Tonight was "presentation" night in our Religion, Spirituality, and Counseling class. Have I told you how much I love this class? And these students?

Well, I do. Tonight students presented papers about so many different topics related to religion and spirituality, with student/informal teaching assistant Ethan moderating - their goal was to challenge one another to think deeply about how religion or spirituality might arise, and be welcomed and understood and affirmed, in the contexts of psychotherapy and counseling.

So here are some of the topics students chose to study - (these students rock - that's all there is to it)....

• What happens to the faith, religion, or spirituality of soldiers as a result of their experiences in war? Does faith become stronger? Do soldiers question how God could let horrible things happen? Can faith help with healing from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression?
• How do we understand mystical experiences? When are they evidence of transcendent connections with a higher power? When might they be signs of mental illness? What role do cultural beliefs or practices play in understanding mysticism?
• Are there extreme physical or athletic experiences that can lead to transcendence, to life-changing spiritual experiences?
• What is the relationship between religiosity and men's health? 
• How do we even define religion and spirituality? Where do people who are seeking - who have questions and are on a life-long search for truth and meaning but are not committed to a particular tradition - fit?
• What is "scrupulosity" and how does it develop? How do we help clergy recognize the difference between unhealthy scrupulosity and healthy practice of religious rituals and practices?
• How do religion and spirituality affect the experience of serious illness, like HIV-AIDS or cancer? Can religion and spirituality aid in healing, emotionally or psychologically, or even maybe through strengthening the immune system?
• How do different beliefs or religious traditions -- thinking of Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, followers of Islam -- view death? What are related traditions and beliefs? 
  
• What is the relationship between faith and religion (in this case, Catholicism) and experiences of guilt, shame, and depression? How can therapists help individuals who are struggling with guilt, shame, and depression that might be partly related to religious beliefs?
• What are the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender individuals in religious communities? How do they feel when someone says to them, "Hate the sin, love the sinner," when their sexual orientation is what they have experienced for as long as they remember? Is there really a difference between "hating the sin (which is not sin to them)" and "hating the person"? Is it possible to find a faith of comfort and support, or does a person in the GLBT community have to walk away from religion?
• And last, but not least -- Why is religion so important to the African-American community? How did African-American Christian traditions develop in response to slavery and all that happened since slavery was abolished? What role did religion play in the civil rights movement, and what role does it play in the AA community today?

Today is the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. I have been dipping into his wisdom again off and on in the last year. Today, I read this from Where do we go from here: From chaos to community --

"This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a large house, a great 'world house' in which we have to live together - black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu - a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace." 

Do I need to point out the difference between this passage and the language (and intellect and heart) of our current political figures? Read more of the words of this brilliant, passionate, committed, spiritual, and very complicated man -- listen to his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize speech, re-read one of his letters from the Birmingham jail. Think about his attempts to understand history, human nature in all of its glorious potential as well as its flaws, God and spirituality, with the hope of inspiring all of us to work together -- re-considering his ideas and beliefs might elevate us and challenge us to be better people, to respect one another a little more, to love more strongly in words and actions.

I believe that we, all of us, deserve better than what is currently on the table politically. And I believe, more importantly, that a change toward hope and love, mercy and grace, begins with us and how we treat one another. I want to talk about this more, and to introduce you to the work of Parker Palmer, a Quaker writer and teacher -- so stay tuned.

One year ago today I wrote my first blog entry! I have been wondering for awhile how I would celebrate this first year of writing -- and am still not sure what is going to follow -- let's just see what happens.

What a year! There have been so many wonderful events in the last year -- Michael and Leah's wedding, visits with Julie and Greg and the dogs, meeting Greg's family, Michael's graduation, spending time with Steve and his family, and with my sisters and brothers and parents, and catching up with old friends. At work -- got my contract renewal for three more years, got the first cohort of doctoral students heading to internship, had an article published, kept the budget balanced, and hired a couple of new folks. I got to teach two new classes -- psychology, sustainability, and the environment, and spirituality and religion and counseling -- both near and dear to my heart. And the students. Oh the students - they make it so worth while.

