Obama Traffic Cop

Dear President Obama,

Please put the BRAKES on Climate Change! You are like the TRAFFIC COP of the U.S.  You have the power to make great changes and find solutions to reducing the carbon load to 350! 

BUT YOU NEED TO SAY  STOP to all the interests that are saying FULL SPEED AHEAD.

Our planet can only take so much abuse!
HELP!

I know I keep pointing the finger at YOU Mr. President but WE ALL NEED TO STAND UP and USE OUR VOICES...you can't do it ALONE...if you knew that all us WORRIED MOM'S were shouting, you might have more strength.

Here is a CHALLENGE to any WORRIED MOM (or Dad, or Grandma, or Grandpa or Aunt or Uncle or Friend) that might be reading this blog....I ask them to write you a letter as well.  Not an EMAIL...but a REAL HEARTFELT acoustic LETTER! 

Here is the address to send it to:
PRESIDENT OBAMA
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC  20500

Sincerely yours,
ONE WORRIED MOM
aka Donna Stjerna

Obama with Chief

Dear President Obama,

I think this is the most POWERFUL mandate for world leaders EVER!  Take heed.

"The first mandate given to us CHIEFS is to make sure EVERY decision we make relates to the welfare and well-being of the SEVENTH GENERATION to come..."
-Oren Lyons, Chief of the Onondaga Nation

Futurely (a made up word) yours,
ONE WORRIED MOM

Obama Frankenfish

Dear President Obama,

I personally am frightened about this GMO technology. I've heard foods that have been genetically modified humorously referred to as FRANKENFOODS. Good name.

I love the SLOW FOOD and CLOSE TO HOME and ORGANIC movements. We need to get back to nature and eat less processed.

If there is no stopping this MONSTER than at least REGULATE them and make sure that GMO foods are well labeled so that we know what we are getting.

Sincerely yours,
ONE WORRIED MOM

Obama Scarecrow

Dear President Obama,

One of my readers asked that I make a collage that addresses GMO's and Monsanto's Round Up Ready and other related issues.  I stayed up till 2 am reading everything I could find. 

Of course you know about this biotechnology but for my readers...GMO's are genetically modified organisms. Scientists working in this field say that modified food is not harmful to humans as far as they know SO FAR. There has not been enough testing. Too much to say on this subject. LOOK IT UP AND READ ABOUT IT...fascinating stuff.

Now, this collage is a bit 'deep' if you don't know about .UP READY seeds.  A company called Monsanto has developed a corn seed that can tolerate the poisonous herbicide, Round Up. The Round Up kills virtually all plant life. Birds will suffer if a large-scale vegetation kill occurs. The loss of flora will have a negative impact on bird breeding grounds and areas where birds forage for food.  I could go on and on.....but this is why the scarecrow in my collage doesn't know what a CROW is!  OUCH.

If you want to know more...PBS did a special called HARVEST OF FEAR about this subject.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/viewpoints/risks.html

My next letter will be more about FRANKENFOODS! 

Sincerely yours,
ONE WORRIED MOM

Obama Spring Clean

To Blog Readers...I'm posting an extra one today because I won't be able to for a couple daze! Thanks to Nan for this idea. I am open to suggestions with environmental themes!

Dear President Obama,

HAPPY SPRING!!! Time to do a little spring cleaning. We need to sweep the SMOGWEBS outta the corners. I am always shocked when we perform in the Los Angeles area...the thick yellow-gray haze that covers the horizon. YUCK.

On BAD days children cannot even go out and play if they have asthma. Which is on the rise even for adults! Yes...I know that they have toughened up on 'regulations' and it is better than in the 60's but obviously NOT NEAR GOOD ENOUGH.


WE NEED TO CLEAN UP OUR ACT!
Sweepingly yours,
One Worried MOm 

Obama Golfer

Dear President Obama,

By the year 2050, some 4 billion people (that's over HALF of the entire world's population) will be facing severe water shortages. In the United States, people living in southwestern states like Arizona could be facing severe freshwater shortages even sooner--by 2025!

This information comes from NASA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies worldwide. And when you consider the facts, it's not hard to understand why there's a problem:

* The world's population tripled in the 20th century, and is expected to increase by another 40-50 % in the next 50 years.

* There isn't any more FRESH water in the world today than there was 1 million years ago. (I found this AMAZING)

* Water cannot be replaced (such as alternative fuel sources can replace petroleum.)

I hate seeing huge lawns in neighborhoods being kept alive during these droughts we are having...wasting gallons and gallons and gallons of precious water.  I don't see anyone out DOING anything on those lawns...mostly they are JUST FOR ORNAMENT! 

