A Day for BOLD Love. Not a Time For The Timid.

On a hot August morning last summer I sat down in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave, the White House at my back.

I turned to my left to see many men and women sitting or kneeling beside me. I turned to my right and saw still others, some with grey hair some just teenagers. Pivoting my head, I turned to see the people standing on the sidewalk behind me…a scientist from the DC area, a restaurant owner from Philadelphia, several students, and a chimney sweep from New York. There were 53 of us waiting to be arrested along with a couple dozen supporters who planned to get up and leave before the arrests were made.

An officer walked to the middle of the street, bullhorn in hand, to issue a warning that we would be arrested if we did not move. Just before he spoke, Amanda, a recent college grad from California who sat immediately to my right, turned to me and said " There's no better place we could be anywhere in the world right now than right here."

Over the course of 2 weeks in late August and early September, 1,253 people agreed with Amanda and were arrested at that site. Each of us, men and women, young and old from across the US felt the need to take a stand to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline.

For me the compelling factor…the reason I stepped up… is the need to stop and hopefully reverse climate change. "The earth is a house that is made for us all" (as Streetbeets sings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVbydpZDTSg), but currently 200 species go extinct -permanently disappearing from our

house each day -mostly due to global warming.

Global warming ,as I'm sure you know, is caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels as well as other industrial activities and land destruction.

Do you know what's happening in the tar sands under much of northern Alberta, Canada in an area the size of the country of England or the state of Florida?

Oil companies literally scrape away the living forests (among the most pristine natural areas in all the world) and scrape away the soils. Then they dig out the sand, taking about 2 tons of sand for every barrel of oil they produce. Next massive amounts of water drained from nearby rivers are used to wash the oily bitumen out of the sand- several gallons of water for every gallon of oil produced- leaving a toxic water-oil byproduct that kills fish, birds and indigenous people living in the area.

"If you simply hated the land and wanted to destroy it, you would be hard pressed to find a more vicious way of doing it" say the authors of Deep Green Resistance:Strategy to Save the Planet.

After the bitumen is washed from the sand, huge quantities of natural gas, much of it fracked in my home state of Pennsylvania, are used to cook it into a synthetic oil.The energy required means that oil produced from tar sands produces 5 times as much greenhouse gases as conventional oil.

That's why James Hansen, chief NASA climate scientist, warns that if the Keystone XL Pipeline is approved it's essentially 'game over for the climate'.

Now listen again to what Amanda said to me as we sat on Pennsylvania Avenue waiting to be arrested: " There's no better place we could be anywhere in the world right now than right here."

I believe she was correct on that day. But where would I need to be today for Amanda to say the same thing to me? Amanda's assertion has become my daily challenge.

Could it also become yours?

"Where's the 'no better place' you need to be right now? Where does the earth, (the water, soil and air) need you to be? Doing what? What do the creatures need you to be doing today?Tomorrow? How about our fellow humans and the next generation? What do they need from you?

Feminist poet and essayist, Adrienne Rich, wrote

try telling yourself

you are not accountable

to the life of your tribe

the breath of your planet

Isn't this all about love? Love for your neighbors of all species? Love and accountability, right?

Your love and sense of accountability may lead you to a different place than where my love and sense of accountability leads me. But it won't allow you to be passive.

One thing I know. These are not days for the timid. These are not the times for half measures. At the State of Our Earth 2012 Conference in Baltimore last month, Dr. Susan Shaw ,a marine toxicologist and Doctor of Public Health

warned us that "This is not a political issue. It's a survival issue! The next 10 years may be as important as the next 10,000 years!"

Yes! This is a time for bold love!

Prayers From The Dust

Psalm 90:3 You turn people back to dust, 
 saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” 
4 A thousand years in your sight 
 are like a day that has just gone by, 
 or like a watch in the night. 
5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death— 
 they are like the new grass of the morning: 
6 In the morning it springs up new, 
 but by evening it is dry and withered.

(from Oct 23, 2011 sermon at Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster)

One year ago I retired after 30 years of ministry in the Church of the Brethren.

One year ago I began growing this beard.

One year ago I decreased my carbon footprint considerably, since I had been commuting over 100 miles to pastor a Brethren congregation in McVeytown of Mifflin County, PA; a commute I had made for 12 ½ years.

One year ago I began worshiping here at CMCL.

One year ago is the last time I preached.

I promise I won't try to give you a year's worth this morning.

