President’s Column April 2004
Happy Spring! This April edition of The Current has been sent to 290
former members as well as our present members, in the hope that we can
entice you back to Audubon. Spring is a time to renew a love affair with
birds and with the great out of doors and we have a fabulous spring line
up of events, with something for everyone, from birds to frogs to
flowers. Check out details on the upcoming programs elsewhere in the
newsletter!
Last week, I attended a major political party convention and not once
in the four hours I was there did anyone mention the word “environment.”
I would bet my life savings that the opposing party was silent also. We
are so distracted by war, by a poor economy, by the 9/11 Commission that
we aren’t paying attention to the many ways our environmental protection
is weakening.
Now is a wonderful time to be an environmentalist, because never has
it been so important. Never have the stakes been so high. I, too, am
concerned with America’s foreign affairs right now. As a mother of four,
I worry about the prospect of a draft. But neither of these serious
topics have the potential for planetary devastation as global warming
does. Neither is as irreversible as extinction.
Two experiences make me work so enthusiastically for Wild River
Audubon. One is imaginative: I conjure up a little scene. In it, I am an
old woman and my children are adults. They ask me, “If you knew global
warming would ruin the Boundary Waters, if you knew our birds were in
trouble, if you knew oil drilling would ruin the arctic wilderness, why
didn’t you do something?” And what will I say?
The other experience is happier. When I turned forty, I thought:
“Life is short. I’m going to do what I love.” So I watch birds. I take
hikes. I canoe rivers. I enjoy winter.
Life is short. And what will you say to your children? Please, get
involved with Audubon!
Sue |
Wild
River Audubon Society