Mountain Top Mining

I went to hear the Beehive Coalition talk about Mountain Top Mining in Virginia, as suggested by my daughter. They were looking for students to come down over spring break to give them support, and hopefully to be part of “arrestable” events. New vocabulary for me, arrestable  events. Not exactly what I want my daughter to do over break. The concept of blowing up a mountain top to get to the coal, filling in the beautiful mountain streams, and all for the economy. Of course, the Appalachian folks need the jobs and the money, so who are we to say this is a bad thing? All of this goes through my head.

I know West Virginia fairly well. This will be my third year taking a group of high school students to work with Habitat for Humanity. The hollows are just beautiful, as are the mountains and the fresh streams where we work. The poverty is overwhelming, and the lack of education is obvious.

I do not want her to go, though the cause is noble. As a parent, I want her to keep her employment options open for the future, maybe government work, and an arrest record may not be helpful.

Mexico-Here we go again

She’s back. It took a while after coming home from Copenhagen, but after a few weeks, she was back in spirit. Now, can she get observer status from the UN for her University for December? If so, she will bring a group of students with her to Cancun, to try again, to make a difference. It will be a quiet spring, though she wanted to head to West Virginia to protest mountain top mining over break, but she was sick and tired and lacking in energy. And, the paperwork for the observer request had to be worked on during break.

I treasure our times together, for I know she will leave once she graduates, and our time will be so limited.

She’s Home

She made it through the week and did not get arrested. She left Copenhagen on Sunday, December 20th, flew to Paris, then took a train to Rennes. She spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve with her French friend, J-F. Copenhagen was such a disappointment and she was overwhelmed with it all. She didn’t talk to us about it very much; we hope she does when she takes time to process the conference.

She arrived at Montreal on January 2nd, at 3:30 pm, in a northeaster snowstorm. We’d been watching the storm for several days, knowing she would leave Paris but would she end up in Montreal or Toronto? The Pierre Trudeau airport is used to snow, and they handle it quite well. She saw us and just started crying- why, I can only guess. Perhaps because Copenhagen was such a disappointment, perhaps because she said bye to so many great friends; perhaps because she left her French male friend who she cares for deeply. Not because she had missed us, that I’m sure. It was definitely harder on us and her sister to have her gone for Christmas. The house was so quiet.

Christmas day was just the three of us, empty without her smiling face. We made the best of it, wondering how she was doing in the different culture. We talked to her briefly that day; seemed to be doing just fine.

We left the airport immediately to try to get home before the brunt of the storm. It was a tough drive; the studded snow tires well worth the investment. The wind was blowing and it was very hard to see the road, and the drifts just snuck up on us. We made it to the border; a short wait, no issues at all. The roads are better in the US, but it was still a white out, hard to see the road, and now it was quite dark. We arrived at our dirt road around 7:00 pm, plowing the snow with our small car and finally pulling into the driveway.

She started texting friends within ten minutes of leaving the airport; started calling as soon as we hit the border. Within an hour of being home, two activist friends came over in the incredible snowstorm and spent the night. By morning we had over 24 inches of snow. We were so happy to have her home. Her sister had been gone and arrived Sunday morning. Now we were all together.

Already her next adventure is in the planning stages; an activist event in West Virginia in March to protect the coal mining. A cross-country fun trip this summer, after earning some money. And a semester in Madagascar to study Environmental Science next spring.

This daughter will always be on the move,planning her next adventure. I miss her already. I am proud of her, but know too that it is a matter of time when I will have even less time to spend with her, and that is hard on the heart.

Sit in at Copehagen

What a surprise to see your daughter on NBC national news, in the front row of the sit in at the conference. Pride rushed through me, then fear. Will she get arrested tonight? Quick, get to the web to watch the live blog and breathe in every word and watch every video. “Look, there she is. They didn’t drag her off. She walked to the new space.” Okay, so far, so good. She is easy to spot, wearing her friend’s flannel shirt. It will be a long two days.

The youth are now barred from the conference, and they are mostly staying till Saturday or Sunday. Lots of youthful energy, lots of time. I can envision some nasty demonstrations and potential violent clashes with police.

This is when you hope they learned to think straight and make good decisions.

Minor Distractions

Today I read my daughter’s latest blog, and realized how she is connected to larger problems than my own daily issues. The issues at work are so much smaller than what this generation is facing, what we are doing to our environment. They are still issues I must deal with, but the reality is that they are not life threatening or lifestyle threatening. I must continue to do the best that I can do everyday, but compared to the climate change that many parts of the world are dealing with, I can handle a disgruntled employee.

Many relative and friends question whether there is truly global warming occuring. Does it matter? Should we be polluting this wonderful earth to the extent that we are doing? Can’t we help China and India to learn from our errors and help them develop environmentally?

 I loved the article by Richard Muller in the December 12/13 Wall Street Journal this weekend,  “Every 10% cut in the U.S. is negated by one year of China’s growth.” “The bulk of our effort is best directed at helping the emerging economies conserve energy and move rapidly toward efficient solar, wind, and nuclear power.”  This makes a lot of sense to me.