I have learned so much this year since I set out to write about "sustainable health and well-being." I started out exploring some local groups - Pittsburgh Permaculture and their food forest in Hazelwood, Nine Mile Run Watershed Association who helped me get my rain barrels set up, Chris Condello and his efforts to engage kids in his Wilkinsburg neighborhood in community gardening, F.U.S.E. with Michele and Chris who work with urban youth after school, and POWER that serves women in recovery, ... and I went to the March for Blair Mountain to learn about mountain top removal. I started learning more about about other systems of life and living, learning a bit, for example, about how green infrastructure can be used to  manage waste water, and about how fixing our decaying roads and bridges could provide meaningful work for many people who need jobs, and about how people from ALL faiths can work together to address such community problems as cuts in transportation, poor educational systems, and guns in the hands of angry people.  

Check out the picture above. That is what I learned -- what got reinforced for me -- that we are all connected, all of us people, with the birds and beasts, the trees and rivers, the soil and air, and other people from everywhere. We have been doing it WRONG for far too long. We have been acting as though humans (specifically, humans with privilege) are all that matter -- that getting our "needs" met, with little regard for how the methods of meeting our needs affect other people or the world around us, is the highest priority, the ultimate entitlement. We lose so much when we do this -- not only is the earth, our support system without which we would not exist, threatened, but the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren (if we all survive into the future) is threatened. And we miss out on the greatest gifts in life -- the gifts of community, generosity, sharing, and creating.

What, if anything, do we owe those children and grandchildren of our future? My new friend, Cynthia Magistro, who recently joined our faculty, just finished writing a beautiful piece about this very topic -- she speaks about our accepted sense of obligation, as parents, toward our own children. At the family level, we understand that we need to care for these tiny vulnerable beings until they can care for themselves -- and often beyond. This requires sacrifice on our part, giving things up, waiting, in order to insure that the young ones' needs are met, that they are safe and healthy. Cynthia extends this thinking to the much larger world, asking questions about what our generation, globally speaking, owes the world's children of the future. What is fair and just? What is morally and ethically correct? What does it say about our generation if we are not attempting to live lives that are sustainable and balanced, if we are misusing and overusing our limited resources? I am not doing Cynthia's ideas justice here, but wanted to share some of her basic questions with you anyway.

I am reading a new report published by the National Wildlife Foundation that speaks to the mental health consequences of global climate change -- there is evidence that we are experiencing effects of global climate change in recent severe weather events (remember all the hurricanes and tornadoes and droughts and other strange weather in 2011?). There are predictions that this may worsen if our course is not corrected. When things get so topsy-turvy and scary around us like this, there are increases in anxiety and depression and even, in extreme situations, post-traumatic stress disorder. There are lots of folks who are also talking about threats to water supplies, and how conflicts in the future may be related not to oil but to fresh and clean water. This report reinforced my beliefs that psychologists and other health care professionals need to know about these issues, and to think about them when they work with their clients. Add to this the importance of learning about the health consequences of other human-caused environmental assaults, such as mountain top removal or toxin-emitting factories.

So I keep thinking about these things and I keep listening for my calling about what to do. For some reason, though I have been away from Kentucky for many many years (I have now lived over half my life in Pittsburgh), I feel pulled toward the mountains. So here is my next plan.... I think.... going to the Summer Action Camp sponsored by the Mountain Justice Organization, in Pipestem, West Virginia in May. I will admit that I am a little worried that I will be the oldest person there. I am a little worried that it is, like, a CAMP -- and I have to admit that I like beds. With mattresses and sheets. And I am fond of toilets. Ceramic ones that flush. And showers. But if those basics are assured, I may try this.

And long-term plans? I will be 60 next June (2013) -- am going to try to bike from Pittsburgh to Washington DC on the rails trail. Trying to build up "time in the saddle" now. Biking slows me down and helps me notice and appreciate the little things -- birds, wildflowers, little creeks and waterfalls, old abandoned buildings, colorful graffiti. 