All I want to do is make a simple assertion. Our neighbors are praying - desperately praying - prayers from the dust. By 'prayers from the dust' , I could mean any of our prayers since the psalmist clearly reminds us that we all partake of the same humble origins.

But what I actually mean by 'prayers from the dust' are all the pleas from people who recognize their own vulnerability and even their own mortality because they are the ones who are downwind and downstream from environmental contamination.

They pray from the dust and they're not always sure anyone's listening to their prayers.

What I'm advocating is Neighbor Love;the Neighbor Love which compels us to hear these pleas for somebody to pay attention. This Neighbor Love also compels us to join our prayers with theirs and then to work together to build a legacy of clean air, pure water and healthy soil for their children and for ours.

As many of you know, I've been passionately pursuing a course of action to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Phase one of this action resulted in my arrest for civil disobedience in front of the White House in August, along with 1,250 others over a 2 week period.

Phase three unfolds on Sunday November 6th, when 2 bus loads of local citizens, sponsored by Transition Lancaster, head to DC to join an expected 5,000 others (in actuality 10-12,000 gathered for this) to form a literal ring around the White House. This is a legal, peaceful demonstration designed to remind our president that we expect him to do the right thing by denying a presidential permit for this pipeline which would pump dirty Alberta tar sands oil over our border, across the Ogallala Aquifer

and down to the Gulf of Mexico for refining.

Phase two was a 3 minute testimony I gave at a State Department hearing on October 7th which was processing citizen input on the issue. I advocated Neighbor Love as a basis for determining what's in the national interest. If you don't mind, I'd like to go back to phase two for a moment to quote myself:

"My citizen's testimony to the State Department hearing on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline." October 7th, 2011

LOVE… a 4 letter word. I hope you're okay with my using it.

Like many of you, I've been taught to love my neighbor as myself.

In 30 years as a pastor, I made the principle of neighbor love the core…the heart of my ethical message.

I don't know if you've considered LOVE as a basis for determining the national interest, but if you could consider it for just a moment I'm sure you'll be persuaded.

In my ministry I visited thousands of hospital rooms where hurting people went for treatment; people like you and me subject to bodily breakdown due to a host of causes, known and unknown. I've also conducted hundreds of funerals for people whose earthly lives ended, as all human life does and as each here someday will.

I've seen that each illness, each injury and each death impacts other people- those whom afflicted people love and those who love them. You and I suffer as individuals, but our suffering causes others to suffer as well.

It's good that we are connected in this way.

Because we are connected, we don't want to inflict unnecessary suffering on others. We also realize it is undesirable for some of us to profit at the expense of others' suffering. This brand of profiteering is the opposite of neighbor love. We all agree that it is plain wrong.

LOVE says, "This is injustice!"

I'm sure you know about the immense amount of money a few corporations and investors stand to make from this pipeline. So do the citizens currently occupying Wall Street, Freedom Plaza here in DC and a host of other US locations. They are now in the streets crying for justice and seeking a country governed by neighbor love rather than money love!

LOVE says "People over profits."

I'm sure you know about the suffering of indigenous peoples in Alberta who've seen rare deadly diseases skyrocket since the tar sands began their costly toxic extraction process.

LOVE says "No more poisoning innocent people!"

I'm sure you know that the acceleration of climate change from tar sands oil use will wreak untold suffering upon the people of our nation, perhaps even your own loved ones. The number of billion dollar weather disasters in the US this year such as flooding, fires and tornadoes are unprecedented and this trend will likely grow worse.

LOVE says "Stop climate change while you can!"

The likelihood of BP type spills from ruptured pipelines over the nation's heartland threatens the fresh water drinking supply for 20 million people!

LOVE says "Find a better way!"

I'm sure you want to find that better way for all our people. Find it before any more loved ones suffer unnecessarily.

LOVE says," THIS is in our national interest!"

++++++++++++++++++++

You might say that was my plea on behalf of our neighbors who are praying from the dust. We have so many such neighbors!

Praying neighbors like farmer Bruce Kennedy of East Smithfield,PA in Bradford Co. This past summer Bruce constructed a sign and then erected it in the center of town. On that sign is Bruce's literal handwritten prayer:

DEAR GOD

Oh Lord Please save Our Town

I love my earthly home

(1) 6" Pipline (sic) leak(1)DIESELFUELSPILL

(1)HYDRAULIC FLUIDSPILL

(2) BROKEN HEARTS

HOME OF OUR GRANDCHILDREN

Please help, I ask in Jesus name,

Collins Rd - Okis Acres Farm - Bruce D Kennedy

+++++++++++

"This farm has a lot of heritage in my family," he explains."It means a lot to me." His land is leased out to Chesapeake Energy for natural gas drilling. 3 separate accidents on his property provoked him to display this prayer on a homemade sign in the middle of his village.

