Poetry, quotations, personal reflections from a lover of the wilderness, a lover of the silence....
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
“The science is beyond dispute… Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”
We have hope and yet we should be under no illusions as to the enormity of the difficulties that lay ahead for our nation, the planet, and for a president who genuinely wishes to take the needed aggressive measures on climate change. As David Letterman ranted on his show awhile back, (the video of his comedic rant is in my sidebar under the heading Wisdom?/Humor?/Reality?/Hope. or can be viewed here.) the problem is that we have had no leadership on this issue. I think that's an understatement. For at least the last eight years we have had worse than no leadership. But now we have a president who genuinely wants to reverse the trend and bring the leadership that is desperately needed.... As the blogger at Climate Progress wrote, "It is judgment day, deniers and delayers. There is a new sheriff coming to town, and he isn’t an anti-scientific stooge like the current one or his boss VP."
For my personal response, I cannot help but revert back to an ecstatic cry from my pentecostal youth: HALLELUJAH!
Below is a video of part of President-elect Obama's remarks to the US governors climate summit. I found it at the aforementioned Climate Progress blog. Click on that link to read the whole post with the video. It's worth it.
I love the way Barack is hitting the ground running. When I went to arrange for my OAS (Canadian Social Security), I told the clerk I was a citizen of the USA and then said "Go Obama!" She cheered, too!
"More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly." ~Woody Allen
"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse." ~Lily Tomlin
"We must face the prospect of changing our basic ways of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative in a planned way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature." ~Jimmy Carter
One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards." ~Edward Abbey, from a speech to environmentalists in Missoula, Montana in 1978 and in Colorado, which was published in High Country News under the title "Joy, Shipmates, Joy."
"What I fear most is despair for the world and us: forever less of beauty, silence, open air, gratitude, unbidden happiness, affection, unegotistical desire ~Wendell Berry, from IX, Sabbaths 1998, in Given
I love the way Barack is hitting the ground running. When I went to arrange for my OAS (Canadian Social Security), I told the clerk I was a citizen of the USA and then said "Go Obama!" She cheered, too!
ReplyDeleteGo Barbara! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks.