BACK TO THE OLD GRIND

On the way home from D.C. last night we were listening to a program on WETA, the DC NPR station, called "Speaking of Faith." They were talking with Thich Nhat Hanh, and people who were on a retreat with him.  This monk is one of my personal gurus, when he speaks, I listen.  But he said this thing - a very hard thing - on the program last night.  He said you should not hate your political leaders, you should try to help them onto the path of compassion and rightmindedness, and support them on their path.  Well.  Was he talking about OUR political leader of the moment?  And for another three years plus?  I'm afraid this is way beyond my spiritual capacity.  WAAAAYY beyond. 

The trip to D.C. was wonderful.  The students enjoyed the museum, though I think some of them were a little overwhelmed.  This is my second visit to the NMAI, and it's clear that I need to go there many more times before we leave this area.  A lifetime is needed to take in all that's on offer there.  The students and other teachers went on after lunch to visit other parts of the vast Smithsonian complex of museums, but G and I began the personal portion of our trip.  It was an idyllic day and a half with my sister and niece, enjoying their company and the international eating possibilities abounding within an easy walk of their house.  The best Neopolitan pizza we've ever tasted, sublime Vietnamese food, ice cream at an Argentinian shop in Wisconsin Avenue that I may dream about until I am able to return, and perhaps a few tidbits I've neglected to mention.

But now it's back to work.  And work is, once again, countering the efforts to get William G. Myers onto the federal bench.  I refer you to two previous entries in this journal, here and here, on this subject.  The initial committee hearing passed him on, and now it will be a Senate vote.  From the League of Conservation Voters:

"Thank you again for standing up against the lifetime appointment of anti-environment extremist William Myers to be a senior federal judge. As expected, yesterday a committee voted along party lines to pass his nomination on to the full Senate for a final showdown vote.

The vote is scheduled to take place just after Easter, so we don't have much time to act!

The only way to stop this former mining lobbyist from undermining environmental laws for decades is to flood the Senate with e-mails, calls, and letters. Click here to e-mail your Senators NOW! Then call (202) 224-3121 and tell them directly.

A special request: As an environmentally-focused organization, LCV isn't usually involved in judicial nominations. But more than ever, lifetime appointments have a huge impact on environmental policy -- especially with George W. Bush starting to pack the courts with pro-polluter judges. Coordinating this massive strategy is an unexpected strain on our budget -- please consider making a contribution to LCV to help defray the costs of this mobilization. We'll use the funds to turn up the heat on Bush, Myers, and the Senate.

Myers is being nominated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over some of the nation's most pristine wilderness areas, including California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii. We cannot take the risk of having a friend of the mining industry in this post. He's a danger to the Clean Water Act, our wilderness areas, and the Endangered Species Act.

Together we can send a message to George Bush that we don't want anti-environment extremists sitting in judgment of the laws that protect our air, land, water, and wildlife."

Yes, we lost the last Senate vote, but that doesn't mean we can, should, will, stop working.  Victories can, and do, happen.  If we give up then we are as bad as those we rail against  (or, at least, I rail against them.  Constantly.  Even though Thich Nhat Hanh would disapprove.  It's so good to be with my sister, we are on exactly the same wave length, and can just have a kickass time ranting, railing, raging, sometimes in Greek Chorus-like simultaneity.).  If the fight is all we have, let's make it a determined and serious one.  To the ropes, to the mat, to the barricades. So, please get back on the phones, let's barrage the Senate phone lines on this one.    

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And, on another subject completely (well, sort of different), I am so dumbfounded at what has just happened in Congress vis-a-vis Terry Schiavo, her family, etc.  The same people who think it's okay to kill uncounted numbers of children, women, old people, civilians of all kinds guilty of nothing, in Iraq, are willing to have an extraordinary session of Congress to pass a bill in a case that has already been decided by due process of law, having to do with one family's life/death decisions.  This is nothing but politics in its ugliest guise.  When I contemplate what has just happened I confess I come close to catatonia.  Where will it stop?  Does anyone remember the document called the Constitution?