Singleton painted grim picture of our future nearly 30 years ago

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Are we near the end of eternal circle?” was originally published in the Feb. 22, 1990 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

Man has come a long way in the many thousands of years that he has been on this planet. Whether you believe the theory of evolution or have faith in Creation, man has covered a great distance on this old planet we call earth.

But what is in store for our society of today? Will the world continue to grow more prosperous and will we continue on our upward trend or will we start our downward journey toward a world filled with pollution and death? I believe the time of decision is closer than we think.

As you read the newspapers and watch the world news on television, you hear more and more about the destruction of the ozone layers above us. We notice that if we continue in our present life patterns, we are doomed to suffer greatly from this form of atmospheric pollution.

Skin cancer widespread

We are told that within a few short years over 85 percent of the world population will suffer from some form of skin cancer. If you stop and give this some thought, you can see we are on the verge of total panic and confusion.

But our troubles do not stop there. Our drinking water is fast becoming almost too polluted to consume safely. We have laid back and lived the good life and used thousands of chemicals to assist us in our easy living. Now these same chemicals lie in our soil and oceans and wait like a giant rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike that final blow that will poison all mankind.

Giving nature the ability to balance itself was a great piece of work performed by our Creator. If man had not interfered and messed everything up in a grand fashion, we would still be sitting pretty. But we have not been able to let well enough alone. We have had to try and change the rules that our Creator set for us.

Such a pity that we have not seen the handwriting on the wall; our society could have had it all. We could have lived together on this planet in harmony and peace. We could have pushed war and destruction from us. We could have all that man could wish for; the Garden of Eden could have been at our fingertips. Our world could be filled with clean and fresh water, and all the clean and pure air that we could imagine would be only a breath away.

Rejected simple life

But we did not choose this beautiful and simple life. We chose the life of so call progress; we chose the life of complexity. We wanted the life of heartaches and destruction. We have followed the same ways of life as the early Romans did with feasting and entertainment on one side and death and starvation on the other. “Forget the welfare of your fellow man, let the good times roll.” “Let those less fortunate fall by the wayside, let the entertainment begin.” “Tomorrow will take care of itself, just you wait.”

But closer than we think, tomorrow awaits on the horizon. The winds of oblivion blow in the distance. We are fast approaching the point of no return. If we are not very careful, our planet as we know it will soon take its place in some distant galaxy, and perhaps some other being from another galaxy will gaze in awe at our icy and desolate planet and wonder if life had ever been present on such a forbidden and forgotten place.

The time is at hand and we must do an about face and start with everything that is available to turn around that which may have already gone too far. This we owe to our grandchildren and their children’s children. We must put aside our land of fantasy; we must prepare for that which awaits in the silence, in the dark hours before the dawn, on the edge of reality. The time draws nearer and nearer.

As we go from day to day, our world grows more and more polluted and dirty. Are we to stand idle and wait for the diseases and death that is surely to come? We must decide; the hour of decision is rapidly approaching.

We must work with all haste and begin the awesome task of cleaning up the mess that we have created through carelessness. We must put aside our demands for a fantasy world and once again face the situation that confronts us. And, for the sake of those yet unborn, we must defeat the silent killer, pollution of our planet.

We must return our world to its caretaker, Mother Nature. We have to begin to appreciate once again, the things of beauty that we have pushed aside so long until we forget to realize they exist anymore.

We have to once again realize that we are not the ones who will decide the future of this planet that we call earth. It is man who is most vulnerable and he will be the first to go. Strange, isn’t it, just when we were beginning to think that we are to be here for all time to come.

As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)