NRDC Video

SEVEN

Perhaps, given time, this will actually turn into a real blog. Right now I'm writing here because Al at City Hippy tagged me with a meme he had done in his own blog, and I don't seem to be able to resist. It's not the sort of thing we do in The Blue Voice, where we must remain pretty political (I'm not sure about those 12 Days of Christmas that Marcia Ellen is doing, but there they are! historical, if not political). Anyway, here goes:

1. 7 Things to Do Before I Die:
As this time gets closer, the things I want to do kind of narrow down. Maybe that's being too realistic? Maybe it's good to have impossible dreams?
1. Swim with wild dolphins.
2. Hike a good portion of the Appalachian Trail.
3. Learn to snowshoe in the forest.
4. Learn an Asian language.
5. Spend more time with far-flung friends.
6. See how the children in my life turn out as they grow up.
7. Grow really wonderful organic tomatoes.

2. 7 Things I Can't Do:
1. Speak an Asian language.
2. Save money.
3. Hide my true feelings.
4. Knit.
5. Play a musical instrument well.
6. Wear high heels.
7. Perfect my butterfly stroke.

3. 7 Things That Attract Me to Blogging.
1. Meeting interesting new people and often forming community with them.
2. Learning and writing about new things.
3. Evangelizing about the environment.
4. Swimming in the wave of information, education, ideas, that is the Internet.
5. Having a place to publish what I write.
6. A good way to procrastinate doing other things.
7. Can't think of another one.

4. 7 Things I Say Most Often.
1. It's okay.
2. Oh shit!
3. Sure you can.
4. Yikes!
5. I love you.
6. Is there any more ice cream?
7. I'm sooooooo tired.

5. 7 Books I Love.
Now, really......only seven? This will be random, there are so many more than seven.
1. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver.
2. The Earthsea Trilogy, Ursula K. Leguin (hah, see, I worked in three here!)
3. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
4. The Art of Eating, MFK Fisher
5. The Movie Goer, Walker Percy
6. Never in a Hurry, Essays on People and Places, Naomi Shihab Nye
7. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler

6. 7 Movies I Watch Again and Again.
Now really......only seven?
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Casablanca
3. Shrek 1
4. Don Juan de Marco
5. Calendar Girls
6. Secaucus Seven
7. Angels in America 1 and 2 (cheating again?)

7. 7 People I Want to Join in This too.

1. Tankwoman, one of my blogging partners at The Blue Voice.

2. Theresa Williams, an old friend from AOL Journals, now at Blogspot.

3. Robin, ditto.

4. Jenn, a friendly antagonist at TBV.

5. Johnny Depp

6. KD Lang

7. Lily Tomlin

Divergence

This is really not a blog. I had to sign up with blogger in order to become part of The Blue Voice, a group blog here on blogger. Anyone who stumbles in here by some odd chance may want to come on over to The Blue Voice, a really great political group blog. It's what's happening.

Endangered Species Act, Part II

There are actually two first parts to this, one here and one here. I thought I'd better get busy on the last part, before everyone forgot what I was talking about. In case you have already forgotten, there's an article in today's NYT on the same subject: Bill Would Reduce Government's Role in Protecting Species.

At the end of my previous post, I said I'd be writing about an interesting new coalition that has emerged in the past few years, and is ever more active today. There's a lot of writing about Christians in this blog, particularly the conservative Christian right, in a less-than-positive vein. So, I'm very glad to be able to write about this subject, and do it in an entirely positive fashion. As the Endangered Species Act comes more and more under the blade of this Republican Congress and its industrial and large-landowning friends and supporters, more and more groups of the Evangelical Christian persuasion are forming to protect the land and the creatures that fly, walk, creep and crawl upon it.

These groups, with names like Evangelical Environmental Network, National Religious Partnership for the Environment, Web of Creation, and the Noah Alliance, are in this fight for real. One member of the subcommittee working on part of this legislation to slash the ESA, the
House Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, Ranking Member Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) warned his colleagues that "any attempts to amend the law in a manner that would weaken it would go against our larger calling to be good stewards of God’s creations."

For quite some time I have been ranting and railing about this very thing - how could people who forcefully express their opinions about the "sanctity of life" when it comes to the subjects of abortion and end-of-life issues remain silent on issues like: mercury in our air/water/fish and the damage it causes to pregnant women and their unborn children, air full of particulate matter that is causing huge numbers of our young children to have asthma, persistent chemical toxins in the air, water and food that all of us - young, old, born and unborn - are absorbing constantly in our daily lives, the cancers and other illnesses that afflict us as a result. Not to mention the ravaging of the oceans, forests, mountains and living creatures - created by God's own hand, in evangelical terms - taking place to enrich corporations of every kind.

