This is from kimmy ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is from a 2009 issue of Orion mag... A clip from Sandra Steingraber's "3 bets"..
---------+----+--------+--------+--- "...So I am betting that chemical reform will be a cornerstone of this new environmental human rights movement that I see getting underway. I am betting that my children—and the generation of children they are a part of—will, by the time they are my age, consider it unthinkable to allow cancer-causing chemicals, reproductive toxicants,and brain-destroying poisons to freely circulate in our economy. They will find it unthinkable to assume an attitude of silence and willful ignorance about our ecology.
In the same way, I look back on the life of Rachel Carson—my mentor in all this, who died when I was five years old—and find it unthinkable that she could not speak about her own cancer diagnosis, even while dying,as I have written about my diagnosis here. *Thirty years of feminism lies between my life as an adult scientist and Rachel Carson’s. That human rights movement has ended the silence around the personal experience of cancer so that I have never had to fear, as did Carson, that my status as a cancer survivor will be used to impeach my science.
And in the same way, I look back on the life of Abraham Lincoln, whose portrait hangs in every schoolroom in Illinois, and marvel that our economy was once dependent on slave labor. Unthinkable. I believe our grandchildren will look back on us and marvel that our economy was once dependent on chemicals that were killing the planet and killing ourselves.
Now I am willing to concede the point that this environmental human rights movement that I am betting on is less an evidence-based prediction than a mother’s fervent hope that my children will never have to fear that the phone ringing on a sunny afternoon will bring bad news from the pathology lab. (She got bladder cancer) I’m willing to admit that this bet is a wish that my children will grow up in a world with a functioning Gulf Stream,and some ice caps,and a few coral reefs. And some octopi for my daughter to write her first book about. And some honeybees to help my son the farmer grow apples.** It’s a wish that his polar bear Halloween costume not outlast the species.**
Wishful or not,I am determined to win this bet because my children’s lives are inextricably bound to the abiding ecology of this planet,which is worth everything I could possibly wager. An environmental human rights movement is the vision under which I labor, from which I am not free to desist, and which may, if we all work together, become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Got too little sleep, but had a play day. Got to go into town to visit a museum with one of my dearest friends and her wonderful daughter, then we went for lunch. Then I got to pick out a new little micro (got the smallest Kenmore they make, in white, because the Kenmores got the highest score in Consumer Reports), because our 12 year old one frazzle-died...sparks and all! Whoo! Then I learned that my all-time favourite amateur weather guy (who is usually more accurate than the pros!), who had taken a year off from blogging, is back!
A good day. A very good day, indeed. Now to sleep so I can open the Library tomorrow, then have VT*Grand here for an overnight! :-D
Howard is first most.
ReplyDeleteThis is from kimmy ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is from a 2009 issue of Orion mag... A clip from Sandra Steingraber's "3 bets"..
---------+----+--------+--------+---
"...So I am betting that chemical reform will be a cornerstone of this new environmental human rights movement that I see getting underway. I am betting that my children—and the generation of children they are a part of—will, by the time they are my age, consider it unthinkable to allow cancer-causing chemicals, reproductive toxicants,and brain-destroying poisons to freely circulate in our economy. They will find it unthinkable to assume an attitude of silence and willful ignorance about our ecology.
In the same way, I look back on the life of Rachel Carson—my mentor in all this, who died when I was five years old—and find it unthinkable that she could not speak about her own cancer diagnosis, even while dying,as I have written about my diagnosis here. *Thirty years of feminism lies between my life as an adult scientist and Rachel Carson’s. That human rights movement has ended the silence around the personal experience of cancer so that I have never had to fear, as did Carson, that my status as a cancer survivor will be used to impeach my science.
And in the same way, I look back on the life of Abraham Lincoln, whose portrait hangs in every schoolroom in Illinois, and marvel that our economy was once dependent on slave labor. Unthinkable. I believe our grandchildren will look back on us and marvel that our economy was once dependent on chemicals that were killing the planet and killing ourselves.
Now I am willing to concede the point that this environmental human rights movement that I am betting on is less an evidence-based prediction than a mother’s fervent hope that my children will never have to fear that the phone ringing on a sunny afternoon will bring bad news from the pathology lab. (She got bladder cancer) I’m willing to admit that this bet is a wish that my children will grow up in a world with a functioning Gulf Stream,and some ice caps,and a few coral reefs. And some octopi for my daughter to write her first book about. And some honeybees to help my son the farmer grow apples.** It’s a wish that his polar bear Halloween costume not outlast the species.**
Wishful or not,I am determined to win this bet because my children’s lives are inextricably bound to the abiding ecology of this planet,which is worth everything I could possibly wager. An environmental human rights movement is the vision under which I labor, from which I am not free to desist, and which may, if we all work together, become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
May it be so.
4 hours ago via Mobile ·
Kimmy Fairbaugh
Such an awesome mother, Dean Person, friend.
Delete♥ Oh, how I love kimmy!!! ♥
Hi, Kimmy!
ReplyDelete--Alan in CA
This is what the right thinks. . . .
ReplyDeletehttp://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/226132_10151031265145197_755561940_n.jpg
What a great day I had!
ReplyDeleteGot too little sleep, but had a play day. Got to go into town to visit a museum with one of my dearest friends and her wonderful daughter, then we went for lunch. Then I got to pick out a new little micro (got the smallest Kenmore they make, in white, because the Kenmores got the highest score in Consumer Reports), because our 12 year old one frazzle-died...sparks and all! Whoo! Then I learned that my all-time favourite amateur weather guy (who is usually more accurate than the pros!), who had taken a year off from blogging, is back!
A good day. A very good day, indeed.
Now to sleep so I can open the Library tomorrow, then have VT*Grand here for an overnight!
:-D