Sierra Club
Redwood Chapter Newsletter
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Chapter Chair Report Margaret Pennington | |
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I sat down to write this report just as the first bombs began dropping on Baghdad. Two days earlier, on March 17, this message came from Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope: "The Sierra Club opposes the impending military attack on Iraq by the United States. We believe that the best course of action is disarmament through the United Nations' authorized inspections and weapons destruction process...No matter the duration or outcome of this conflict, however, we will find ourselves in the same situation once again if the U.S. and other nations fail to recognize that continued dependence on oil and other fossil fuels is a significant de-stabilizing influence in international affairs. The Sierra Club therefore reaffirms its urgent call for the U.S. to move to a clean-energy economy using energy-efficient technologies and renewable power." A recent article in the Press Democrat featured comments from school counselors throughout the County reminding readers that students and people in every walk of life are feeling great stress in these uncertain times. Larry Potts, Psychology teacher at Casa Grande High School summarized the situation this way, "We're very sensitive creatures and war and the loss of life is not something that is borne well. Generations have done it, but psychologically, I know how deep it hurts." I think we environmentalists may have a double dose of that sensitive gene. Caring and speaking out for "the others" with whom we share this amazing planet is what environmentalism is all about. "The others" - be they tiger salamanders, Coho salmon, |
1000 year old redwoods, or our fellow human beings half way around the globe - they tug at our hearts, souls and minds and pull us to action. I encourage you to join our local e-mail action alerts list or Sierra Club's National Action alerts list today (see article below). Make a commitment, even in these troubled times, to speak out for the others. Write a letter, make a phone call, and make a difference. Again from Carl Pope: "Remind people of the healing power, spiritual renewal and comfort nature provides in these troubled times." In that spirit, we share these words from Wendell Berry: "In the Peace of Wild Things" When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not take their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. |