In Bruce Kennedy's prayer is a universal quest. We each want this. Even though we may be dust, we want to leave a legacy. Perhaps that's what the psalmist had in mind when he ended Psalm 90 with: "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands."

Can we hear what Farmer Bruce Kennedy is seeking? Can we hear his prayer from the dust?

Or, how about the prayers of 3 men from the Gulf Coast area where toxic logs they call 'tar logs' are constantly washing up on shore ever since the BP oil spill. I've seen these logs. I've smelled them. You don't want to.

They're about a foot in length and 3 inches in diameter. They're made of 'dispersed' oil, sand and a chemical dispersant called Correxit.

Correxit, owned by BP, was banned in the UK a decade ago. BP used their own banned poisonous product to 'clean up' their mess.

Back to the 3 men; John, Chuck and Andre. They, and 12 other Gulf Coast residents drove 1,300 miles to Washington DC in August of this year to meet with three different federal agencies…hoping someone would hear their prayers from the dust.

This contingent of desperate people were told to go to the food court in the Ronald Reagan Trade Building. As they sat around tables in the food court, a woman from the National Institute of Environmental Health & Safety (NEIHS) walks up to the table- no introductions- and begins to pass out pamphlets.

I read now from an unpublished account written by Lancaster resident, Jack Basille, who was with them as an independent journalist.

"I leaned over and whispered to John, "Tell me this isn't the meeting..." Before he could answer, I saw the pamphlet. It was a hand out from the NEIHS informing the reader of how the Institute has, and is continuing to help make the environment safer. "John's look said more than he ever could. It was at this point that I realized what these people were up against. Earlier in the day, Charles had told me that they had driven almost 1,300 miles to take part in these meetings. Now they were here, discussing not only their future, but the future of their children, in the midst of the confusion in a crowded lunchroom. The meeting was so difficult to follow due to the background noise. A man named Andre spoke up, asking this woman about the dispersant. "I was in charge of a clean up crew in the gulf, and I want to know what I can expect having been sprayed with that stuff." He turned his arm over and opened his fingers, "These scars go the whole way up my arm. In fact, these tattoos are to cover up the scars." I looked closer, and underneath the black ink in his skin, I saw what looked like numerous cigarette burns on his fore arm. The woman answered. However, it was all but impossible to understand her. I looked over at Chuck. Tears were streaming down his face. "What should I do about my son? He's played in the water after we were told everything was clean! What can I do for him?" It was heartbreaking to see a 6'3" 320lb man begging for any hope for his son. The woman swallowed her bite of food before responding, "The best advice I can give you is to get him a genetic test. The damage to the genes is instant and permanent, so get him tested." Chuck stood and walked from the table. It seemed as if he shut down as he disengaged himself from the meeting."

Can we hear the prayers of THESE neighbors? Can we hear their prayers from the dust?

Finally, one more prayer from much closer.

You may have heard that Pennsylvania has the nations fifth-worst smog. You may have heard hat Lancaster County is the 10th-smoggiest midsize metro area in the country. This is because Pennsylvania is a 'tailpipe state' and in Lancaster County we are at the end of the tailpipe. That is, we are the recipients of airborne pollution emitted by Midwestern power plants.

"As bad as that is," the Intelligencer Journal tells us, "it could soon be worse. The US House of Representatives recently passed the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act, or TRAIN Act." (Congressman Joe Pitts who represents the 16th District which includes all of Lancaster County voted in favor of this )

According to the Intel editorial, this act "prohibits the implementation of existing clean-air regulations and would delay the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing mercury and cross-state air pollution rules" causing an "additional 25,300 lives lost due to smog, soot and air pollution, and an additional 11,000 heart attacks.

"The new mercury standard alone would cut health care costs significantly by preventing up to 120,000 asthma attacks in children per year and lowering the risk of brain damage in the unborn.

"Infants and children are the most susceptible to asthma attacks because they breathe more rapidly than adults and because their immune systems and organs have not matured."

With that as background, I ask you to hear the prayers of 5 women from southeast Lancaster, all mothers of young children. Their prayers from the dust can speak to you through a conversation they had at an educational event a few months ago.