Life is good. Very good. And how are you?

So when I was in high school, Kent State happened. I didn't even really hear about it, or at least I don't remember hearing about it - so unconnected and clueless. All I knew was that some guys got suspended for wearing black armbands to school. I didn't follow the war when I was in high school beyond my vague awareness about my brother going for a physical because he had been drafted - again, really out of touch (no, he didn't have to go). Environmental issues? Nah. I just wasn't tuned in to much outside of my own little world of school, family, homework, friends, the band.

At Transylvania, in college, my eyes began to open a bit. I had some really great professors in sociology and anthropology - I began to read more and to listen. There was a big big world outside of Lexington, KY, with a lot going on, with people who looked and thought and believed differently than my family, my friends, and I did. I stepped out a little - campaigned for McGovern against Nixon. For me, it had become mainly about the war. McGovern lost, of course. And the war. Well, we know what happened there. Promises broken.

Years passed - getting educated, working, having children and making a family, voting, trying to keep up with things. My focus for years was on kids' issues - my own kids, other peoples' kids, working with families, schools, pediatricians, day care centers and preschools. 

My focus is still on kids, just in a different way. Julie and Michael are adults, and someday in the not too distant future (no rush, guys - no rush), I may have grandchildren. And this is what I want for my children and my grandchildren:

• a viable and biodiverse earth that can provide clean air and water, and healthy soil to produce abundant food for nourishment for everyone
• equal access to safe shelter, to health care, and to education
• a peaceful world without horrible blood-letting conflict over oil, religion, access to water and land, or my gun's bigger than yours - enough already! enough!
• a culture where there is respect for all workers who contribute to the common good - mothers and fathers who stay at home to raise their children, crossing guards, teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers who build bridges and water systems, farmers, factory workers, safety officers, cooks, landscapers -- you know as well as I do that this list goes on and on
• a well-educated citizenry - a society that selects lawmakers and leaders who will WORK TOGETHER for the common good, that supports a government that is not shaped primarily by corporate interests

I want this world for my children, other people's children, and our grandchildren. And I believe that most of those involved in the Occupy Movement want the same. Yes, there are goofy self-centered attention-seeking people who are part of the movement. Are there not also goofy self-centered attention-seeking people in the finance world? In government? I do believe there are.

I hear criticisms that the movement participants are lazy and entitled and should just get a job - or in Newt's words, "Go get a job after you take a bath." How utterly condescending and hateful and disrespectful.  Really? He and his brethren should be heading down to Wall Street and LA and Philly and Pittsburgh and talking to the people who are part of the Occupy Movement - our leaders have the responsibility to talk with and learn from every constituency in this country, regardless of race, economic status, age, ethnicity, political persuasion, job status, education, and so on. How else will they be able to make important decisions for the common good? The reality, however, is that money speaks more loudly to our lawmakers. And people like Newt Gingrich will not humble themselves in order to learn from the mostly young people who are the future of our country. So very sad.

I hear criticisms that the movement's aims are vague and unfocused. Can we truly say that Congress is focused and united? It is true that there are multiple goals of the movement - when I participated in the 10-17-11 Occupy Pittsburgh march, which led to the creation of the camp downtown, I saw many many different groups represented, each with its own story and agenda. But the common thread was the larger story that lives are being negatively affected, in significant long-term ways, by a topsy-turvy world where big companies make laws. 

Define plutocracy - Bill Moyers himself, a man of intellect, faith, and integrity speaks out about this. Or, as environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr. has said, consider fascism or government by business. Yes, this is very harsh. But please let's really think about the ramifications of the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission for our democracy.

There has been much written about Generation Y - my children's generation, the kids of the boomers. A common refrain is that this Generation Y is selfish and narcissistic. Check out this book as just one example of this allegation -- Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before. Note: if this is true, they didn't get this way on their own.