Watching Copenhagen

Yesterday- we received a call. She was very sick. High fever, bad cough. She had ditched the cold medicine before she left to save room in the suitcase. The hostel was bad- she is sleeping on a mattress on the floor near the door. Folks arriving late always wake her up, so she is not getting much sleep. But, her blessed friend, Dom, has asked to see if she can stay at a host family’s house tonight to get more sleep. We are grateful she got the H1N1 vaccine before leaving; she said many people have the flu.

We called her this morning. “I’m in a demonstration. It is very loud. Will call you later.” That was at 08:30 am. At 16:00, no call back yet. The phone went to voicemail. On the web, 300 demonstrators arrested in Copenhagen. Aargh! Finally reached her at 16:30. “No, I’m fine. Of course not.  I was with the peaceful demonstrations. Though I am worried about some of my friends who I cannot reach.”

It was a long day waiting to hear back from her. Our children do not always understand the strong connection that we feel, the fear, the worry. She was heading to a friend’s for dinner. Hadn’t eaten much since getting there- the food was too expensive.  We told her don’t worrry- we will reimburse you. Just eat some good healthy food. She was feeling better today after a good night’s sleep. She was grateful for staying at the friend’s hosts home; had slept 15 hours the night before and was feeling much better. She was hoping to stay there again tonight to get some sleep.

Thursday we picked out the tree without her. It was sad not to have her near. Her sister wanted the biggest tree we could find; we balked but then she countered,” we always get a big tree, and it is already going to be different enough without my sister here.” So, she pulled at our heart strings and we succumbed. Today we pushed the tree into the house, barely getting it through the door, an 8 foot gigantic tree. Tomorrow, we decorate it. Should we put on the activists’ ornaments without her here? Yes, of course.

We think about our friends who lost a son two years ago, at age 21. He will never be there at Christmas again. For us, it is only this year, and soon it might be every year. But we will be able to go where our children are for the holidays if that is the decision. Christmas must be very hard for those who have lost loved ones too early.

Seeing her off

We left Vermont at 10:30 am, no problem through the border, no wait at all. Foggy, rainy, a grey November day. Got to the Trudeau airport parking garage around 1:00 pm., or 13:00. Cost to park for a day, $18 canadienne. We parked on the roof, the only level with any room left.

Found Air France, then got some lunch. The activist was too wound up to eat, but Mom and Dad did. Yesterday she fasted, her solidarity fast of once a week. And she took one of her finals. How she managed I’m not sure. Then a quick trip home and back to school with her sister to share the last night with her roommates and her sister. Her two female roommates are leaving; one to study in Costa Rica, the other is graduating.

We sat in the airport cutting out patches to make “Copenhagen or Bust” patches for her to bring with her. Time moved slowly, yet too fast at the same time. I didn’t want to say goodbye. She ordered an alcoholic drink- a rarity, I think, for her. Le Vie de Rose. We had a coke. She went through security at 3:30 and we watched her walk away.

Her sister called just as we were driving out of the parking garage, hoping to say bye one last time. Hard to be home without her over the holidays. Her energy is so inspiring.

We left the City and headed home. Rainy and very foggy in Montreal. Got home at 18:30. Her flight left on time- we’ve been watching it on Flightwatch.com. I was teasing her about the lovely suitcase her folks got her for Christmas- she said she was thinking about how she had great parents on the drive to Montreal. Wow- the kind of words we as parents live for.

How will she return? Sad and depressed from not accomplishing enough; discouraged; hard to say bye to the international friends? I hope she returns still full of energy and enthusiasm. I gave her the book,  Tales of a Female Nomad.

Hello world!

I am the mother of two teenage girls. One of them started being an activist in high school, and moved on to bigger and better things in college. She has taught me many things about the world and the environment that we are creating for the future. I am scared for her, as she prepares to head to Copenhagen to do some work there. She is so committed to her cause; I am committed to keeping her safe and close by.

She is a member of Greenpeace, and spent the summer in Europe doing activist work preparing for the Copenhagen conference. She gets frustrated with my generation; so do I. We are the baby boomers who were going to be different from the administration. It seems that we are one of the most selfish generations, and have caused a lot of the problems because we were trying to get as rich as possible. “All for me.”

Now we cannot seem to work together to repair the damage we’ve done. We are still all working for the individual good, not the common good. I am scared when I read “Collapse” by Jared Diamond; its seems like we are getting closer to our world collapsing.

Can I blame young people for not caring? What have we left them? An environmental and financial mess, and at the same time created even more of an entitled generation that does not seem to understand the work ethic. We told them they needed boutique colleges and that we would borrow for them to go there or they would take out loans- but now there aren’t many jobs to help pay the loans back.

What can I do to correct all these problems? I have started small with environmental issues. Hanging clothes to dry rather than using a clothes dryer. Composting food. Buying local. Still isn’t enough. My daughter carries the banner; I run behind feeling lost.