One mother says, "I'm having a rough time concentrating today because I had to take my 10 month old to the hospital yesterday with an asthma attack."

A 2nd mother says: "My child died from an asthma attack."

A 3rd mother says: My 12 year old has asthma, too."

We can all figure out what these mothers are praying, can't we?

But can we hear them? Can we hear them praying from the dust?

Can we hear all those urgent prayers of neighbors who are downstream and downwind from environmental contamination?

Can we ask, "What does Neighbor Love require?"

Can we ask, "What can we do together to leave a legacy of clean air, pure water and healthy soil for all our children and grandchildren?"

"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the works of our hands."

photo by Thadd Acosta,Lancaster,PA.

Draw Me A River

DRAW ME A RIVER

A Song by Jerry Lee Miller

Open up your box of crayons

my children.

Draw me a river clapping her hands.

Draw her dancing through the bottom lands.

My children,

Draw me a river clapping her hands.

Please don't color mountains crying

tears that flow downstream.

Please don't color fish a dying.

I want to wake up from my bad sad dream.

Please don't color dumpers dumping

Stuff that's killing off our friends.

Please don't color  massive pumping.

I just want my sad bad dream to end.

Please don't color pretty choirs

Singing it's not so bad.

Please don't color fancy liars

Saying we should all be glad.

Open up your box of crayons

my children.

Draw me a river clapping her hands.

Draw her dancing through the bottom lands.

My children,

Draw me a river clapping her hands.

NOTHING! NOTHING BUT DRY!

The song, Nothing But Dry, came after I read an article about Texas panhandle farmers who are suffering the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer) and the end of farming in their area. One retired farmer,telling of how he once farmed before going to school, said: "I ploughed into the rising sun and I knew there was a God." He may not be so sure these days.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8359076/US-farmers-fear-the-return-of-the-Dust-Bowl.html)

NOTHING BUT DRY!

Here in Texas

Water's precious.

But nothing's flowing anymore.

Thirsty cattle.

They can't drink dust.

Nothing but dry to the core.

Oh no!

Nothing! Nothing but dry!

chorus:

Once I ploughed into the rising sun

And I knew that there was a God.

But now it's all come to nothing!

Nothing!

All those mornings busting sod.

Please tell me? Is there still a God?

Dear dear mama;

Dear dear papa;

I hear you crying in the wind:

"Say 'goodbye' to the Ogallala.

Cause it won't come back again. Oh no!

Nothing! Nothing but dry!"

chorus:

You can dig wells

In Nebraska

And smell the sweet grasses grow.

Until you lose the Ogallala,

Then it's all dry down below. Oh no!

Nothing! Nothing but dry!

Chorus:

My Right Foot

My right foot on an April day,
A day not made for fools,
Feels the cold and moistened earth;
Looks out for sharpened tools.

My right foot, all the people know,
A foot not made for mules,
Feels the pulse of ground below
And plays by verdant rules.

Look What I Found!

"Look what I found!" Those may be Amy Crystle's favorite words. Pictured here inside a newly discovered Amish greenhouse in the Southern End of Lancaster County, she's beaming over her unexpected find.

Where can one make delightful discoveries, if not in Lancaster County? When one of those discoveries illuminates the transition path to sustainability, both environmentally and economically, Transition Lancaster wants to join the celebration!

This particular find came on a dirt road near Nottingham,PA at Pine Grove Greenhouses. Amy stopped by in between other farm visits to drop off a book on four season harvesting she'd promised to farmer Daniel. This topic is one of many she had discussed with a group of Amish farmers while advising them on organizing an organic or chemical- free co-op.

Even though Amy had first purchased blueberries from Daniel and his wife, Fanny, in 2006, she had never actually been to their farm and didn't know about the greenhouses. I had the rare privilege of celebrating this find first hand with Amy because she let me tag along on her usual Tuesday travels.

On Tuesdays she does pick ups of the food which goes into her Seasonal Food Bundles for the week; "The Flexible CSA" as she calls it. These weekly food bundles provide year-round seasonal produce from a mix of organic and chemical-free Lancaster County farms and farmers.

Once she gets her week's orders collected, she takes this produce to East Side Community Kitchen on Plum St. in Lancaster City, where she assembles the bundles. Then subscribers to Amy's service, known as Everday Local Food (www.everdaylocalfood.com), pick up their food at her home on W. Chestnut St. She also has a delivery option. In this way local growers have cash paying customers and Lancaster eaters have locally grown food all year round!