I am leaping with joy to see young people take a stand for concerns that are larger than themselves, that are related to the health and well-being of all citizens. It makes me happy to go downtown and see the orderly tents of the Occupy Pittsburghers. It makes me happy when my own kids and nieces and nephews ask questions and make comments about the movement, whether or not they agree with me. It makes me happy when I hear my students talk about what this all means. Because it means that they are at least partially attending to what is going on. They are thinking and questioning.

I just finished two very good books about social change and social movements - Martin Luther King's Why We Can't Wait, his writings about the civil rights movements in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, and Grace Lee Boggs' The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century - she has been involved in civil rights, labor, and environmental work in the Detroit area for decades. What I heard from these wise activists confirmed what I already knew from my work with families and individuals: Change is hard, and resistance to change is intense. 

Social change is hard and it is scary. It threatens our familiar assumptions and routines. Both King and Boggs emphasized that rebellion and revolt are not sufficient to produce long-lasting change - toppling the king from the throne does nothing good if you do not have something else to put in place. And they also emphasized that long-lasting constructive social change requires pushing against unfair and unjust practices, in persistent non-violent ways, AND - I find this SO important - stretching ourselves internally, as individuals, to grow and learn and become more fair and just and kind and generous and loving.

Please take the time to read many different accounts of the Occupy Movement, from all sides. Take the time to talk with people who are walking the talk - go downtown in your city and talk to people at the camp (if they are still there). Hear what they are about. Think about what they - and we - can do to keep the conversations and activism and change processes going even as the camps are being demolished. Take it seriously. Eyes wide open, connected, and clued-in.

Two events are happening this week in Pittsburgh that tap into important social justice issues. The first is at Chatham tomorrow afternoon. Two other professors and I will be sharing our stories of participation in the Blair Mountain March last May. Mountain Top Removal is a practice that is devastating to the natural environment as well as the physical, emotional, and communal well-being of the people in the area - and it is notable that the people most significantly affected are among the poorest in the nation. (Excuse the wonky graphics.... had a hard time getting these up!)

Then Thursday, late afternoon, we will be on Greenfield Bridge to advocate for jobs for people who want to work - and for the possibility of creating these jobs to repair the decaying infrastructure of the city - like the Greenfield Bridge. Meaningful work that contributes to the community as well as the family's financial health - sounds like a good idea!

On another note - I met a very cool gentleman at the Square today - the ecological artist Alan Kettler - who will be having an exhibit at the Square on December 3. Stay tuned for more information - I am predicting that you will LOVE his work. Even just viewing it online this morning helped me to start the day with a light and hopeful heart - hard to explain, but check it out.

Have a great week in this crazy weather!

Last night I was privileged to attend the fall gathering of the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network. The meeting was held at Rodef Shalom - which was packed with over 1000 people who represented many races and ethnic backgrounds, as well as many religions and faith traditions. PIIN is a vibrant group in Pittsburgh modeled on the Gamaliel Foundation which has as its mission "teaching ordinary citizens to unleash the power within themselves to collectively impact the social, political, environmental, and economic decisions affecting their lives." How cool is that?

What a powerful gathering! The first area of focus in the meeting was gun violence -  remember Rev. Glenn Grayson and Marsha Grayson who lost their son G to random gun violence a year ago? Rev. Glenn spoke - actually raised the roof with his pain and passion about getting rid of the guns that are floating around the city and are being used to kill primarily young black men. Others spoke with wisdom and fervor about civil rights of immigrants, documented and undocumented, the need for better public transportation, the very significant racial gap in education - there is about a two grade-level gap in national reading and math assessment test scores between black students and white students - unacceptable, and employment issues. Many citizens spoke of trying to find work at a living, family supporting wage - wanting desperately to do work that would enable them to buy food and clothing, and pay for housing for their families. Other spoke of having to wait an hour to catch a bus to take their child to daycare so that they could then go to work, only to have the bus pass them by because it was full.

These pleas were particularly meaningful during this time of increasing recognition of the enormous gap between rich and poor. For example, Fred Smith, founder of Fed Ex, has had an average annual salary of $9.79 million over the last six years, according to Forbes Magazine. His employees average between $15-22 per hour. Thus, Occupy X.

