Dear President-Elect Trump: a letter from the Episcopal bishops in MA about the environment

Dec. 12, 2016

Donald J. Trump

President-Elect of the United States of America

Trump Tower

735 5th Avenue

New York, NY 10022

Dear President-Elect Trump,

We, the bishops of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, are glad to let you know that all of our 235 churches pray for you regularly in our liturgies with these or similar words: “For those in positions of public trust, especially Barack our President and Donald our President-Elect, that they may serve justice, and promote the dignity and freedom of every person.”

We also pray: “Give us reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory.”

The Episcopal Church stands strongly for the protection of the environment. We respect the facts of science.  We support laws and policies that address the reality of climate change. We are in the process of divesting our financial interest in fossil fuels. Most recently our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, joined Native Americans at Standing Rock in their effort to protect their water and their sacred land. Numerous other Episcopal Church leaders have likewise traveled to Standing Rock.

Our respect for our government leaders and our reverence for the earth as God’s creation impel us to write you to express our dismay about your selection of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. We wonder why a person who has consistently and adamantly opposed all laws and policies that provide even minimal “protection” to the environment should be entrusted with leading such an agency.

President-elect Trump, you have promised economic development. Like you, we value a stable and prosperous economy.  However, a thriving economy depends on a healthy environment. The more we weaken and dismantle the E.P.A.’s vital protections of our natural world, the more we threaten the common good.

You have also promised to strengthen our national defense. Like you, we value national security.  However, our country’s top military intelligence have concluded that climate change is a “threat multiplier” that is already creating instability around the world and will likely create significant security challenges in the years ahead.  If someone who casts doubt on the reality of climate change becomes the head of the E.P.A., our national security will be compromised.

As citizens of this beloved country, we intend to write our members of Congress, urging them to block the nomination of Scott Pruitt to lead the E.P.A. We will pray for a better choice.

And we will continue to pray for you as you assume this office of tremendous responsibility for the good of all.

Respectfully,

The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, Bishop Diocesan of Western Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop Diocesan of Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts (retired)

The Rt. Rev. Roy F. Cederholm, Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts (retired)

http://www.diomass.org/diocesan-news/ma-bishops-oppose-trump-pick-epa

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Climate Change

Archbishop Tutu, who with Nelson Mandela took on apartheid in South Africa and against all odds won, is now taking on climate change. Here is an excerpt from an article:

Never before in history have human beings been called on to act collectively in defence of the Earth. As a species, we have endured world wars, epidemics, famine, slavery, apartheid and many other hideous consequences of religious, class, race, gender and ideological intolerance. People are extraordinarily resilient. The Earth has proven pretty resilient, too. It's managed to absorb most of what's been thrown at it since the industrial revolution and the invention of the internal combustion engine.

Until now, that is. Because the science is clear: the sponge that cushions and sustains us, our environment, is already saturated with carbon. If we don't limit global warming to two degrees or less we are doomed to a period of unprecedented instability, insecurity and loss of species. Fossil fuels have powered human endeavour since our ancestors developed the skills to make and manage fire. Coal, gas and oil warm our homes, fuel our industries and enable our movements. We have allowed ourselves to become totally dependent, and are guilty of ignoring the warning signs of pending disaster. It is time to act.

As responsible citizens of the world – sisters and brothers of one family, the human family, God's family – we have a duty to persuade our leaders to lead us in a new direction: to help us abandon our collective addiction to fossil fuels, starting this week in New York at the United Nations Climate Summit. Reducing our carbon footprint is not just a technical scientific necessity; it has also emerged as the human rights challenge of our time. While global emissions have risen unchecked, real-world impacts have taken hold in earnest. The most devastating effects of climate change – deadly storms, heat waves, droughts, rising food prices and the advent of climate refugees – are being visited on the world's poor. Those who have no involvement in creating the problem are the most affected, while those with the capacity to arrest the slide dither. Africans, who emit far less carbon than the people of any other continent, will pay the steepest price. It is a deep injustice...

There is a word we use in South Africa that describes human relationships:Ubuntu. It says: I am because you are. My successes and my failures are bound up in yours. We are made for each other, for interdependence. Together, we can change the world for the better.

Who can stop climate change? We can. You and you and you, and me. And it is not just that we can stop it, we have a responsibility to do so that began in the genesis of humanity, when God commanded the earliest human inhabitants of the Garden of Eden, "to till it and keep it". To "keep" it; not to abuse it, not to make as much money as possible from it, not to destroy it.

To read the full article by Archbishop Tutu:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/21/desmond-tutu-climate-change-is-the-global-enemy

There is more on this this month:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/01/church-of-england-wields-its-influence-in-fight-against-climate-change  

Santa Maria wreckage found?

