by Ken King

It took me a while to figure out what it is I would write about this month as I enter my second year contributing to SOMD.com. I've had quite a few things that have stirred me up enough to write about. There is an obvious volume of thoughts that can be expressed about the upcoming election and the candidates. I could spend a lot of time talking about the Redskins and how they don't look like they should cost what they do. I spent a day working on a car after I spent several days acquiring parts for it that was more frustrating than it should have to be, I could give you an ear full on that. I could even plug the upcoming fair, but I won't as I finally found a topic that jumped all over my thoughts. What I was able to narrow it down to is about a little creature called Alba. I learned about Alba while watching the news the other night. This news item shocked me to the core and if you saw it too I am sure that it stirred most of you also and I hope that you realize the potential for disaster that could come from what some are considering "art". It seems that Eduardo Kac commissioned French scientists to create the GFP Bunny (GFP = Green Fluorescent Protein) in what he calls transgenic art. What this entailed was the splicing of genes from an albino rabbit and fluorescent jellyfish to create a unique creature. The resulting rabbit when viewed underneath a special blue lamp produces a lime green neon rabbit that appears to be glowing. For those interested in seeing what it looks like go to http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html.

What are these jerks doing and where will it end? Have they given no thought to what this kind of perversion can lead to? While routinely I am in favor of scientific advances this, in my mind, has overstepped the bounds of decent behavior and should be halted. The rabbit should be destroyed and the United States should make it clear that genetic engineering of this nature is taboo. It should be pressed through the World Court to make it illegal everywhere on the planet. Those that have been attempting it should be enjoined from continuing and barred by the scientific establishments of the world.

Next in the name of art I guess we will have actors and actresses glowing on the stages of the world. Maybe a multi-headed character to revive the mythological stories of old. We could even have half-human half-animal creatures playing villains (or heroes) in some of the shows. In the name of "art" what will these so-called scientists do? More importantly what can we do to protect ourselves from their sick vision? 

Let's take it further and give this knowledge to some of our more sinister leaders around the planet and maybe they will cross frogs with men and develop a military weapon that could enter into almost any country with a watery boundary without being detected to cause all sorts of havoc and misery. Because by combining the right genes we now have a truly amphibious humanoid. Maybe by mixing human and animal genes we can develop a creature that can destroy us all and impact our environment in many unimaginable ways. I am sure you can imagine as many, if not more, devious combinations that could be of benefit to some lunatic trying to dominate his country, region or world.

How will old Mother Nature react to these abominations created by the supposedly intelligent beings occupying this world? Will she shudder and shake these creatures (and all else) from the surface? Will her volcanoes rumble and erupt to clean these deviations from existence taking all other life forms with them? Will she do nothing and allow the new creations to become entrenched in the environment and slowly assimilating all into some new and deviant genetic mix? Who knows, but is the risk worth the minor artistic value that this man envisions? I, for one, say no and I will write my elected officials with a strong outcry against any further experimentation of this nature. Bottom line, "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature" and we as a race of beings need to ensure that it doesn't continue on this path.