Sean Meriwether's Blog: The Green Economist, page 6

One if by land…

NY Dispatch 9/19/2020: A flash fiction interlude. “One if by land…” is from a work in progress, Escape Velocity.

The boys sat side by side, legs hanging from the platform of the water tower. Feet suspended in air. Ryan mapped their shared points of contact; shoulder, thigh, knee.

“See that star?” Todd thrust his skinny finger skyward.

Ryan nodded, watched his friend’s lips silhouetted against the sleeping streets of Kingdom.

“Four million light years away.”

The weeds below them ru...

The Shoe Index

NY Dispatch 9/18/2020: Analysts often turn to unusual indicators to get a sense of consumer confidence. The Beige Book compiles anecdotal feedback from certain businesses to gauge market conditions and consumer appetites. The Big Mac Index compares burger prices from different regions to get a snapshot of food prices. The Lipstick Index works on the premise that people will invest in less expensive makeup rather than buy more expensive clothing. Let me add my own. The Shoe Index, which will trac...

Hope is a waking dream

NY Dispatch 9/17/2020: In Puccini’s opera Turandot, Prince Calaf falls in love with a beautiful but aloof princess. She has remained unmarried because her ancestor, Princess Lo-u-Ling, had reigned in peace before being raped and murdered by an invading prince. In order to deter suitors, Turandot forces interested princes to answer three riddles to win her hand. If they get them wrong they are beheaded in public. The prince takes up the challenge and answers the three questions correctly. He even...

Dear Undecided Voters

NY Dispatch 9/16/2020: With less than 50 days until the US presidential election, fewer if you can vote early, the country remains viciously divided along party lines. This election is likely to be determined by you, the undecided voter. If you happen to live in a swing state, say Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin, your vote might be the one to decide the future of our country.

You could choose to sit this one out, since you don’t like either. If so, your choice to no...

The Children’s Crusade

NY Dispatch 9/15/2020: On this day in 1963, four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite under the stairs at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was Sunday morning. The church had been a meeting place for civil rights activities, including organizing student activists, making it a target for white supremacists. The resulting explosion injured more than 14 people and killed four children, Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Dionne Wesley (14), Carole Rosanond Robertson (14)...

There’s no hearth like your own hearth

NY Dispatch Day 183: It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire. England colonized the world for centuries, imposing their culture, legal structure, and language on others. They once held India, Australia, Canada, and parts of Africa, the Caribbean and the Falkland Islands, among others. At one point their Empire spanned 24% of the planet’s habitable land mass, and they extracted wealth from other countries, enslaved the native populations, and filled their museums with the sp...

A Tale of Two Cities

NY Dispatch Day 182: After learning that my team was not expected to return to our office until sometime next year, and with a slight chance of rain in the forecast, I decided to drive to midtown and grab my remaining possessions. While I am not expected to return for now, my desk is one of the few that is open for others to occupy; I wanted to leave a clean slate. I found parking immediately after arriving, 100 feet from my building. A pleasant shock. As I’d witnessed in my previous visits,...

In the days that followed

NY Dispatch Day 181: Living through 9/11 and everything that followed in its wake was personally traumatic and indirectly influenced the direction of my life. However, as with all events, good things also came with the bad. It is as important to acknowledge the hurt as it is to embrace the positive. I dedicate the following to my husband, who is always reminding me of this.

Surviving a tragedy intact gave me a renewed appreciation for my life. I had not been killed or injured, nor did I know ...

Never Forget

NY Dispatch Day 180: Most people who were alive that day have their 9/11 story. I have never documented my firsthand account before, but it is a subject that always comes up, a few times a year. “Where were you?”

I lived in the West Village, across the street from St. Vincent’s Hospital, walking distance from the World Trade Center. I passed it nearly every weekend when I walked for exercise along the West Side Highway. The twin towers were visible from almost anywhere in the city. I often us...

Dear Gen Z

NY Dispatch Day 179: If you needed another motivation to vote Biden/Harris this November, look no further than the list of potential Supreme Court nominees. The list leans heavily on conservative politicians, including Republicans Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, both of whom are rabidly loyal to the president, not the country they were elected to serve. Conservative voters may hold their nose and reelect 45 primarily because his administration may add not one, but two judges to the Supreme Court. They ...