At the edge of reason 3/25

I saw an eagle soaring in the air above the Lowe's parking lot. There used to be a woody meadow full of creatures there. Now there is a big ugly parking lot and a bunch of cheap crap from China. Like the Walmart of home building. I wondered if the eagle had been there before looking for a mouse or other prey. Did he know where he was? Was he shocked because it is now a concrete jungle instead of a natural habitat?

Every time you give your zipcode to one of those checkers in one of those megamarts you contribute to the destruction of natural areas. They come in with their bulldozers during prime nesting and birthing season and they kill everything in their path. They terraform an acre or ten. Make it flat. Give it unnatural draining, pollute the neighboring undeveloped areas and provide yet another store full of substandard merchandise in individual little plastic wraps, that also pollute the earth by not being biodegradable and are either burned releasing heavy polimers into the aire or are thrown in the garbage collection system to sit forever in a landfill that will never break down into usefull matter in our lifetime or even the lifetime of humanity on the planet.

I always tell my checker, no thankyou. And then I wait while the poor employee has to think what to do next to override my rebellious refusal. Last time they told me I would not be able to return the merchandise without it. Is that blackmail? Are you extorting my zipcode? Next you'll want my social security number and credit rating. I don't think so.

What is it about Americans that make them think that every zipcode needs Costco, Home Depot, Walmart and an Albertson's? Now that we have our little commercial corner in our neighborhood we get to stop at three stoplights to get to the road to our house. I just want to go home. I want to see the natural world in my corners. I just want them all to move back into town and I'll go to them if I need them.

What will happen to all the destroyed meadows when the megastores don't make the expected 3% growth in sales per year and then they close? Will they restore the destroyed habitat? Bring back the little birdies they slaughtered all on that beautiful spring day; the traumatized parent birds flying about trying to find their nests in trees that no longer stand in the meadow.
It all makes me pretty sick. Makes me wish someone would just listen to the voice of reason and quit mowing down America and think about the future.

Do I stand alone on the edge of reason looking in at madness.