As I read my Sunday morning newspaper today, I found many comments from people--editors, reporters, and ordinary people writing in--that I want to share. Here is a sample that may inspire you for the challenges that lie ahead. They are in the order that I found them, taken from many pages.
"Appeal of green housing grows" by Caryn Rousseau- A green home exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry features a bicycle in the children's bedroom that must be pedaled for 30 minutes to charge a battery to power video games. The system was homemade from parts purchased off a web site.
Next I found articles dealing with the placement of wild buffalo (bison) onto Indian reservation lands and of possibly allowing Indians on one reservation (not the same place as the one getting bison) to have complete autonomy in governing themselves and managing the land. One rancher opposing the release of bison quipped that we couldn't go back to the nineteenth century. I say, good that we are attempting to repair the damage we have done. Only 500 bison remained to replentish their species at the time their slaughter was halted.
A reflection upon the Great Depression and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) by Mark S. Edwards:
"Our country was wounded by the devastating manipulation of the land by removing most of the natural cover, draining it and showing little regard for the coming consequences such as drought, Dust Bowl and the collapse of our economic system. The CCC replanted the trees we had so carelessly cut and restored drained wetlands with reservoirs to capture the water we had flushed away. All this was done while educating our youth, displaced rural workers and the public about the relationship between a healthy land and a stable economy."
Do we need this painful lesson every hundred years?
Sheryl VanderSchoor commented on a previous article about "hip" grannies taking their grandkids on cruises or adventures like white-water rafting. She says "...our grandchildren don't need more places to go and expensive things to do." She suggests spending time talking with them. Way to go, Granny Sheryl!
Carol Hunter wrote an article about her experience bicycling across Iowa in RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa), an event that lasts one week and involves 10,000 participants from around the nation and the world. Carol said, "...the full ride delivered joys I never expected--in the camaraderie of riders seeking a little exercise and a lot of fun, in the beauty of the state's landscape, and in the boundless civic spirit of small-town Iowa."
In the Register's "Roses and Thistles" column: A rose is given to Richard Louv, author of "Last Child in the Woods." Visiting from California, he spoke about how kids are missing something by not spending more time communing with nature.
Carroll R. McKibbin reviews a new book about the Cuban Missile Crisis by Michael Dobbs, "One Minute to Midnight," a reference to the Doomsday clock. Dobbs makes the case that nuclear war, inadvertent or by intent, surely could have happened on what he calls "Black Saturday." After the crisis had passed, President Kennedy is quoted as saying,
"We all inhabit this same planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."
McKibbin concludes, "The current Doomsday clock reads five minutes to midnight, with atomic scientists now concerned about climate change and the destruction of ecosystems, as well as the awful potential of nuclear weapons. President Kennedy's words, as it turned out, were both reflective and prophetic."
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