Kitten
Dear Editor: Last Saturday, April 18, a woman stopped me by Alps Federal Credit Union, and asked if I wanted a kitten. We didn’t exchange phone numbers and I would like to be in touch with her. I would ask her to please call me at 907-752-6030 if she sees this.
Misty Warren, Sitka
Sacred Activism
Dear Editor: Sacred: considered to be holy and deserving respect, especially because of a connection with the Divine.
Activism: efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society.
Interfaith Power & Light, an interfaith Creation Care organization, designated LOVE MADE VISIBLE as part of their SACRED ACTIVISM for Earth Day 2020. It seems fitting given the above definitions of the two words and what it means to truly love. Creation is indeed holy, awesome and deserves respect; she calls on us to love her with our whole hearts and in tangible, visible ways. Yet, so many of us have failed to completely recognize how she sustains us – clean air and water, healthy soil, nourishing food, recreation – and that these require an eco-system that is vibrant, resilient and regenerative. The COVID-19 pandemic has given us time to pause and reflect on this interdependency and shown us that it IS indeed possible to quickly turn our behaviors around and replace them with patterns that are life giving and supportive of the environment and nurtures society.
We are at a critical juncture when it comes to care for the earth. We are seeing decline of indicator species, more extreme weather patterns, rising ocean temperatures and acidification that all reflect the fragility of the planet and to me, the state of our souls. These unparalleled changes urge us to speak out, rise up and make known or in other words, to make love visible.
The truth is... our planet is incredibly stressed and so are the life forms that call the earth home including us humans. We are asked to use the tools of activism to bend society’s arc towards justice, as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. so aptly reminded us.
One of the most radical ways we can do that is to vote and pledge to be a “faith climate voter.”
St. Peter’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church has “I Pledge to be a Faith Climate Voter” postcards that Sitkans can pick up, fill out and mail to Interfaith Power & Light during Earth Week. They are located on the table in front of the See House as well as at AC Lakeside grocery. Another action is to contact elected officials on national, state and local levels to communicate our priority for action on climate change and NOW! A piece of bipartisan legislation working its way through the House is HR 763 The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. So this Earth week, call Rep. Don Young at 202-225-5765 and ask him to co-sponsor the bill then call Senators Murkowski (202-224-6665) and Sullivan (202-224-3004) and ask them to work to introduce it in the Senate and while you are at it, call Rep. Kreiss-Tomkins and Sen. Burt Stedman as well as Sitka’s Assembly members.
We are all called to sacred activism, to make love visible, on behalf of the creator’s awe-inspiring handiwork and “to make haste.” We still have time to pivot and the clock is ticking.
The great changes in history like the end of slavery, women’s suffrage and civil rights occurred because of sacred activism. Let’s add earth justice, creation justice to that list.
Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Episcopalian,
and volunteer with Citizens
Climate Lobby Sitka Chapter
Wise Women
Dear Editor: Tonight as we took a spin out to Silver Bay, I am pretty sure we saw the silhouettes of the two giant wise women who live in the upper limits of Sugarloaf Mountain. We all know about those wise women. Anyone with sincere doubts can approach them to receive their counsel. When the wise women perceive deceit or foolishness, they simply roll huge rocks toward the supplicant. To date, as far as we know, everyone has escaped.
Imagine the utility of this. We should require our candidates for political office to climb toward wise women. If they return with wisdom, so much the better. When boulders rain down, we will know why.
John Welsh, Sitka
