I am three quarters through my Seventh Decade and ponder the connected threads of my life. After all, we are all the sum of all our parts and we must use experiences wisely and leave something extra with our passing.
In 1946 I was 11 years old and my Uncle Don allowed me to help him maintain his muskrat trap line. We ventured out early Weekends to beat the adults to the better lairs.
He supplied me with his copies of “Fur Fish and Game,” an outdoor magazine that had many articles regarding the threat to trappers and fishermen that sewage represented.
I recall magazine photos of out-house trenches that emptied into streams and realized I had seen the same in our creek and grasped that pollution was also local.
Later I was on US Army maneuvers in the Mountains of Bavaria. Several dozen trucks were idling and filled the still mountain air with blue smoke. My fellow young troopers sickened and I felt very nauseous. I still vividly remember the choking sensation with this special insight to vehicle emissions.
A year or so later my Mother gave me Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” that she had difficulty reading. I was introduced to Pesticides and the secondary effects of chemicals.
I worked for the Corps of Engineers in the Great Lakes and we dredged many of the ports and rivers of the Great Lakes I witnessed in the incredible and stinking spoils the degradation to which we have subjected our precious fresh water.
These individual and collective experiences caused the late Blake Reeves to recruit me to the Sierra Club 20 some years ago. These threads of my experience now help me dedicate myself, prioritize problems and continue to energize me. Thanks Blake.
My op Eds and LTE’s to the Newspapers and some samples include:
- My recent one on Lake Ontario: http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/another-voice/wetlands-determine-the-health-of-a-body-of-water-20130826
- My article for the Chapter on West Valley: http://newyork2.sierraclub.org/content/west-valley-%E2%80%93-climate-change-emerges-lethal-wild-card-nuke-waste-site
- ...and my comment of the New York SAFE Law: http://www.buffalonews.com/20130320/Letter_Far_too_many_guns_are_in_wrong_hands.html