After centuries of research, analysis, and technological
development, science has finally discovered the absolute center
of the universe, that point around which all of creation revolves. It’s
Fred Berner, editor of the Antigo Daily Journal.
The evidence: Fred’s “Bits and Pieces” article in the May 23 2009
ADJ. At the end of the article’s tedious trail of self-indulgent
wool-gathering we find Fred pontificating thus:
“I’m going to close this Bits on a fairly serious note.
“I honestly think as Americans, we are losing our freedoms, and
losing them quickly.
“A number of news articles earlier this weeks suggests that the
Obama administration is going to demand that automobile firms
put us in cars that average 35 miles per gallon.
“I’ve never owned a car that gets 35 miles per gallon.
“There are already massive taxes on cigarettes and bureaucrats
are already look at other “sins,” like alchohol and soda for sources
of revenue and reform.
“These crazy times worry me.
“Light and tiny cars that get 35 miles per gallon won’t work when
you must drive to work on a snowy morning. They simply won’t…
and I don’t believe that Al Gore or Barack Obama have the right to
order me out of my Jeep and into a roller skate with a lawnmower
engine and a case of batteries.
“As I recall history, it seems when the Mayflower floated toward
Plymouth Rock, the issue was freedom.
“I suggest we pause for a few moments and think about the real
American dream.”
End of quote…. Thanks, Fred. Wow. I really don’t know where to
start on this one. The Bits and Pieces come at you from all
directions, don’t they?
Skipping blithely over the loss of freedoms, which were actually
inflicted by the monarchical excesses of the Bush administration,
eight years of which Fred apparently missed, let’s look at the
assertion that the Obama administration has it in for Fred’s
personal gas-guzzling Jeep.
I HAVE owned cars that get over 35 miles miles per gallon. In fact,
since 2000 I’ve owned hybrid Honda Insights, which get upwards of
65 miles per gallon. I’ve put 200,000 miles on a couple of those,
which means I have consumed only 35% of the gas I would have
used had I been driving one of Fred’s Jeeps, saving some 7,000
gallons of gas in the process. Yeah, I gave up a little freedom,
“freedom to waste”, along the way, but I feel better, and richer, for
the sacrifice.
Contrary to Fred’s flat assertion, my little car DOES work on
snowy mornings. Also contrary to Berner-bluster, President
Obama and Al Gore are not going to pry Fred out of his cherished
Jeep. The American people are about to own 70% of General
Motors because the current managment drove the company into
the ground with their arrogant neglect of economic, social, and
environmental realities. While Fred may understandably empathize
with that management philosophy, it is the will of the people of
America, the new owners of GM, that smarter thinking shall prevail.
As I recall history, the Mayflower used wind, a renewable resource
with zero carbon footprint, to get to America, setting an appropriate
precedent of environmental responsibility for generations to come.
I suggest we pause for a few moments and think about what it will
really take to reclaim the American dream.
—-
I don’t know who you are but I like you. Thanks for calling out someone being so obtuse.
hahaha
I love you!
I read this also, and was flabbergasted. What must people and companies being recruited to our area think when they read such buffoonery.
Please, Fred…do not make Antigo and Langlade county people look like country bumpkins! There are educated and “green” individuals and businesses in our “little” area…WAKE UP!
It’s rather frightening to hear what the “voice ” of the area has to say…
..Albus, keep driving your car, and I will keep driving my American made Saturn which gets tremendous mileage and oh by the way……it works in blizzards, too!
And I have driven my little green machine up in Langlade County for almost NINE years…
I used to think it a bit odd, and somewhat of a shame, that the Antigo Daily Journal hardly ever ran editorials by ADJ editors and staff. However, I now think that the current abdication of community responsibility by most-often printing “guest editorials” and “what others are saying” from other newspapers is truly a blessing. It is depressing to imagine what irrelevant, misguided, uninformed, petty, arrogant, self-righteous drivel we would be subjected to if the ADJ actually published the distillation of its own alleged editorial thinking regularly on its Editorial Page. Perhaps we should be thankful for small blessings, wherever we can find them.
You know..I was thinking that very thing(about reprints from other newspapers in the editorial section) just a day or so ago..and was curious as to why this occurs.
I thought maybe there were not enough local letters or opinions to print, or that the letters that arrived were not deemed fit to print, or that the paper is trying to eliminate costs by not asking staff or editors to contribute…I could not figure it out…and not knowing how the ADJ is run, was not certain..but… you are right, at least we are treated to a broader and more nationwide perspective on currrent events, which is, indeed…. a good thing;)
Enjoy the rest of this gorgeous weekend!
The center of the universe is only in YOUR mind. We are loosing our freedoms daily. The government (Busch, Obama, or whomever) is way too far into our lives. Fred would know that because he has lived in Antigo many years. He remembers when we really had freedoms. I like to read Fred. he makes more sense than you do.
Jonathon, I would have to say the American voting public agrees with your belief that we were losing freedoms daily. That’s why they voted in November to change the direction of this country, hoping to regain what have lost.
I am, however, not so sure that Fred is a good example of a possible correlation between living someplace for a long time and becoming an expert on anything. It’s entirely possible, in fact very common, to witness and recite events without connecting the dots between actions and their consequences. That’s the reason for the lament, “Too soon old, and too late smart.”
Lets be honest here, we are not losing our freedoms because of Bush or Obama. We are losing them because of attornies and lawsuits. Just about every loss of freedom that we have encountered can probably be traced right to an attorney that sued somebody for something stupid that affected 1 person and now a whole country has to pay for it.
I drive a small compact Honda… it worked great last winter. What was Fred talking about?!