Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 9

Posted on March 24, 2008

WARNING:

I guarantee my reflections and refractions will create controversy and confrontation; and quite likely I'll step on many toes, but it's time to be brutally honest. So, if you are thin-skinned proceed accordingly--take your hand off the mouse and back away from the computer.

What's The NRA Got To Do With It? Part 1 of 2

Regular R & R readers recognize my slogan: The Solution To Light Pollution. But some readers complain I don't offer enough solutions that work. Fair enough. But there's no single solution such as: "Do this and VOILA! no more light pollution!" Well, OK, there is such a solution, but it's the sudden extinction of the human species! So, who wants to be first?

Further, someone has to stir the stew to keep the scum off the top. So, I guess I've become a scum skimmer like ol' Edward Abbey! My real purpose here is to push, pull, prod, punch, and pummel astronomers into fighting light pollution aggressively, committing to the phrase: No Excuses! No Compromises! No Exceptions! (NENCNE).

I hope my in-your-face R & R make you angry enough to solidify your commitment and fight the SOBs (Satans of Brightness). I'm like that teacher or coach you had in high school or college who yanked your chain, impelling you to action, motivating you to higher levels of performance. And, as you've surely (but don't call me Shirley, cuz it just makes me laugh!) noticed by now, I don't mind poking sticks in the cages of the other team...You know who I mean!

Many astronomers have expressed their rage over light pollution, but I still see very little action. Some astronomers report that my R & R reminds them of the line in the 1976 film NETWORK--"I'm as mad as Hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" NETWORK. After watching the clip of the scene reflect on how well it seems perfectly suitable to the present day situation in which we live!

Now let me stir a little more stew. Let me call an "all aboard" to board the train, to poke a stick in your cage, so to speak. Here are a few thoughts for you to chew on. Maybe they'll set off a cascade of original ideas in your own minds.

You've heard the recent reports of campus shootings and mall murders; but have you been paying attention to the dustup now playing in the Supreme Court? By this summer, the Supremes will decide how we interpret the 2nd Amendment. Anyone want to guess how they'll rule?

SO WHAT'S THE NRA GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Speaking of the Second (Sacred?) Amendment: the NRA (National Rifle Association) has a vast national network of millions of members who focus their concentrated efforts on any given local, regional, or national gun issue. Have you ever paid any attention to how they operate, to why they are so successful? What the NRA has to do with it is the essence of this long, two part R & R.

Here we go: let's say a local gun control measure pops up in...Iowa. Within minutes, the NRA's supersensitive seismograph records the tremors far away in their Fairfax, Virginia, headquarters, and immediately, an alert is sent to every member in the network demanding action. Instantly, an avalanche of hundreds of thousands of e-mails, letters and phone calls falls upon the dissidents foolish enough to resist the NRA! Don't the dissidents know: "Resistance is futile!"

Meanwhile, the NRA's public relations arm makes sure the whole country hears about the conflict--from the NRA's perspective.

Wouldn't it be great if astronomers had such a tight-knit, passionate, full-speed-ahead organization, one always prepared to zap light pollution with a barrage of activists' actions! In short, what astronomers really need is some REAL NRA-type shock and awe!

ASTRONOMERS NEED TO STEAL THE NRA PLAYBOOK!

But you'd better "holster up" before trying to steal anything from the NRA!

Politicians pay attention to the NRA's organized, uncompromising and determined network of take-no-prisoner activists. We're talkin' four million members here, from all 50 states, seriously swinging into action in every nook and cranny of the country, supporting the believers and intimidating the disbelievers!

Now, why didn't the IDeAs, other astronomers and the glossy astronomy magazines think of this years ago? Must I Do Everything? MIDE? R and R Number 2.

TWO STEP EXPLANATION:

STEP 1: Forget the obsolete, outdated, and fossilized IDeAs! YOU, personally, can create an elite, nationwide, strike force of uncompromising dark sky activists dedicated to eliminating light pollution (NENCNE!). For lack of another name I'll call the force the Dark Sky Insurgents. If you've got a better name, please e-mail it to me.

With the aid and backing of this rapid deployment Dark Sky Insurgent force, even a small group of local dark sky activists will look like thousands of dark sky fighters demanding nothing less than the elimination of light pollution and restoration of their once dark skies! These dark sky commandos need to look more like a globular star cluster, than an open star cluster.

