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Can Stopping Traffic Stop Climate Change?

7/8/2021

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Sitting in a rocking chair, with 13 other elders, I faced 4 lanes of traffic.
The turning lane was open, allowing the slowly moving cars to read our banner: “
2021 Walk for Our Grandchildren and Mother Earth.”
​

We were in corporate dominated Wilmington, on the last day of the Walk, to draw attention to Chase Bank, the #1 funder of fossil fuel extraction, and demand that they stop funding fossil fuel development.  Banks don't like bad publicity, since they need the trust of their customers. 


The 2021 Walk for our Grandchildren and Mother Earth was an 8 day walk/ride between Scranton and Wilmington to urge the Biden administration to address the climate emergency and the many environmental justice issues caused by fossil fuels; and to pressure Chase Bank. I had only joined this Walk four days before, and in those few days I had confronted heart-wrenching realities caused by the extractive fossil fuel industries, and our national indifference to impacted communities.

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WHAT DID I LEARN?
Local activists, struggling for decades against huge corporations, feel supported and encouraged when others show up and witness what is happening in their communities.

"Working with...the Grandparents...feels like a gift of solidarity and purpose that I needed so badly. I feel rejuvenated and fortified to keep up the fight," commented a Walk participant.

Second, that “grandparents” and elder have a unique power – one that we don’t always recognize or cultivate. In the words of George Lakey, “I'm not sure that elders always remember how tired and scared people working for justice can get, and how much it means when an elder comes along with affirmation and encouragement.”

Finally, I discovered my own elder voice, when I heard myself saying, “I am doing this so that we will have a more thriving and just world for future generations. This is important, and I will not be moved.” I then sat back down in my rocking chair.

I don’t know if stopping traffic can stop climate change. But I am grateful that I have found my courage to take risks and stand up for the sake of all our children, our future generations – because that is our responsibility as elders. So, grab your rocking chair and let’s get to work.

Here are several other articles, actions and groups worthy of your attention:
​

Arrested in Rocking Chairs, Grandparents Protest Chase and Pressure Biden by George Lakey
Pennsylvania Town Battles to Shute Down Toxic Waste to Energy Plant an interview with Zulene Mayfield by Melinda Tuhus
Stop the Money Pipeline – various efforts to Stop Line 3 through the headwaters of the Mississippi
Appalachians Against Pipeline – “Old Hills and Old Folks Resist”
Elders Climate Action – committed to ending the climate crises and building and just and sustainable future for all children
Elders Action Network – building a movement of elders addressing the environmental and social justice issues of our time
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Fire Drill Fridays

11/26/2019

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Elders: Stand with Jane Fonda for the future of all our children!
Friday, December 6, 11:00am – Noon
U.S. Capitol, SE Lawn
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​'Migration & Human Rights Can’t Wait’  Around the world climate change is driving mass migration; creating a human rights crisis as migrants face life-threatening hardships.

JOIN Jane Fonda, Elders Action Network, Elders Climate Action, Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden – and, other elders, grandparents, and concerned citizens.

LEARN more about what we can all do; and urge our elected officials to adopt the Green New Deal.
​
If you would like to join me on December 6th, please RSVP to: LPISER@aol.com  
(We’ll find a common meeting space. Bring signs if you like.)

Our House Is on Fire
If our house was on fire we would run out into the street. Wouldn't we? Well, that is just what Jane Fonda is doing – and asking us to do. She has started a campaign to draw attention to our current climate emergency saying: "We must act to save the planet from irreversible damage!" For four months, through the end of January, she is standing in front of our nation’s capital urging our leaders and all of us respond to this climate crisis. Her campaign is called FIRE DRILL FRIDAYS and is intended to support and uplift those of the youth climate movement. The Green New Deal is at the core of these demands – to transform our economy to 100% clean, renewable energy.
​

Why did she move to Washington, D.C. and take on this campaign?Jane is a grandmother and an elder who is concerned for the future for those she loves. Watch her video and learn more about why she has moved to Washington and upended her life.
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I was so impressed with Jane's courage that I joined her, and Ted Danson, in Washington on October 25th. Each week the rally has a different focus – and that week it was the oceans. We learned not only about the terrible damage that is being done to our oceans, but also how ocean repair could occur if we had the political will. I intend to join her again, and again. I am so grateful that she is leading the way and inspired by her courage, her assessment of what is happening, and her determination to be a part of the solution. Our house is on fire! We have an emergency and we have to get out into the streets with our neighbors and put out this fire!


What Can You Do?
  • Watch Jane’s video; look at her website and learn more
  • Talk with your friends: “Did you hear what Jane Fonda is doing now?”  
  • Call your elected officials. Tell them that you want them to support the Green New Deal. Call them again – next week!
  • All over the country, our youth are striking on December 6th, urging support for the Green New Deal. Find your local strike, gather your friends and attend together!

it’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?

as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?
did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?

what did you do
once
you
knew?

