This morning I read Bill McKibben's article about the environmental Santa Claus, the Mayor of Seattle Mike McGinn, who has vowed to divest the city from fossil fuel investment.What a lovely gift right before Christmas and New Year's!
I then received a holiday email letter from my very own Governor Cuomo. Nothing personal, mind you, just the mass mailing to all New Yorkers.
Still, how very nice to hear from him.
I took the opportunity to thank Governor Cuomo for thinking of me and all of us.
So, call me greedy, but I also responded with my Christmas wish list (okay, I'm Jewish/Buddhist, and Santa doesn't come to my house, but I can dream, can't I?). I'm not asking for gifts under the tree. I'm asking for clean and safe air, water, food and products--free of toxic chemicals and radiation. I'm asking the Governor to fight climate change. I'm asking for a safe future for all children: a livable planet.
Dear Governor Andrew Cuomo,
Thanks so much for your holiday letter.
You have an opportunity to do something really meaningful on this holiday. Like the Mayor of Seattle, you can be an environmental Santa Claus, too. Yes, you can help change the course of human and planetary history! Yes, you can save us all!
Here's my Christmas wish list. Please:
1) Ban Fracking permanently in New York State. Fracking pollutes, pollutes, pollutes--gas, chemicals, and uranium in our water. No thanks!
2) Shut Down Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant (35 miles from NYC) before we have another Fukushima--this time, in a densely populated area of four million people. Shut it down, please!
3) Divest all NY state funds from fossil fuel investment. The ice caps are melting, the seas are rising, the weather is crazy. Save NYC, NY State, and the world!
4) Ban all assault weapons and hand guns in NY. Gun control, now!
5) Support the Safe Chemicals Act and institute 'Safe Chemicals' legislation in NY. Keep the toxins out of our products, air, water, and soil. Our bodies can't handle the burden of more poison.
Amen and thank you from all the children present and future.
Yours truly,
Dr. Heidi Hutner
Feel free to copy my letter, or write your own. If you live in a different state, adjust your letter as necessary to the needs of your location. Write to your own Governors and Mayors. Their job is to protect, us, the citizens of the United States. We have a right to clean and safe air, water, soil, products, and food. Remind them! Remind yourselves! Wouldn't it be nice to have a country full of environmental Santas protecting our safety and health?
2 comments:
Heidi ~ you have an absolutely wonderfully concise way of talking/writing. I WILL most certainly use your words in my next letter writing or petition signing campaign. In fact, they will go into my letter of mission for the update of our growth policy in my little town in Montana. We are becoming surrounded by fracking at the base of our gorgeous mountain ranges and heads of our blue ribbon rivers.
The message is such a simple solution - "stop doing what you're doing and do something greener - now!
With hope in the coming new year ~ Deborah
Dear Deborah,
Thanks so much for your positive feedback. Yes, isn't amazing how simple and obvious the "green" solutions are? You have to wonder why we have such lame environmental policies and approaches in this country. Keep up the great work you are doing!--Heidi
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