Now I understand that you are a golfer...so I apologize. I'm sure it's a fine sport but Golf Courses use way too much water to keep those fairways so pristine! I've been reading about EFFLUENT WATER IRRIGATION especially as being used by golf courses.  This is a process of using waste (sewage) water for irrigation. This might be a great idea to help with the water shortage problem but sadly enough, LITTLE or not enough attention has been paid to the long-term effects of sewage irrigation practices.  There can be serious environmental, public health and agricultural problems if it is not treated well before using as such! This contaminated water can easily leach into our precious ground water.  YUCK!

I hope your TEAM is putting a lot of SERIOUS energy and thought into WATER PROTECTION and CONSERVATION!

Waterfully Yours,
ONE WORRIED MOM

Obama Puppet King

Dear President Obama,

I often think about what a challenging job you have as President (aka King of America). Often, Congress ties your hands and I bet you get a lot of pressure from BIG OIL and BIG MONEY to make choices that you would not make if you could pull your own strings.

I am an amateur puppeteer myself and have made several marionettes over the years. It is amazing to watch them dance, move and bow to MY command.

My heart goes out to you as you make every hard choice and decision in regard to the environment. I wouldn't want to be King (or even Queen for a Day).

I know it's impossible to please everyone and I know you have serious concerns about the XL Pipeline, and the long-term effects of fracking. The Mayflower disaster in Arkansas on March 29th, 2013 was a bit TOO close to home. As you know an Exxon pipeline ruptured and spilled over 5,000 barrels of tarry oil. Many children got sick and home values plummeted! It is an environmental disaster.

I read that according to Federal data there is a significant pipeline spill in the U.S. on the average of EVERY 3 DAYS!  Wow that is staggering.

Don't let those Exxon BIG OIL puppet masters of the universe PULL YOUR STRINGS. Cut them loose!  Please and Thank you!

ONE WORRIED MOM

Obama Alien

Dear President Obama,

In a couple weeks, you should be expecting a package with over 1,000 letters/drawings from Arkansas school children. They all wanted to express their concerns about climate change and the planet. This is an Earth Day gift from them with the message MAKE EVERY DAY EARTH DAY!

One of the drawings is from a 3rd grader and it tickled me and I used it for the inspiration for this collage.

I imagined an Alien spaceship landing on Earth in a polluted industrial city full of concrete and steel or on a mountain top that had been strip mined or clear cut. They were horrified by all the destruction.



Ah, the wisdom of children!
Earthfully yours,
ONE WORRIED MOM

Obama Conductor

Dear President Obama,

I love this quote by Mae West on the conductor collage that goes with this letter,

"Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit and into that black space where the audience is."- Mae West

You have that glittering personality!  You are one of the most important conductors of the WORLD!

WE (us Worried Moms & others) are your audience in that black space...please create for the EARTH the most beautiful symphony EVER!
We will CHEER and APPLAUSE and shout BRAVO!  We will call for an ENCORE! 

Musically yours,
One Worried Mom

Obama Indigenous

Dear President Obama,

I am not very educated on all the ins and outs of this subject but I heard about President Morales of Bolivia and his commitment to addressing climate change.

His willingness to say NO to BIG OIL is brave indeed. I think leaders of the world could take heed and follow suit.

We can also learn much from indigenous peoples and elders.  We all share this planet, instead of thinking of ourselves as AMERICANS, BOLIVIANS, EUROPEANS, AFRICANS...and so forth...maybe we should call ourselves EARTHLINGS!

For the Earth,
One Worried Mom

 

Obama Wild Things

Dear President Obama,

Theologian Thomas Berry said, "The planet will never be so beautiful and abundant again...the Cenozoic Era that we are leaving behind, was when Earth was most lyrical, songbirds, flowering plants and GREAT families of mammals flourished. At this peak of beauty and richness humankind came. We are now responsible for the extinction of ONE OUT OF TEN species that we know of."   STAGGERING!

I used to read WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE to my son almost every night. Our Ozarks used to be home to countless WILD THINGS that are almost gone. (Maybe they hopped in a little boat and sailed away for a year and a day?) Maybe we need to change the name of the book to WHERE ARE THE WILD THINGS?

I know YOU are aware of a book called Moral Ground by Kathleen Dean Moore because YOU, Desmond Tutu and Sheila Watt-Cloutier (former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council) made POWERFUL arguments about our MORAL obligation in the face of climate change.  I have only read the interview about it and look forward to the book and what you had to say!   LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!

