environment

Every. Single. Day.

I recently discovered that, 117 years ago, the United States Supreme Court enforced a Cambridge Massachusetts health board’s smallpox vaccination order. The plaintiff—an anti-vaxxer—claimed their ‘individual liberty.’ That liberty, it was said, included, not only the right to afflict themselves, but also the right to cause others to be afflicted. When I learned of this …

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When Opening Doors & Windows Is Not Enough

Note: The following will be published in the November/December issue of Neighbors of Batavia magazine. The morning of September 12, the world of Neighbors magazines was torn apart. Kate Sullivan, who, with her husband Tim, published Neighbors of Batavia magazine, was ripped from our lives. The vision they shared—helping communities discover their heart and soul—has …

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Opening Doors & Windows – Part 1

Fair warning. For those who look to these posts for comfort and reconciliation, this piece is likely an exception. Several recent books and conversations emboldened me to peer some distance into the future. The vista is, at best, sobering. Bill McKibben, an environmentalist who has been writing about global warming for more than 30 years, …

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Moving to a Different Rock

Note: The following essay first appeared on Tikkun Daily at www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily. I appreciate their work and am thankful for their generous support of mine. Years ago, my brother-in-law, a retired geophysicist, invited us to join him on a trek across the lava on the island of Hawai’i so we could see red-hot flows making their …

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