Article Below by our Green Team Chair: Susan Francis *The Green Team strives to inform and inspire* | | AN ECO-PUB ACTUALLY… WHERE THEY LIFT A GLASS TO OUR HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR THEIR COURAGEOUS IMPEACHMENT VOTE (THE BEST HOLIDAY GIFT, EVER) AND TO YOUR UPCOMING EARTH-FRIENDLY HOLIDAYS! | | HERE THEY ALL ARE AT THE PUB WITH MOTHER EARTH IN THE TREE COSTUME…
| | Meanwhile, Mother Earth is brushing cinders from her shoulders, happy that she’s been able to put out catastrophic fires in California and Australia. Still working on the Brazilian Amazon, she takes a break to sip a soothing organic chamomile and dandelion tea infusion while doing her best Smokey the Bear imitation (which is pretty bad) and reminds us all, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires… with your purchases!” Like fast food (cattle do NOT naturally graze in the Amazon rain forest!) non-organic/free trade bananas, coffee and chocolate all mean forest destruction and climate catastrophe… while the opposite makes Mother Earth breathe and smile again.
| | AND THEY ALL TOAST TO YOU, AND ASK, WHAT FUN WAYS ARE YOU GOING TO DINE, DECORATE, AND GIFT FOR THE PLANET, TOO?
They, along with the National Retail Association, know that Americans are going to spend some 30 billion dollars this holiday season on… stuff. Mostly, not so good stuff.
- Like clothes, socks, undies, pj’s and more… made with synthetics that come from fossil fuels. Few know that fashion alone is poisoning the planet.
- Like pillows, sheets, blankets and most of all memory foam, made from, yup, fossil fuels. They outgas dangerously, whilst we settle down for our long winter’s nap. Our animals breathe it too, as lots of pet beds are made from the same.
- Or treats and sweets filled with palm-oil, or meats that came from rainforest destruction or deadly and toxic factory farming.
We know this is pretty dark and hard to face, this shadow to our lifestyles. Lifestyles that look so very lovely on the sunny surface, while out of the light of day, extreme abuse of and pollution to the planet and its ecosystems and animals threaten our very existence.
And yet. Whether you just celebrate the Solstice, or Chanukah, Christmas, or Kwanza, the theme of the season is all about the miracle of light surviving, even returning, from a great darkness.
Let’s shine that light in these darkest of times, to clearly see and create more enlightened ways to party and play as we also give gifts this holiday!
To help, we designed our Earth-Friendly Holiday Hints guide to save you TIME and Money by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, will you ponder how YOU can make your holidays more harmonious and sustainable? And focus on how to keep yourself sustained through trying times? After all, as Gandhi said: WE must be the peace we wish to see on the planet.
Just a few suggestions to get you started (more to come in the holiday edition guide). And remember, what do folks want, really really want?
Don't we all long to feel we can make a difference today, despite appearances to the contrary? Together, let’s pave the way to a more enlightened 2020 for the sake of our planet, the sake of us all.
OUR GIFT, IN GRATITUDE FOR ALL YOUR WORK, TO YOU
And in this season as light returns through this time of terrible darkness for our democracy, here is a gift of inspiration for you all.
A gift given in sustainable form, this poem by the immortal Robert Frost. Written in another grim time, 1943, its just as true today. It is about our struggle to maintain a higher perspective, and something to believe in, even as we swim in a sea of corruption and brutality.
A star carries narry a price tag, but like all of nature, soothes, inspires and stabilizes us all. Here are the words and music appropriate for any faith (or lack thereof) along with a beautiful choral arrangement by the also immortal Randall Thompson. Accompanied by equally beautiful pictures of the heavens taken by the Hubble Telescope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNDrMifZqLU | |
O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud— It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed. Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone repeat. Say something! And it says, ‘I burn.’
But say with what degree of heat. Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade. Use language we can comprehend. Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid, But does tell something in the end. And steadfast as Keats’ Eremite, Not even stooping from its sphere, It asks a little of us here. It asks of us a certain height, So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far, We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on… and be staid.
WISHING YOU HOLIDAYS FILLED WITH LIGHT AND LOVE, YOUR DPDC GREEN TEAM | | Green friends at the DPDC holiday party! From left to right: Dan Bailey, Green New Deal supporter, Susan Francis DPDC Green Team Leader, Bonnie and Jeff Gahris, Jeff running for Forest Preserve Commissioner, Janette DeFelice running for DuPage County Board, Tina Tyson-Dunne running for DuPage County Board, Scott Archer, husband to Janette and creating communication networks for the Democratic Convention. Part-time holiday elf and full time DPDC chair on photo bomb duty. Janette and Scott are wearing a dress and tie for the Climate, by designer Holly Renne at shenovafashion.com. Each rectangle represents global monthly temperature from 1880 to 2015. Notice the bottom of the dress and tie have gotten hot hot hot! Your holiday purchases will cool them down!! | | Paid for by the Democratic Party of DuPage County, who continues the Fight for Economic Justice, Civil Rights and Our Environment within DuPage & Beyond. | | | | | | |