–Drew Dellinger, Hieroglyphic Stairway
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Finding Our Way Home

6/19/2019

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Dear Friends,  

Several months ago I read this essay by Weston Pew, an educator and facilitator, and was moved by his portrayal of the separation we embody in our lives and how to encounter and re-member our selves back into the beauty and web of life. As we move into summer, a time when we might have a bit more time for solitude, reflection, visiting with our beloveds, and being outdoors – perhaps his words will provide some sparks for re-membering and re-weaving our web of connection – for all life.  – Lynne 

Finding Our Way Home
Weston Pew

My son, Mateo, recently turned three years old. It is impossible for me to witness his growth…without wondering what kind of planet we will be leaving them? Sometimes it feels as though when I cast my gaze out upon the world, I am witnessing, in slow motion, a shattering.

From one perspective something is breaking, from another something is being born.
Many writers have offered names to this place in time: “the space between stories” (Charles Eisenstein) or the Great Turning. (Joanna Macy)


For those embedded in the modern western worldview, the shift into a new story would require a different way of seeing ourselves in relationship with others and the natural world -- seeing the interconnectedness of our living systems, (David Korten), or the universe as “communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects” (Thomas Berry,) and understanding that “The paradox of our age is that we have bigger houses but smaller families…more knowledge, but less judgment; more medicines, but less healthiness.” (Dr. Bob Moorehead) 

These quotes speaks to how we have lost ourselves in the dream of progress and forgotten something essential to our very existence: Life itself is a miracle; and such a miracle can only be fully expressed through the practice of living in right relationship to ourselves, our communities, the natural world, and the cosmos itself.

Re-membering as an Act of Resistance and Resilience
In this time of forgetting, as systems seem to be crumbling all around us, it is hard to know what to do and where to place one’s efforts for effective action. I am often reminded of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “fierce urgency of now,” or of the Buddhist precept of non-attachment.  

I seek a third way, the process of re-membering – where we are not just recollecting, we are re-establishing membership with the larger living systems of which we are a part.

This is an inherently political act. It shatters the illusion of the separate self and re-stories and restores it back into the broader context of community, place, space, time, and history -- essential for the emergence of a more mature understanding of responsibility that takes into account the health and wellbeing of the larger living systems of which we are each a part.

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How do we re-member and re-story?
I believe many tools can be used to help facilitate this healing process such as culturally appropriate ceremonies and rituals that include grief, rites of passage, calendar celebrations, song and community singing, storytelling, community-supported gardens, dance, service work, and pilgrimage.  

These tools restore us and ground us in the beingness of our humanity, allowing for the re-membering of the great tree of life and the reclamation of the miracle that we have been given on this pilgrimage that we call life.

On a personal level, one of the things that moves me the most...is that my great-great grandchildren will come to walk in the prayers of my footsteps and in turn lay down their own prayers for future generations.

Note: I’ve had to substantially edit this essay and I urge you to read the piece in its entirety.
​
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
  • Read this piece in its entirety – Finding Our Way Home
  • Explore the tools mentioned in this essay:  
    • Culturally appropriate rituals and ceremonies that include grief
    • Calendar celebrations
    • Song and community singing, storytelling & dance
    • Community gardens, work, pilgrimage
  • Provide your self with time for ritual, reflection, re-membering
  • Share your stories, song, ritual and more with those you care about
  • Speak up and care for sacred spaces and each other

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Weston Pew is an educator and facilitator, with MAs in experiential education and depth psychology. He is the founder of the Sacred Door Trail, a 200 mile non-denominational pilgrimage trail; and, of the Center for Relational Communities and Leadership.

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Is the Urgency Real?  YES!

5/21/2019

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Then how do we find hope?
When I listen to the news, read the papers or my emails – I feel a sense of urgency. I hear that “our house is on fire;” the words of Greta Thunberg, a 16 year-old climate activist from Sweden. Is she being an alarmist? Or do her words provide an accurate metaphor?  

Joanna Macy talks about “active hope” – when we assess a situation and identify the outcomes we hope for, considering all the obstacles, the pain and the truth – and then we determine our actions.  We don’t wait until we are sure of success.
Are we willing to see the truth of climate change, corporate greed and the future that we are stealing from our children?

This is our opportunity – to recognize this URGENCY and to ACT for the sake of our children.

Here are the facts:
  • According to NASA, 18 of the 19 warmest years have occurred since 2000. “The warming of the planet is unambiguous and irrefutable.
  • The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), representing the world’s leading climate scientists, warned in October 2018 that the world has little more than a decade to bring emissions under control and halve them, to avoid grave consequences, including the die-off of coral reefs and devastation of many species. 
  • According to a UN Report, May, 2019, as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival.