I didn't realize it at first, but the timing of this meeting was critical - the week before the November elections. Many candidates and office-holders were invited to the meeting, and several, but not all came. Highlights included Police Chief Nate Harper's commitment to step up the efforts to track and control guns in the city (hopefully with the Mayor's support - he was not present); School Superintendent Linda Lane's commitment to distribute the budget more equitably between all neighborhood schools, regardless of neighborhood income or racial make-up; and State Rep. Dan Frankel's (D - Squirrel Hill) commitment to advocate with Governor Corbett - who was not present - for more funding for public transportation in the city.

We can vote in many ways - during elections next week, with our dollars in terms of spending locally instead of in support of huge corporations, and with our feet and bodies - stay tuned for information about a rally on November 17th at the Greenfield Bridge - where we will speak up about the need for jobs to support our families and to support the nation, particularly in light of our country's need for strengthening of our crumbling infrastructure.

In the meantime, down the road at F.U.S.E....

Jordan Howard will be hosting a release party for his forthcoming debut mixtape, "the DREAM". The event will take place at the F.U.S.E. Center in East Liberty. Admission is a $5 donation at the door. This $5 donation will allow you to gain access to all of the evening's festivities, and you will receive a CD copy of "the DREAM". Jordan will also be performing 3 tracks from the mixtape that evening. The MC for the evening will be Pittsburgh's own DJ Sally Grace. Hope to see everyone there!

There is a prayer practice called "lectio divina" - slow, contemplative reading of sacred works or poems in which one listens carefully to one's heart, to the still small voice of a greater wisdom that might be speaking through the words. A few years ago, in a centering prayer group, the leader read the story of Jesus and Bartimaeus, the blind beggar. She read the story, slowly and softly. She asked us to listen closely, to sense where we might have been in this scene of Jesus, followed by crowds and his disciples, coming upon a blind man begging him for mercy. Where would we be?

This is what I heard, in the stillness of my heart. I would be sitting at a Starbucks across the road, watching and waiting. I would be sipping tea and reading a book, unobtrusively observing the crowds following Jesus, hanging on him, asking him for help. I would watch to see what would happen. Maybe after the crowds thinned out and things settled down, I would approach Jesus. I would ask him how he was, who he was. I would say that his life looked hard, and I wondered how that was for him.

And Bartimaeus? Yes, I would have wanted to reach out to him as well. But in the crowd? Nope. Not likely.

So that was where I was in that public scene. I most definitely was not part of the crowd of people, the public "hangers-on" in my mind, nor was I one of the disciples, committed to the mysterious journey that lay ahead. I also did not rush over, in this public arena, to help Bartimaeus myself. I watched by the side of the road. Safe, private. Curious, moved, but uncommitted. Not going to be part of the crowd.

I have been taking baby steps away from Starbucks toward the crowds, toward the beggar. I have been taking tiny steps toward being part of it all, accepting that I won't lose who I am in the crowd and that I might even learn something or have something to contribute myself. And realizing that maybe voices raised together in a crowd can mean something. So I went to Blair Mountain this summer and today I went downtown with the Occupy Pittsburgh group.

The sign above kind of sums up today. The common factor among the people who were at the Occupy Pittsburgh march was the "commons" - all eyes were on humanity, the larger good, not on the bottom line. Poverty, race, education and health care cuts, the huge costs of war, student debt, environmental destruction - today I heard voices raised for people, not dollars. Justice and equity, fairness, empathy, accountability and responsibility. And you know what? It is all connected.

There were babies in strollers, students from grade school through college, union members, older graying seasoned protesters, clergy, veterans. I got to see my Kalie and her family. Everyone was respectful, kind, generous. There was joy in the group, along with a sense of frustration that things have come to this point. There was a feeling of - "Enough. No more." I felt privileged to be part of the group, to be among the crowd.

This is what democracy looks like.

Been feeling a little unsettled today after yesterday's posting - not sure why. Maybe because I had such a strong reaction to Jose Antonio Vargas' story, the human side of it, and for me maybe, the humanistic side of it, without really having a lot of knowledge about some of the things I was talking about - factual knowledge. Has that ever happened to you? I mean, how much do I really know?