When I was first in Haiti in 2009, Sr. Marjorie Raphael kindly took me to the National Museum in Haiti, where I saw, alongside other wonderful things, the anchor of the Santa Maria.  I was astonished, having apparently retained very little from my early schooling in history.  

a 2012 photo of school field trip groups outside the Musee du Pantheon National Haitien, which holds the anchor of the Santa Maria
I am thankful the museum is still (or back) in operation following the earthquake.

I gather I'm also a little slow to pick up more recent news: although I was online last week, I missed this completely. Had I not gone to the Nouvelliste site for something else and followed a tiny picture off to the side, I'd never have seen it. Have you?

The story begins, as many do on the high seas, with a party. 

It was Christmas Eve, 1492. The setting: Christopher Columbus’s Santa María, the flagship vessel that he had commandeered to visit the New World. One by one, the crew fell asleep until only a cabin boy was left steering the ship in the Caribbean Sea.

Soon, the boy crashed the ship into a coral reef off of the northern coast of Hispaniola, or near Cap Haitien in Haiti. The ship sank to the bottom of the sea, and the crew spent that Christmas saving Santa María‘s cargo. Afterward, Columbus boarded one of his other ships, the Nina, and the explorers sailed back to Spain, leaving behind the wreckage of the Santa María – fueling a 500-year-old mystery over its remains.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/13/archaeologist-likely-solves-500-year-old-mystery-of-christopher-columbuss-missing-santa-maria/?tid=hp_mm

Apparently someone may finally have found the wreckage. Of course, they've been looking for this a long time, but they had new information about the location of another historical site from which they've calculated the distance to this one. Et voila!

via the Wall Street Journal

Here's a short explanatory video from the History Channel:
http://bcove.me/oqbjgvx0

The Miami Herald, which has good information, as usual, about news from Haiti, says,

The claim, which still needs to be verified, has its share of skeptics, including another underwater explorer who also believed he had discovered the remains of the Santa Maria while snorkeling in 1987 off Haiti’s northern coast.

“There is a lot of water, a lot of history around Haiti, and there have been many, many shipwrecks along the coast of Haiti,” said Daniel Koski-Karell, whose 1991 mission to confirm his hunch was thwarted by political turmoil.

But should the scientific evidence of the wreckage pan out this time, the discovery would solve a more than 500-year-old riddle that has plagued historians and marine archaeologists, and been the subject of many failed explorations. It would also help in the rebranding a country struggling to rebuild four years after a devastating earthquake, and desperately trying to reshape its image in the world.

“It would be a tremendous discovery for Haiti,” Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told the Herald.

Lamothe, like others in the government, aren’t breaking out the champagne just yet.

But a confident Clifford, who says he’s been in touch with Haitian President Michel Martelly, is already envisioning a traveling exhibit of the wreckage that would be “a positive statement from Haiti around the world.”

“This ship that changed the course of human history needs to be protected and preserved for the Haitian people; that is much more valuable than gold,” he said. “This is an irreplaceable resource for the Haitian people.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/13/v-print/4115503/shipwreck-of-haiti-could-be-columbuss.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/13/v-print/4115503/shipwreck-of-haiti-could-be-columbuss.html

The wreck as envisaged in 1492
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/exclusive-found-after-500-years-the-wreck-of-christopher-columbuss-flagship-the-santa-maria-9359330.html

So what's next?

The site has been looted, as all archeological sites somehow seem to be, even underwater, and a whole cannon has already disappeared, so they have to get moving as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the archaeologists themselves have gotten more responsible in the last century or so, and anything found will remain in Haiti where it belongs.

Barry Clifford, the lead archaeologist, says,

"“Ideally, if excavations go well and depending on the state of preservation of any buried timber, it may ultimately be possible to lift any surviving remains of the vessel, fully conserve them and then put them on permanent public exhibition in a museum in Haiti.

“I believe that, treated in this way, the wreck has the potential to play a major role in helping to further develop Haiti’s tourism industry in the future,” he said."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/exclusive-found-after-500-years-the-wreck-of-christopher-columbuss-flagship-the-santa-maria-9359330.html

One more reason for me to get back to Haiti.

ms roboto

This noon my family had a lighter moment over lunch.  We had gone to church, of course, and after speaking with many people and thanking them for prayers for Mom, we went out to lunch.  I think it must have started when my sister misread the restaurant sign and referred to Trailer Park Restaurant and Grille.  Not quite what it actually said.  We're getting a little punchy at times, so the rest of us thought this was hilarious. After further embroidering (Ye Olde Trailer Park Grille, etc.), we were seated and kept talking.  That is, my sisters and I talked, and my father looked on in unusual silence.  He's the extravert in the family; normally he'd be the one leading the conversation.  However, my youngest sister had just gotten back from a robotics seminar (prepaid by the school where she teaches physics, so she had to go despite the current situation).  Discussion of robotics led into a discussion of hospital robots (more on that momentarily) and, of all things, diagramming sentences in team competition.