What can we do?
  1. WORK TOGETHER -- individually we are each important but not sufficient to the task,
  2. GET ENGAGED – we need every one of us, and there is room for everyone’s passion, energy and talents,
  3. BE INSPIRED by the courageous actions of others.  Although there are plenty of despairing new stories – choose to read YES! Magazine, Listen to Krista Tippet & find your inspiration.

Here are some of my hero/ines:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offering us a “A Message From the Future” with her vision of how we got from this moment of confusion to a thriving future – well worth the 7 ½ minutes.

The spirited older women of Austria known as the Omas (Grandmothers) Against the Right – who are fighting the right wing coalition and standing up for democracy, equal rights and tolerance. “We see what is happening and we won’t look away. We are the generation that promised the horrors of the last century would never be repeated. We are the generation that had a future. Now we are seeing the futures of our children and our grandchildren hanging in the balance. We are not going to let that happen.”

Our “youngers” who are the Sunrise Movement – They are ordinary young folks who are scared about what the climate crises means for the places and people that they love, and for their future.  They are strategically organizing to make climate change an urgent priority across our country, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executive on our politics and elect leaders who will stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.  They welcome “elder allies” to their meetings and actions – and are so appreciative that we are standing with them. Find a “Hub” near you!

Finally – the Green New Deal -- a feasible and affordable plan to address the climate and social justice issues in the U.S.  It is not perfect but it will move us in the right direction! It will:
  • end the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to stop global warming,
  • guarantee lower-cost, high-quality health coverage for all, and
  • ensure decent jobs and living standards for all Americans.
Could this really be affordable?  YES! The U.S. spends 17% of its Gross Domestic Product on health care coverage, while other countries spend 10 – 12% with better health outcomes.  Learn more by reading this article.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
  • Allow yourself to feel your own pain for our world and for our children.
  • Speak with your friends, family, colleagues.  Ask them, “What do you think about the climate crises?”  What can we do together?”
  • Get active and engaged!  Here are some good organizations to begin:
    • Elders Climate Action
    • Elders Action Network
    • Youth Climate Strike
    • Sunrise Movement

As Elders let's support, inspire and be engaged, discovering our TRUE POWER – TOGETHER.
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VOTE!   For Our Future

11/5/2018

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We are a few days away from what may be the most important election of our time. I am an American, a naturalized immigrant, a Jew, a mom and grandma -- facing the threat that perhaps my American born children will no longer be citizens. 

​My heart is broken for the families of those who have been the victims of the incredible hatred that surrounds us. The loss that they have experienced is unimaginable. When I close my eyes I see the numbered tattoo on my cousin’s arm, I hear the voice of my father telling the story of the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Are we as a nation not better than this?


My heart also is breaking for what may lie ahead for our grandchildren, all future generations and democracy as we know it. Will we abandon all civility and allow hatred to dominate our lives and destroy our democracy? Will we allow continued degradation of our laws until there are no protections for the health and wellbeing of our residents? There are times when I feel completely helpless and then I realize each of us must stand up for what we believe.

If you have not already done so, please VOTE. Your future depends on it as does the future of all of the grandchildren. We remember all the victims of senseless hate and violence and we stand with the survivors.
The elder voice is critical, VOTE on November 6th.

For the our grandchildren, future generations and all life,        

           Geri


GERI FRIEDMAN is the co-convener of Elders Climate Action, and is a board member of the Elders Action Network.  She has been inspired to become an activist in her elders years by her love for her grandchildren.  Before retiring she worked in social services and government administration, and was active in the women’s movement, the war and the environment before her career and family.

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I'm Going to the Border.  Will you Join Me?

7/15/2018

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Three days ago I learned about Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden.  I read the website and tears welled up – which is not typical for me.  I thought, “Here is a group of elders who are putting their hearts and spirits into action.” 
 
“Over six days, beginning July 31, the caravan will journey more than 2,000 miles, onboarding other “grannies” along the way. They will host rallies in strategic political districts in cities along the way to protest the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy for immigrants and asylum seekers.

Beginning with a rally in New York City, Grannies Respond will make stops in Reading and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Louisville, Kentucky; Montgomery, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Houston, Texas; before finally reaching a detainment facility in either McAllen or Brownsville, Texas.” So read the story in YES! Magazine.

I decided to join them.  I hate bus rides.  I sit up front so that I won’t get nauseous.  My back hurts after driving in the car for a couple of hours.  The bathrooms smells.  So, why am I doing this?

This year I have challenged myself to “live as though the truth was really true”


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They Called us "Old Farts!"

