The Green Grandma

This July 4th, like every one, invites metaphors of both unity and independence, courage, faithfulness, and the old fashioned and sometimes distorted virtue of patriotism.  Here in Saint Paul we launch fireworks above the Mississippi and take pride in our freedoms, tolerance, and foresightedness, eat some potato salad and drink some beer – and some of us clean up and recycle the celebratory mess the next day.

This year, because of this Baby in the family, we’re thinking about what America and the world will look like when he is grown, middle-aged, old.

So when, this morning, I opened another emessage from Environmental Defense and saw again their draft of a Declaration of New Patriotism, I took a closer look.  Environmental Defense will be printing a full-page ad featuring this declaration in Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, as a call to action to members of Congress and the Senate.

More than 50,000 individuals have already signed this declaration, and another 50,000 by the Fourth would be a very fine statement to the politicos whose staff and handlers run our government. Anyone watching the push-back polluters are exerting on efforts to slow global climate change must sometimes feel discouraged – especially as so many people are ignoring the crisis or taking a “scoop my share now” attitude.

In my part of the world, we have bald eagles flying into nests at dusk – something I thought I would never see, because in the 1960s only about 400 nesting pairs existed in the entire country.  Because of devoted, visionary, stubborn and courageous people, the national symbol is now thriving sufficiently to leave the endangered species list.  Their presence in my neighborhood also speaks to the improved conditions of the Mississippi waterways nearby, and our improved practices with regard to pesticides.

But at the same time, children like our Baby, in neighboring communities are drinking from wells found to be polluted by chemicals dumped by a respected Minnesota company.  These children now have these chemicals – deemed to be at “non-hazardous levels” by the same people who deposited them in their bodies without anyone’s permission to trespass on these young bodies – in their bloodstreams and, presumably, in the cells of their bodies.

So, while Baby will have eagles, we can’t be sure what else he will lose, what hazard or harm we are leaving him and the rest of our posterity.

Please take a few minutes to read this modest and humane Declaration of New Patriotism.  And, if you have the courage, please consider signing it electronically at  http://action.environmentaldefense.org/campaign/newpatriotism

And enjoy the picnic over the holiday week.

Declaration of New Patriotism
Drafted by the Environmental Defense Action Fund
June 2007

Global warming is the crisis of our time.

As we prepare to celebrate our nation's birthday, we renew our commitment to the qualities and values that have guided our nation for more than 200 years.

Today, we recognize that patriotism is not only about love of country. It is also about a shared commitment to the welfare of our planet.

Future generations will judge us based on our success or failure to be good stewards of the Earth. We owe our children and our children's children nothing less than our very best effort.

We the undersigned, pledge to:

• Recognize that we live in a time of crisis. We must be active and forceful in bringing about the necessary changes - based on science, not politics - to stop global warming, no matter how difficult that may be.
• Be active citizens, by pressing our elected officials to take urgent action now, and by pressing all candidates for office to commit to passing strong legislation to cut America's global warming pollution.
• Spread the word, by making sure our friends, neighbors and loved ones recognize that each of us has a role to play in meeting this all-important challenge.
• Be mindful consumers, by minimizing our personal global warming "footprint" and weighing our personal choices against the needs and rights of future generations.

http://action.environmentaldefense.org/campaign/newpatriotism