What I know - or think I know...

• First, I need to learn more about immigration and immigration policy.
• Immigration - documented or undocumented - is a complicated subject.
• Our nation was built on the backs and with the minds and hearts of immigrants. We often forget that white Europeans who settled the US were originally immigrants.
• Sometimes it feels like the brouhaha about immigration now is related at least in part to the reality that many of the people who want to enter our country and become citizens have dark skin.
• It also feels like the tension is related to fear about the future, about the economy, about what might be ahead. We often react with fear when faced with the unknown.
• Immigrants, of both types, contribute to our economy - as workers, consumers, and often taxpayers.
• Whether or not we want to acknowledge it, our economy depends upon the labor of immigrants, of both types.
• Immigrants of both types also use public services.
• We have policies that are supposed to support and oversee legal immigration.
• These policies are far from perfect, and are cumbersome, costly, and confusing.
• There are passionate arguments on both sides, some carefully researched, some rising from strong feelings ... browse through these three web-sites:
•         Drum Major Institute for Public Policy - Contributions of Immigrants
•         US Illegal Aliens - The Dark Side
•         Pappy's Ponderings - Illegal Immigration

If you have been reading my blog, you might know that I have biases - arising from a combination of my values, ethics, experiences, profession, politics, faith, and education. I have a world-view that some, but certainly not all, share. The lens through which I view the world is that it is a world of abundance, not scarcity. There is more than enough for all, though that might mean that for all to have enough, things might have to level out a bit. I know that others may have had experiences, terrible experiences, that have led them to view life through the lens of scarcity. Yet I have known people who have had terrible experiences, lives of devastating unfairness and fathomless losses, who are still able to view the world as abundant, who are still able to hold out hope and to act with generosity. What allows this to happen? I don't know. Most of the time, I believe that we have a choice about our lens, but I don't really know.

When I think about Jose Antonio Vargas and others like him, I see adults, but I also see the children within the adults - who they used to be - the kids whose parents wanted them to have lives better than theirs. I have children - I get this.

When I read Pappy's Ponderings and the site US Illegal Aliens, tears come to my eyes - I sense so much anger and fear in those words. It makes me sad. I believe that listening to, understanding, getting along with people who are different from us is important. We need to do this for the good of all of us who share this home called earth. 

It is complicated, and I want to learn more.

Why have I not thought about this before? Why have I not ever thought about how sustainability and immigration issues might be related?

So, according to the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the APA Climate Change Task Force, and other reports, human behaviors over the last two centuries, particularly in the last 75 years, have contributed significantly to global climate change. Particular aspects of human functioning that have contributed to climate change - known as human drivers - include patterns of increased consumption/materialism and increased population. These two primary drivers result in an increase in emission of green house gases, which then leads to global warming and other kinds of climate change. Climate change is currently viewed by many as the biggest threat, on a global level, to health and security.

Unless climate change trends are reversed, or its effects significantly mitigated, there will be several negative consequences across the world. Among these are increased severe weather events, food and water insecurity, increased spread of disease, and patterns of mass migration with the goal of obtaining access to decreasing resources.

Migration trends are changing as more and more people try to gain access to the good life -- in the US, for example, we have many residents from poorer countries who have immigrated, who have crossed our borders with or without documentation, for a chance of access to better health care, better education, safer living conditions. This trend obviously affects our nation's population size -- as have migration/immigration trends from the time that our nation was born.

Immigration - in particular, what to do about individuals who have moved to and established lives in the US without documentation - has long been a hot issue in the US. In the last few years, it has been intensely debated at state levels. Arizona is one state that has been in the news related to its efforts to deal with "illegal" immigration by seeking out those who are here without documentation and finding ways to deport them.

What does this have to do with "sustainability," with learning to live today with the needs of future generations in mind? I had not connected the two ideas - sustainability and immigration - until today. Stay with me - I am getting there.