7/9/2018

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“Old Farts” Group Protest Results in Arrest of 6 at ICE in Philadelphia”
 
As a group of elders we wanted to call attention to what was happening to the three thousand children that had been forcibly taken from their parents when they entered the United States from our southern border.  We were appalled that our government would harm children in this way.  Have you ever witnessed a children or a parent that have lost each other in a public place?  The child is crying, the parent is near hysteria with fear.  Imagine if they were not able to find each other.  Imagine if they were in a strange country, where everyone was speaking a different language.  Could you imagine the fear?  The terror?  

These families have survived the arduous journey to come to the United States – in most cases fleeing situations in their home country where their lives have been threatened, relatives have been killed, children or women taken as hostages or been raped.  These parents are not coming here for the “good life” – they are coming to the U.S. seeking asylum.
 
As a grandmother and mother of five children my heart went out to those parents and children.  I know that this treatment is inhumane, uncaring and unethical – because we don’t use children to further political agendas. These policies of putting families, with young children, into detention, and of separating families at the border must stop.
 
I was not alone in my concern.  Friends invited me to a meeting, where they were discussing how to bring attention to this issue.  There had been many protests at the local ICE -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement – office, and we wanted to keep up the pressure.  We decided to arrive early, stand in front of the door with a banner, and not allow anyone to enter or leave. 


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Why I Got Arrested Last Monday

5/25/2018

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Last Monday, I got arrested in the Pennsylvania State Capitol.  Getting handcuffed and locked up was a bit frightening, but living these days has become more frightening as I listen to the daily news -- and that is why I joined the most expansive wave of nonviolent civil disobedience in U.S. history.
 
I was in good company.  There were at at least 8 clergy, along with 16 other folks who got arrested. Together, we were standing in solidarity with the Poor People’s Campaign in their second week of action focused on Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty.  We were part of a nationwide campaign – with over 400 people getting arrested this past Monday in state capitols around the nation.
 And the week before – same thing! 
Hundreds of people got arrested, and thousands more standing for the theme of “Somebody’s Hurting Our People.”

 
It is time to break the silence about America’s real war on the poor, and for us all to understand the systemic nature of poverty. Although our economy might be growing, wages are not increasing; the federal minimum wage will does not keep people out of poverty; and, 40% of American have debt as a result of health care. 

I believe that people should not live or die in poverty in the the richest country in the world.  

I believe that it is time to reclaim the moral narrative of our country. As an elder I know that we must care for all people; and especially those who are going through difficult times.  Isn't it our moral responsibility to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and to provide a good education for all children, along with decent health care?  I think so.


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Reclaiming Democracy, One Postcard At A Time

4/12/2018

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Like many concerned citizens, I was devastated by the election of President Trump. I feared for the fate of justice, compassion and equality in our society; and, unfortunately, my fears were realized in the very first days of the administration with the announcement of the Muslim Ban. I wanted to take action but it felt too hard to do it alone.   I decided I would reach out for compatriots. 

I posted on Facebook, and sent emails to friends and neighbors, announcing that I would be at my house writing postcards to elected officials on Fridays, from 2 to 3 p.m. I didn’t know how it would go, and certainly never thought about this as a long-term project. I was heartened that 4 or 5 or 8 women showed up every time during the first few months. Those early members invited others, and the group grew. Now, members take turns hosting in their homes, and we communicate through our Facebook group; we have become an ongoing venture.
 
What we do is quite simple. ​​​We share issues of greatest concern to us each week, and then write postcards to our elected officials, committee chairs or committee members. We have learned that postcard messages are a simple, attention-grabbing means of registering our support or opposition to stances and measures taken by officials.  Over tea and snacks we sit for an hour and write exhortative messages about subjects such as immigration, gun control, environmental protection, judicial appointments, and criminal justice. We also write to express admiration and appreciation for those who have taken courageous positions.


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Elders Standing in the Public Square

12/25/2017

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For several years I have wanted to organize a local Elder-Activists group. I’ve been showing up at rallies and actions with my Elder Activists t-shirts and banner—but could not wrap my mind around how to organize a group until just this past month. And then, it was so easy! 
​

When I shared in a circle of friends that I wanted to start a group but wasn’t sure how to do so, my friend Julie replied, “Why don’t you bring a group of elders to our next POWER action?” 
POWER is Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild—a local faith-based, community-organizing network which has been very successful in responding to local issues. Julie is organizing a long term strategic campaign to force our local power company to create green jobs and place solar panels on the rooftops of working class homes—as opposed to building a corporate solar field. 

I wrote an email and sent it to about a dozen friends and fellow activists, inviting them to the POWER action and to an Elder-Activists meeting to talk about “elders standing together” at local actions. I immediately got six or eight positive responses. That was encouraging! 


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