Be of Brave Heart
Dear Editor: My name is Angie DelMoral. As the new director at Brave Heart Volunteers, I want to invite you to participate in a communitywide effort to begin reestablishing and reinforcing the caring connections for which Sitka is so cherished. Our desire is to raise morale and restore hope within our community during a time of great confusion and uncertainty.
While BHV is well known for providing hospice care and grief support in our community, some may not know we also serve those who are housebound, isolated, or coping with various losses. Until now, the lonely housebound were a small portion of our population, but since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, all of humanity has experienced this same sense of isolation and elevated feelings of loss.
While there are numerous types of loss we are currently experiencing, the focus here is on the sudden, unexpected loss of a connection with others, which was necessitated by the need for social distancing and seclusion to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Although these measures are necessary, nonetheless they drastically inhibit our inherent human need for relationships, bonding, affection, and social inclusion – in short, a connection with others.
In a 2004 Tlingit naming ceremony, BHV formally received the name “Yee gu.aa yáx x’wán” which translates to “Be of Brave Heart.” These powerful words of encouragement are expressed by the Tlingit as a call to rise up and be brave when facing challenges or difficult transitions. The deeper message also honors the profound connections shared among family, friends, and loved ones. Today, the invitation to “be of brave heart” seems a fitting inspiration for all of us to adopt as we face the many unknown challenges ahead.
As such, we at Brave Heart Volunteers would like to invite the community to join in observing Friday, May 1, as “Be of Brave Heart Day” in Sitka. We invite businesses to post “Be of Brave Heart, Sitka!” on their reader boards and all others to display handmade signs in the windows of their homes and cars. In addition, we encourage all Sitkans to make at least one Brave Act of Connection to re/establish bonds with friends and neighbors – even if it’s just a kindly wave or phoning someone who has been sheltering alone. Reach out, check in, cheer up, or just help someone settle down, and let others know on social media that you will #beofbraveheart and make a #baoc to build community.
Angie DelMoral,
Brave Heart Volunteers
COVID and Climate
Dear Editor: COVID is forcing us to see everyone and everything is interconnected on this planet. No border between countries, religions or first or third world keeps it out. Climate change has no boundaries either. With both it’s only a matter of time and lack of safety measures before they creep up on us.
When habitats are destroyed, diminished or markets forces bring different species susceptible to contagion from each other, the result is COVID, or other pandemics. Unrelenting industrial development and human settlement expansion causes environmental degradation and climate change. And similarly, those whose habitats are near industrial sites, lack food security, access to quality health care or physical safety or financial security, have the worst survival outcomes for COVID or climate change. Extinction is the end game.
Scientists have the most accurate information about COVID, so they’re the best sources to listen to. When they make changes in their views or advice it’s based on new information and is a transparent process. Likewise, scientists know the most about the causes, effects and mitigations regarding climate change. All real science is based on testing theories and replicating results to determine facts. Science is not based on wishful thinking.
Much of what needs to happen in the world to decrease future pandemic is similar for addressing the pandemic of climate change-minus social isolation. We’re demonstrating daily that when we recognize a catastrophe is occurring, we have the capacity to take quick action to save our lives and the lives of billions of people we don’t even know. Let’s wake up and recognize the catastrophe of environmental degradation and climate change raging, even as the COVID pandemic rages. We can quickly do what is necessary. We won’t even need to stay home from work, though some of us may want to work from home.
We have the capability to address both pandemics right now. Political will required to support widespread testing, isolation and vaccine development can prevent repeats of COVID. Other countries have managed to get enough testing to all their citizens and more quickly and effectively gotten control of COVID. For climate change we need to pass Carbon Fee and Dividend legislation (HR 763), terminate the subsidization of carbon and methane production, ramp up alternative energy and zero waste industries, clean up our environment and provide healthy habitats for all creatures sharing the planet. These activities can create many meaningful, well paying jobs. This may be the best time for Conservation Corps programs, like the Great Depression’s that got people back to work. We can do this. Life is a set of changes, often challenging and painful, but if we pay attention and take our measure, we can go forward constructively and with a little bit of luck, something positive may happen. On this 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, let’s reflect that climate change was a concern brought to Congress by Al Gore in 1976 and James Hanson in 1988. It’s not new and it’s been creeping up on us for a long time. So, let’s do our part to get through COVID and make the needed changes to mitigate the climate change pandemic too.
Libby Stortz, Sitka
