What if the Mayans ARE right?

Link to Sacramento Bee, January 1, 2012 column

Letter to the editor, January 7

Economic enigma bigger than any Mayan mystery

Re "Can we realign our dark cloud?" (Forum, Jan. 1): Framed in the context of an ancient Mayan prediction for 2012, Stephanie Taylor ponders America's path forward.

But how does a country look forward absent consensus as to how we got to where we are? The causes of our economic debacle – despite incriminating evidence – have not been agreed upon, nor the best action to be taken. Finding a way out has, in part, been blocked by ubiquitous and deceptive symbols of extravagant wealth masking much of the current malaise, just as blue, sunny skies and images of pounding, frothy surf mask climate change and ocean pollution.

Has anyone fully captured the shock and helplessness of a stricken middle class, many of whom suffer in silence the pain and embarrassment usually reserved to the poorest among us? And in current circumstances few have the option to fall back on a contemplative life in dignified poverty.

America remains wrapped in an enigma far greater than any riddle from a Mayan calendar.

– Spencer P. Le Gate, Sacramento

Mr. Le Gate, thank you for your thoughtful response. Link to letters in Bee:

Post prior to publication of column on Jan. 1:

Just to contemplate possibilities:
        On a National Geographic special, a Princeton geologist explores the Mayan calendar and what it might have predicted. What happened 5,200 years ago in Peru? It was the end of the last era as predicted by the Mayans. The largest tropical icecap on earth may hold the answers. They're saying an abrupt ice event covered the area over a short period of time. They've carbon dated remaining plants to 5,200 years, all flash frozen and captured at once by the ice. Other paleo areas world wide have abrupt shifts in climate at the same time. Now we have 6.7 billion all over the world with a contemporary climate shift.
     Mayans predicted vast amounts of water. Humans may be fulfilling the prophecies.

Do I believe this? No. But ask me again a year from now.