Dark Sky Insurgents members must confront the SOBs as smaller prey often face larger predators, making ourselves appear bigger and more numerous than we really are, baring our teeth and claws, speaking with authority (I use my big, deep strong full throated "teacher" voice, not my much quieter, friendlier, daily conversational voice) and believing we represent thousands of angry astronomers surrounding the light pollution predator. In short, we must look like the customers in the Verizon cell phone commercials surrounded by "the network!"

The Dark Sky Insurgents must be trained to launch a supportive attack from a distance OR more appropriately, go anywhere, anytime, providing a personal, on-the-ground presence. We must be trained in strategic planning, be prepared with arguments, reasons, emotional energy, passion, etc., all to fight aggressively and to win, in every crack n' crevice in America! The Dark Sky Insurgents must NOT be timid and shy, afraid of hand-to-hand combat; we must welcome in-your-face, confrontational, controversial, defiant, provocative direct action if necessary! For obvious reasons, the Dark Sky Insurgents will NOT be composed of typical IDeAs members.

STEP 2: Focus on America, not the world! Link the Dark Sky Insurgents together via e-mail and phone so we can be in constant contact with each other. Astronomers need to support one another like the NRA in a very forceful and aggressive way. NO ONE should have to fight light pollution alone, especially in small, isolated towns. There should be at least a dozen dark sky activists from each state comprising the Dark Sky Insurgents. Too many times, isolated astronomers are left to sink or swim themselves, and too often, they succumb to predators--the SOBs. No wonder solitary astronomers often give up on astronomy and astronomers, while the dark sky orgs fiddle about trying to recruit more members, collect more money and pass more laws and ordinances that don't and won't ever work.

THE DARK SKY INSURGENTS AT WORK:

EXAMPLE: It's 10 AM Tuesday morning. A solitary astronomer living somewhere in America calls the "headquarters" of the Dark Sky Insurgents. She's already made a street map of the community (population 40,000 people) showing all the major lights: business lights, streetlights, etc. She's already plotted and photographed examples of the good lights, the bad lights and the just plain ugly lights! Her map shows the worst offenders--mostly business lights-- in her community. She's created an attack strategy, plotted it on her light map and contacted a few trustworthy local people willing to get involved and help in her quest for dark skies. She knows that going up against the Powers That Be (PTB) alone is a suicide mission. She knows that the PTB are mostly composed of the SOBs (Satans...), R and R Number 3. Her call to the Dark Sky Insurgents sets into motion a whole playbook full of actions by hundreds of other astronomers, many of whom have already fought the fight and know exactly what to do to guarantee success. Insurgents travel to her location to speak with authority and act for thousands (millions?) of other astronomers, stargazers and just plain folk nationwide. Meetings are held, local astronomers are trained, the Dark Sky Insurgents and local people go public, etc. I could continue, but must I do everything? MIDE? R and R Number 2.

Now, doesn't that sound better than contacting the IDeAs and receiving a packet of poop on light pollution with the same old "generic" light control model law / ordinance?

Now imagine the NRA handling the same kind of situation, confronting gun-control advocates instead of astronomers fighting light pollution. A fatal shooting of an innocent person occurs somewhere in the US of A. Within moments the nationwide NRA "body" unholsters its weapons and attacks, using the corporate media to target gun-control promoters with powerful public relations attacks designed to spin the situation to their advantage.

NRA members from the surrounding area swarm to the incident site and spread the NRA message locally, while other members trained to do other tasks arrive. And from everywhere else in the country the gun lobby chants its uncompromising First Commandment:

"ARM EVERYONE!" "ARM EVERYONE!" "ARM EVERYONE!"

Arming everyone may be the NRA's one-note solution, but by golly, it seems to work as gun ownership keeps growing! Perhaps astronomers need an uncompromising First Commandment that our Dark Sky Insurgents and all astronomers nationwide can chant in unison:

"LIGHTS OUT!" "LIGHTS OUT!" "LIGHTS OUT!"

JOIN THE DISCUSSION with your own reflections and refractions. Just click on my e-mail address below and have at it! I will not sell or give your e-mail address to anyone. Your reflections and refractions will be placed under the link to the left labeled "Fan Mail - Hate Mail." I may edit comments I place there, but I will be careful to retain your words wherever possible.

NO EXCUSES! NO EXCEPTIONS! NO COMPROMISES!