So the time has come for Christians to recognize and act upon a vision of their stewardship of God's creation, and I, for one, rejoice greatly at this fact. I have been reading widely at the websites of the groups I mentioned. The mission statement of the NRPE is a lovely document, mainly on the subject of global warming, which includes these words:

For example, in Judaeo-Christian scripture, all creation, by God's handicraft,
is deemed "good." Because "the Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof"
(Psalms 24:1), its gifts are intended for the benefit of all. Humans are called
into covenant with their creator as stewards of life. In love, we care for the
conditions of one another's well-being; in justice we attend first to the needs
of the most vulnerable. When significant danger threatens, the traditional value
of prudence requires us to prevent damage to the common good. All these
obligations apply to the protection of future generations.

Religion and Science may not always agree on the sources of these ideas. But such principles — of stewardship, justice, protection of the weak, inter-generational duty, and prudence — are universal values when responsible scientific study has identified grave risk

Dr. Dorothy Boorse is an evangelical Christian who teaches biology at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She is active with the Noah Alliance, a coalition of religious groups which support species protections. In May she testified before the House Subcommittee meeting on the ESA, and said, among lots of other things: "You can expect to hear from many people of faith as they witness with passion and resolve about the importance of protecting endangered species." Dr. Boorse's passionate testimony is available here, in pdf format.

An article by Paul Nussbaum, syndicated in the Knight-Ridder papers in May gives a good overview of this movement: "Increasingly, Evangelists Are Embracing Environmentalism." This article is replete with statements like this:

On such issues as global climate change, endangered species, and mercury hazards to the unborn, many evangelical Christians are parting ways with conservatives. They are embracing environmental protection as "stewardship" of God's creation.

And this:

The environmental awakening among evangelicals has prompted some to seek common ground with other faiths. A group of evangelical Protestant scientists is working with Jewish scholars and scientists to form a "Noah Alliance" to protect endangered species - and the Endangered Species Act.

"Ours is the time for a concert of religious voices to proclaim our privilege and responsibility for not allowing the great lineages of God's living creatures to be broken," says a draft statement being circulated this month among Christian and Jewish scientists.

If now the environmentalist left can lose its fear of Christians, and the Christian right can lose its fear of environmentalists, and we can all join hands across whatever divide may exist between an organization like the Environmental Species Coalition and the Evangelical Environmental Network, the newts, wolves, butterflies, not to mention human babies, may have a fighting chance against the oil, coal, lumber, mining, and agricultural industries. I don't object at all to having God on my side for a change.

Fooling with Pictures

Have just spent an extraordinary amount of time, with the help of an online friend getting this figured out.
This is my little niece in Dallas, taken last summer.



A Texas summer day.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program, has been held every year since, I think, 1972, in many different countries all over the world. This is the first time it has been hosted in the USA, and it was San Francisco that hosted a plethora of events surrounding the one day. The events were from June 1 through June 5, and included the Green Cities Expo. Mayors from cities around the world came to discuss what can be done to make our cities greener and more liveable. Check out the whole thing here. This is the Green Cities Expo link.

Was the president of the USA at this important event? Did he care to show how important the environment is to him and his administration? (I think he's said it is, in some campaign speech, didn't he? He couldn't have been lying, could he?) The first time this event has been held in the United States seems worth officially marking to me. Ummmm, no I don't think GWB was there. Al Gore was there, however, and gave a kickass speech which lasted an hour. Among other things he said this:

"We are witnessing a collision between our civilization and the earth, a transformation of the relationship between our species and the planet," Gore warned. "Is it only terrorists that we're worried about? Is that the only threat to the future that is worth organizing to respond to?"

Oh Al, if only you had campaigned with such passion.worldenvironmentday

QUI SOMMES NOUS?

Marigolds2 is an aging hippie looking for a way to live happily ever after while she waits for the end of the world. She spends the meantime teaching ESOL to adult immigrants at the local community college, gardening, kayaking, watching dolphins, beach walking, reading novels, eating Mexican food, and thinking subversive thoughts. Mari is in a lesbian relationship which has lasted 23 years, against all odds. She is a stepmother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and a damn good cook and poet. The planet earth is the only home she knows, and she longs for it to continue to be home to many others long after she is compost.

What Now? and Whither?

So, in order to view my "template" I have to post something as if this were really a blog. Who knows, perhaps it will turn into one after all. Stranger things have happened. Right now I'm only setting this up to be able to be part of the new group blog my political friends at AOL Journals are planning. So, here I am now, set up. Let's see how we look.