Driving home from work, I listened to an NPR interview with Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who just this week "came out" as an "illegal immigrant" in an essay in the New York Times Magazine. Read Jose's essay for yourself. Draw your own conclusions about his life in the US, his decisions about how to portray himself throughout his life, his contributions to his adopted country.

My interest was piqued as I listened to Jose speak about his efforts to become an open activist who can foster recognition of contributions of undocumented workers to our country's well-being. I had recently come across information about a group in Minnesota called "Minnesotans for Sustainability" - the group defines a sustainable society as one that "balances the environment, other life forms, and human interactions over an indefinite time period." Good definition. The group accurately describes population growth as a contributor to problems with sustainability. One of the strongest recommendations made by the group to deal with population growth, however, is to deport "illegal aliens" who are using valuable resources that are needed by legal citizens - the presence of the "illegal aliens" threatens sustainability of Minnesota and the US.

My first reaction to this is - I hate, hate, hate the term "illegal aliens" - the term is so derogatory, and calls to mind a bizarre image of criminals from Mars. When I listened to Jose Antonio Vargas, and learned more about his contributions as a working journalist who pays taxes (though under an illegal SSN), I felt so frustrated. He had come here at age 12 from the Philippines, sent here by his mother to her parents with the hope that his life would be better in the US. He described loving the US - school, music, culture - he described his efforts to learn to speak English without an accent by watching Golden Girls and other sitcoms over and over again. He didn't even know that he was not here legally, that his documents had been falsified, until he was 16 and tried to get a learner's permit to drive. His story is compelling, and his courage great - his coming out this week threatens his livelihood and well-being, but he did so as an effort to support the millions of undocumented workers in the US who want to become citizens. Hard to envision him as a Martian criminal...

My second and stronger reaction -- Well. I think a lot about what "sustainability" and "sustainable health and well-being" mean - about what we need to do to ensure the health and safety of us and other species and of our earth. Last time I looked, these issues involve the whole world. Even when we are talking about sustainability of the economy - we live on imported goods, and send goods elsewhere. 

To my understanding, if we are talking about sustainability in terms of the environment, climate change is a global issue, and the threats to sustainability know no borders. Air is air - dirty air is dirty air - it drifts across the globe with no regard for human made borders. Temperature, water, weather, birds, butterflies, seeds, soil -- no borders. If the wind picks up the sand from a desert in one nation in the middle east, and carries it to a nation in Asia -- well, can't do anything about it. Our control of things like this is quite limited.  Similarly, when the economy hits the skids in another nation - we are affected.

Is it even possible to have one part of the world (like Minnesota) be "sustainable" by moving some people out, without affecting other parts of the world? It is complicated - while decisions to live sustainably are made by individual and communities, in the end these multiple decisions have ripple effects all over the world.

It is pretty well documented (see sources above) that the per capita consumption of energy of residents of the US and Europe is much much greater than the per capita energy consumption of the rest of the world. We are consuming more than our share of what the earth has to offer, and thus we are contributing more than others to global climate change. Our choices may be negatively affecting other parts of the world. As I have said before, I do not say this in an unappreciative voice, nor do I speak from an unpatriotic position. My stance is that, as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, we have much to gain, as do others, if we would take the lead in trying to reduce our consumption and energy use. What would happen if the US loudly and visibly embarked upon a journey toward more sustainable living, which would require international and intergovernmental collaboration and community-building? Would the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - emerging economic and technological leaders - follow suit? Could all of these wonderful and creative and innovative nation-forces move together toward healthier and more sustainable living?

Jose Antonio Vargas made a decision at some point, when applying for a job, to lie. He had to choose - check the box that indicated he was a documented immigrant or check the box that indicated he was a citizen. He says that he thought about this and, as he made the decision to lie by claiming to be a citizen, he also made the decision to live his life in a way that would earn the right to that title - to be a hard worker who contributed economically, socially, and culturally to what he thought of as his home country, to be a grateful person who could do his part to help those who did not have his advantages. Yes, he lied, and each of us will need to decide what to think about this. I have to think about it as well.

