price-gouging in many states. Why are we so bound to oil as our
main source of energy that we quake with fear each time there is
a calamity? What hold does the oil have on us that we are
sitting ducks for price gouging each time there is a
catastrophe? The price jump affects our travel patterns and
brings prices up everywhere.
Each
time
there
is a crisis of some sort - whether it's a major energy crisis
like we had in the 70's or the crisis we have now with the
hurricanes slowing down our productivity - people come up with
ideas of alternative energy supply to fuel our cars, however as
soon as the crisis of the moment is over we bury the idea of a
new energy source or put it on the back burner.
There
are
so
many sources of energy that have been explored over the years
and we still haven't made any of them attainable to the masses.
We explored cars powered by batteries and solar power and even
cars powered by water or propane gas. We have delved into other
types of energy, but in times of crisis we are still being
pushed around by the oil barons.
Even
when alternative
sources
of energy are discovered and perfected, such as solar panels for
heating water in homes, it is not used widely enough in the
parts of the country where the climate would allow benefit from
the breakthrough.
In
the last
200
years the USA has come so far through the ingenuity of its
citizens. We have made ‘birds' fly, built skyscrapers, sent
people, messages and pictures through space, but we can't find
an alternative energy that is attainable to all? My hope is that
one day we will be able to accept one of the new sources of
energy that are offered to us as a first choice, not an
alternative and that we will look back and ask ourselves,
"Why didn't we do that sooner?"
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more articles by Rabbi Hecht
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