This win/win arrangement contributes to the rebuilding of a resilient Lancaster County food system; one we need to sustain us through the uncertainties of our rapidly changing world.

If you know of other Lancaster County examples of Transition activity, let me know. I'd love to write about it!

Only One Chance To Get This Right

On April 5th, I attended the Community Breakfast hosted by State Senator Llloyd Smucker (Rep.) at Calvary Fellowship Homes in Manheim Township. When a question regarding the Marcellus Shale gas drilling arose, Senator Smucker stated his belief that we need an extraction tax in place. "We only have one chance to get this right!" he proclaimed. While the senator's words were stated in the context of economics, I believe they are even more potent if applied to the health , safety and environmental questions surrounding Marcellus Shale drilling. When it comes to the protection of our water wells, rivers and underground aquifers as well as to our state lands and to all the natural resources which comprise our commonwealth; "We only have one chance to get this right!" Economics is more than jobs and more than an inflow of dollars into businesses , into land owners' pockets and into the coffers of government at all levels. Economics also includes the cost we pay when we sacrifice fragile and finite living assets like health, water, forests and land for short term benefits. Even 50 to 100 years of financial benefit is very little compared to those things. For a current cautionary tale, consider the multi-leveled tragedies in Japan. Consider the dislocated and disoriented population in Japan's northeast plus the millions more throughout the nation who now endure the rolling blackouts and now must question the safety of their food , air and water; and now face a likely reduction of future living standard because their national resources will be channeled into massive rebuilding efforts over a very long recovery period. How many of these suffering people would vote for a moratorium on the building of nuclear power plants in tsunami threatened areas if they could go back in time 30 years? But they had their one chance to get it right and now must make the best of a horror story. I don't suppose the potential consequences of fracking pose the same level of danger as nuclear meltdowns. But who really knows? We are already hearing many sad stories coming out of the Marcellus Shale regions, including the threat of radioactivity in our drinking water. Many Pennsylvanians believe the $3 million in political contributions to Pennsylvania lawmakers by the drilling industry since 2001 ( about 30% of which went to our current governor) and the $5 million they've spent on lobbying since 2006 has swung the gates open wide for the drills, trucks and fracking water to come pouring into our commonwealth. "When asked to put in place a temporary moratorium on drilling in public lands until a full study of the impact could be made, those who voted “no” had accepted an average of three times as much cash from gas interests than those who supported that reasonable measure." (http://www.marcellusmoney.org/candidate/corbett-tom) Maryland, our neighbor to the south, is proceeding much slower, hoping to learn from Pennsylvania's mistakes. "Maryland lawmakers listened to environmentalists and residents complain in hearings that Pennsylvania did not do enough to address environmental concerns. Pennsylvania facilities were not prepared at first to treat the volume of contaminated wastewater, they said, and some of it was trucked to water treatment facilities outside the state and released into waterways." ("Maryland May Put The Brakes On Fracking" www.post-gazette.com March 29,2011) Yes, Maryland is actually studying Pennsylvania's fracking experience to learn from our mistakes. Who have we learned from? Wyoming? Arkansas? Here's an excerpt from a March 8, 2011 Associated Press article with a Cheyenne , Wyoming dateline: "Folks who live near the gas fields in the western part of this outdoorsy state are complaining of watery eyes, shortness of breath and bloody noses because of ozone levels that have exceeded what people in L.A. and other major cities wheeze through on their worst pollution days. "The gas industry has drilled hundreds of wells in the basin (Upper Green River Basin) over the past decade and made the basin one of the top gas-producing areas in the U.S. "Ultimately it comes down to accountability," said Linda Baker, director of the Upper Green River Alliance. "It doesn't seem to me the companies are being very accountable to the residents here." High ozone, she said, gave her a constant nosebleed three days last week. " In Arkansas a recent increase in earthquakes led the oil and gas commission of that state to impose a moratorium until at least July on drilling new wells with fracking fluid. It is suspected that injecting millions of gallons of waste fracking fluid under the ground with such great pressure may be responsible for the increase in earthquakes. So the Arkansas Geological Survey is doing a thorough study before further wells can be drilled. It seems there is much yet to learn in Arkansas and in Maryland and in every other state, including Pennsylvania, about the long term consequences of fracking. I agree with a growing grassroots movement of people who just want a stop to the drilling until we see clear evidence that our government has as much concern for us and our grandchildren as it does for big business. After all, "We only have one chance to get this right!"