And each of us may have to think, if times do indeed worsen in the future due to the effects of climate change, about whether or not the value of one person's life can be seen as greater than that of another - if one person, or nation, is deserving of greater resources and access to resources needed to live, than any other person or nation.

Whoa. It has been too long since I have written. Even though I was in West Virginia for only a few days, it took many more than a few days after I returned to absorb all the experiences I had and to get back on track.

As you can see from my picture, the march on Blair Mountain was both exhausting and exhilarating. Friends have asked questions about the march and issues related to it, so I have tried to continue my own education.

For example, I have been learning more about what the process of mountain top removal (MTR) actually involves - how it is done and what happens to the nearby environment and people during and after the MTR. There are several steps to the MTR process: 

• clearing all topsoil and plants - that alone sounds painful and bleak
• blasting through 500-800 feet of mountain surface to reach the seam of coal 
• digging and removing coal and debris with a huge machine which actually does the work that in the past was done by people
• dumping waste, known as overburden or spoil, into valleys and stream beds - typically filling or burying the streams
• processing - or washing and treating - the coal, creating waste water, known as slurry or sludge, which is then stored in impoundments that are often open, poorly supported and unstable ... slurry is made of a mixture of water, coal dust, clay, and toxic chemicals including arsenic, mercury, lead, copper, and chromium
• reclamation which is supposed to involve stabilization of the land and revegetation ... a not very closely monitored or regulated process

Below is a photo of an Appalachian mountain - followed by a photo of the mountain post-MTR - followed by a different "reclaimed mountain." What do you think?

What are the effects of this devastation, really? 

The drastic changes to the landscape increase flooding (which includes runoff that contains toxic chemicals). The ongoing blasting associated with MTR damages the foundations of homes, property values, and quality of life. Blasting also randomly sends boulders and debris down onto yards in the communities below the MTR sites, creating safety risks. Slurry and sludge poison drinking water and increase realities of disease in nearby communities. These are immediate and short-term changes.

Let's look to the past, then far into the future. In 2009, the Smithsonian Magazine reported that...

Since the mid-1990s, coal companies have pulverized Appalachian mountaintops in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Peaks formed hundreds of millions of years ago are obliterated in months. Forests that survived the last ice age are chopped down and burned. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that by 2012, two decades of mountaintop removal will have destroyed or degraded 11.5 percent of the forests in those four states, an area larger than Delaware. Rubble and waste will have buried more than 1,000 miles of streams.

The rate and scope of this destruction is incredibly short-sighted. Centuries of work by Mother Earth gone and, on top of that, toxic substances introduced into what is left. Without extensive intervention, this threatens much needed biodiversity (all of life is interconnected and interdependent for survival) and causes harm to the health and well-being of plants, humans, and other animals for hundreds of years to come. 

And no intervention can truly re-create what has been destroyed - particularly the culture of the mountain people in the communities affected by MTR. I witnessed the strength and integrity of the people from Appalachia at the march - outspoken, impassioned, but respectful and honest.

Hazel Dickens fought MTR - she was one beautiful voice rising from Appalachia. She was to have performed at the Blair Mountain March but, sadly, passed away in April before the March.

More later... in the meantime, let me know what you think.

From March on Blair Mountain:

We march to preserve Blair Mountain, abolish mountaintop removal, strengthen labor rights, and an investment in sustainable job creation for all Appalachian communities.The March on Blair Mountain is a peaceful, unifying rally involving environmental justice organizations, workers, scholars, artists, and other citizens and groups. The march commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, when 10,000 coal miners rose against the rule of the coal operators and fought for the basic right to live and work in decent conditions. Currently, Blair Mountain is threatened with obliteration by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining, and it is here that a new generation of Appalachians takes a stand.

In the spirit of the original march–which consisted of mountain peoples, African-Americans, and immigrants from all over Europe–we reach out to a diversity of groups to march in solidarity for the workers, communities and mountains of Appalachia. If you stand with us, you are one of us — a true mountaineer.