We Deserve Nothing Less

“2012 was the hottest year on record for our nation. It was a year rife with droughts, cialis wildfires and extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy. In addition, cialis the number of weather catastrophes driven by climate disruption across the world has tripled since 1980, buy cialis with the greatest increases in North America. The situation is dire and requires nothing short of bold, decisive action by President Obama and our leaders to cut our addiction to fossil fuels and build a clean energy economy.” ~ Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club 

Do you consider this statement to be true? I do.

If you think this is just an environmentalist being an alarmist, read this.

We need a plan that provides jobs, strengthens the economy, and fosters renewable energy innovation and technology.

And we need it now.

President Obama has the perfect opportunity to use his historical inaugural address to prove that he will be a leader in tackling climate change. If you believe our planet and our families deserve nothing less, please sign this. Thanks!

Poster via lithospherial

Bury Guns Not Kids.

I grew up in a family of creatives.

Really.

Here's how the news of the horrific killings in Newtown, CT. made the email rounds through my family:

I sent my last post to my brother Howard, an engineer, entrepreneur businessman, founder of iRocku and a dad.

He forwarded an idea to my first cousin Allen, an advertising executive and CEO, father, grandfather and the creator of the "See Something, Say Something" campaign.

Howard's idea was to create a 'war against guns.'

The next day, Allen's email included this poster (above) and this note: "Howard, Your 'Gun War.' The first shot. I hope it's heard round the world."

Then my son composed and played the music on this video.

Let's keep this message in our hearts this holiday season.

Really.

Poster: Korey Kay and Partners

Keeping Our Babies Safe

I vividly remember the day my son was born, almost 24 years ago. A fleeting, but frightening thought seeped into my hopes and dreams for my beautiful baby boy—“How will I keep you safe from going to war?” The Vietnam War, with images of killing fields and the gruesome draft was the reality of my younger years.

Our generation of parents has been lucky, killer drafts have not touched our babies.

But guns have.

When my son was 16, one Sunday afternoon we went to the local mall to buy him jeans at the Gap. At the time, he had just gotten his learner’s permit, so I reluctantly handed over the keys and off we went for the 20-minute drive to the mall.

He carefully guided the car into a spot near the entrance to the mall where he didn’t have to negotiate too many rows of parked cars. Easy in, easy out.

Once in the mall, as we approached the doors to the Gap we heard someone yell “shooter” -- people started running frantically -- all in one direction -- away from the sharp sound of gunshots. I made a snap decision to get the hell out of the mall. In a protective gesture, my son grabbed my hand and we ran through the mall as the stores locked down. I noticed there were holes in the new cars that lined the main aisle of the mall — bullet holes. Once we made it out to the parking lot, I almost lost it when I saw parents with babies and children hiding under parked cars. My son handed me the keys and I sped home.

While we made it home safely, nothing was easy about the following days and nights. Bullets may have spared our flesh, but they grazed our psyches, leaving us raw and feeling profoundly unsafe.

Officials stated the 24 year-old shooter had “a "lurid fascination" with the 1999 Columbine shootings.” Friends said he was “dangerously disturbed...the gun was purchased at a local gun show.”

Many of us are summoning up our experiences as parents, teachers, children and even gun owners, as we try to make sense of the most horrific and senseless killing of beautiful innocent children.

My heart has now moved from ache to anger as I read article after article addressing what Nicholas Kristof prescribes here: “The fundamental reason kids are dying in massacres like this one is not that we have lunatics or criminals — all countries have them — but that we suffer from a political failure to regulate guns.”

Politics is a messy business. It’s easy to turn away from the ugly noise that has overcome our political system. It’s easy to let someone else fight the insidious battles over power and money. But this is our fight as mothers…fathers...parents…and citizens.

We must demand that our children are safe from gun violence.

Do you want your children asking their babies, “How will I keep you safe at school, at the mall, in the playground, in the movie theatre, on your college campus,...in our home?”

Painting: Vasudeo S. Gaitonde

Should We Rebuild?

The title of this New York Times op-ed article, We Need to Retreat From the Beach captured my attention because I've been ruminating over three recent conversations:

1. "This line shows where your property will be in a few years. Underwater." ~ my husband talking to a friend after marking a measurement showing the rising sea level on the wooden planks leading up from the ocean to his beautiful beach home on Martha's Vineyard

2. "There's lots happening and none of it is good. We're homeless, but we're starting to rebuild." ~ a phone call from my cousin after Superstorm Sandy devastated her Long Beach home, wrecked two cars and washed away a lifetime of memories

3."They shouldn't give those poor folks a cent to rebuild. No one should be living so close to the ocean anymore." ~ my mother's friend at a Mahjong game last week

We've now seen and experienced the edge of the ocean spilling into our homes...our lives, and as my friend, Judith Ross writes, "We are at a fork in the road." 

The NYTimes piece agrees, "As sea levels continue to rise, the surges of these future storms will be higher and even more deadly. We can’t stop these powerful storms. But we can reduce the deaths and damage they cause."

Solutions?

There's been talk of constructing 25 miles of coastal protection...to build a $15 billion seawall. This is the "cheapest solution." But would "the side effects" of such a barrier with its impact on inland estuaries and coastal marshes...and might I add, an eyesore to those who choose to afford a water view, be feasible given the "complex and overlapping regulatory structure that involves multiple local, state and federal agencies?"

Then there's the issue of insurance costs and outlays...yours, mine and ours. In some cases, should insurance money slated for rebuilding be redirected toward relocation and resettlement? Wouldn't it be even worse to lose a home again...and possibly a life?

These are heart-wrenching questions. I would love to know your thoughts about rebuilding in the face of our climate crisis.

Photo used with permission: Ben Scott for Bluerock Design

Global Warming Gets Its Day In The Sun

"We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet. -- What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on Earth -- the belief that our destiny is shared; that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations; that the freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for comes with responsibilities as well as rights, and among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That's what makes America great..." ~ President Barack Obama  

Good Luck, O! We need you...and we know you've got your work cut out for you. In the next four years, my hope is that clean energy is a top priority.

Photo: Greenpeace