How, you might ask, is robotics related to diagramming?  Hmmm....
Here are some points of comparison:
1.  logic and diagrams
2.  team competitions as part of pedagogy

For all you English teachers out there, there is a reason my sisters and I loved diagramming sentences.  No, not because we are just geeks.  OK, maybe we are.  But that's not the reason: our classes all loved it.  We always started by creating the most complicated (but correct) sentences and trading them to see if the other team could diagram them.  However, the best part was when Mrs. Fettig had us create complex blank diagrams and give them to the other teams, who would then try to create sentences to match.  When you have a blank diagram that fills up half a page with its complexity, you have potential for much fun.

My sister described several team competitions with these mini robots.  She pulled up a little video later on, which I've included below, of student creations.  What reminded us of competitive sentence diagramming was an exercise in which they graph a story (I'll spare you) - even a fairy tale - and then make the mobot follow it to act it out; then they can trade stories or trade graphs to make a story to match.



This robotics discussion meandered back to the hospital, too.  They have robots here.  Remember in Star Wars, where there are little robots wandering the halls taking messages? Nothing so complex as R2D2 or C3PO - just the little grey ones running through the halls. I have a vague recollection of Chewbacca growling at one and scaring it.  

Well, they have grey robot carts in the hospital here.  It's just bizarre to see this cart of linens coming down the hall alone, no track in sight.  If a poorly parked wheelchair is in the way, its sensors stop and make it back up, do a little turning, and move around it.  In the middle of the day with people all around, you can walk right past without thinking much of it, but at 4AM when you are sleepily leaving ICU to find the facilities (none on the ward for those of us who are just staying), it's slightly surreal.

Ms. Roboto (Robota?)

And it talks.

She talks, that is.

"Crossing... Hallway...  Crossing.... Hallway."  A woman's voice.

Sounds like Hal from 2001 Space Odyssey.  My sister has been doing imitations. "I'm sorry, Dave.  I'm afraid I can't do that."

She can open doors and take the elevator by herself, too.

Linen Carts Run Amok - the next scary movie of the summer?  3AM, empty hospital corridor, the linen cart approaches... and says...

Think of the possibilities.

Did I mention we've been getting a little punchy?  

I think we've all needed to laugh.  And Mom has actually been helping.  It's amazing what she can communicate with one raised eyebrow or the faintest of eye rolls.  She can't speak, she can't move other than to wiggle fingers and toes, but at times when she isn't too drugged up, she still manages to communicate with the faintest of head shakes or nods along with these facial expressions.  We have wondered aloud in her presence just what she'll be saying to us when she can finally talk again.  Save it up, Mom!  Wouldn't it be neat if she had one of those machines that follows directions from minimal movements - more robots, more incredible technology.

Meanwhile, we're relying on something better.  Mom's condition is improving - she's had several extended periods of time off the vent - but she's still in critical condition and will have her most serious surgery yet on Tuesday morning.  I ask your prayers.

blue moon



blue moon over Duxbury Bay, low tide reflection
8.31.12

Looking at the moon over the water tonight is a multilayered experience.  

Although it appeared orange, it's a blue moon, the second full moon of the month.  So beautiful.

Today, appropriately, was also the day of Neil Armstrong's funeral, so I thought of him.  His family request: "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."  (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/blue-moon-full-moon-month-friday-coincides-neil/story?id=17117776)

Once in a blue moon, we say... What has happened today, only today? Today itself has happened, and all that is in it - all during a blue moon.   Blue moons don't happen often, but what happens today is unique to today.  How many little gifts were we given today?  That walk with Penny, our convent dog, will only happen once.  I hope there will be other walks with her before I leave for Haiti, of course, just as I hope there will be other conversations, other blue skies, other laughter.  There will be other really good things to taste (morning coffee, take-out Chinese, Greek yogurt!) and other finds (a book on cassette tape in 2012 and for only $1 - something to take to Haiti for battery-powered evenings in the dark!).  There will be sisters and friends and family to think of.  Each of these things is something unique, something to be treasured or at least recognized at the end of the day. 

What happened to you? What treasures were you given? What did you experience once in this blue moon?

Much for which to give thanks and praise.

Glorify the Lord, you angels and all powers of the Lord, *
O heavens and all waters above the heavens.
Sun and moon and stars of the sky, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
      -- Canticle 12,  Benedicite, omnia opera Domini  
     -- Song of the Three Young Men, 35-65 ( BCP 88)

And then, with the gift of laughter, there is the background music for all these musings:

pink as minus green?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/02/28/147590898/they-did-it-to-pluto-but-not-to-pink-please-not-pink



There is no pink? What do we tell all those flamingos?



cut iron pink flamingos for sale
Avenue John Brown, Port-au-Prince

Mulling over pink as minus green is giving me 1980's flashbacks.