Wildly Yours,
One Worried Mom

Obama Ben Franklin

Dear President Obama,

Wind power could work almost ANYWHERE if we turned to HIGH FLYING KITES! Companies in Germany are already running with the idea of harnessing high altitude winds though the use of 'kite surfing' technology. COOL.

Remote controlled kites would have an advantage over wind turbines because they can fly at much higher altitudes where wind speeds increase considerably and stay strong.

Such kites also cost much less to build than wind turbine towers.

I think ole Ben Franklin was onto something great way back when.



"ENERGY AND PERSISTENCE CONQUERS ALL THINGS."  - Benjamin Franklin

Windfully yours,
One Worried Mom

Obama Coffee

Dear President Obama,

This is a difficult letter to write because it is causing me to look at my own habits and how those choices affect the world.  My biggest vice in life is COFFEE!  Every since childhood it has been my comfort food. I remember my parents always had a pot of coffee on the stove. Mom would make me my own brew with 3/4 milk and a little coffee with lots of sugar for a special treat, as far back as I can recall.

I went to a songwriting retreat this weekend and we were instructed to write 4 lines about something close to us. Sitting in front of me on the table was a container of Jasmine Pearl tea. I have always felt a twinge of over indulgence whenever I poured a cup because each of the delicate tea balls were HAND ROLLED by someone over in Asia! Those lines then turned into a song (see below) that stretched from tea to coffee. I began to research about how coffee used to be grown on small farms in the shade of the rainforests. It was a safe haven where birds flourished. In past years, due to the ENORMOUS popularity of coffee shops, coffee growning is a huge business and those forests are being cut down at alarming rates.

Now...I have known this fact for years and I try to drink organic 'shade tree' coffee whenever it is available or at home when I buy it, but for the most part I have closed my eyes and continued to fill my cup whenever and with whatever~!

If I am going to write letters like this-complaining about this or that...I should try to walk the talk. This is SO hard to do...I am a SPOILED AMERICAN and I am embarrassed about that.

I guess this letter is more for ME than YOU...Mr. President. It's a reminder to myself of the CAUSE & EFFECT. I am going to try this (but I can't guarantee I'll succeed). When I drink coffee from now on, I need to know where it came from and if it was grown in a sustainable way. Fairtrade coffee is GREAT!  It is just a small step, but one in the right direction.  BOTTOMS UP!

Sustainably yours,
One Worried Mom

IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Words & Music Donna Stjerna April 2013

Jasmine Pearls unfurl...they unfold without a care
I think about Asian women...rollin em into tiny spheres
I pick up my china cup...settle in my comfy chair...
take a sip of fragrant tea, flavored with those women's tears

At night they cover racks of tea, with those precious Jasmine flowers
perfumed like a concubine...they blow away come the morning hours
I try to tell the future with...the leaves left in my cup
Everything has a price, close my eyes and drink it up

They say ignorance is bliss...but I wonder...if it is???

Coffee once grown in the shade...on small farms 'neath canopy
The Java Jive is on the rise...they're cutting down those precious trees
We throw away those paper cups, never take the time to think
I fill up my big ole cup...close my eyes and take a drink

Workers down in Guatemala...pic a 100 lbs a day
Children slave out in the fields...no one gets a living wage
Barista with a lovely smile, fills me up to the brim
Sometimes I ignore the facts...and then the coffee wins.

They say ignorance is bliss...but I wonder...if it is???

Obama Farmer

Dear President Obama,

I read that government agricultural subsidies favor Mono-Cropping because it is economically beneficial. Then I learned that growing high yield crops of a single thing (on the same land year after year) damages the soil by stripping it of precious nutrients thus creating a dependency on pesticides and artificial fertilizers which seep into ground water and surrounding soil.

In this farming practice an ENTIRE crop can but wipe out very quickly by a single opportunisitic species! This happened in Ireland creating the great Potato Famine of 1845-1849.  OUCH!   Maybe farmers should be REWARDED for rotating crops & using organic methods that SUSTAIN the land and make it HEALTHIER rather than destroying it and risking another Dust Bowl or worse. 

Land, Water, Food & Farmers are VALUABLE commodities- we NEED to take care of them.
HI HO THE DAIRY OH...THE FARMER IN THE DELL!

Naturally yours,
One Worried Mom

Obama Drowning Man

Dear President Obama,

Do you ever feel like you are drowning? Wish someone would throw a life preserver? I think despair is a HUGE problem these daze! I think that many folks have a sort of 'environmental PTSD', myself included (at times).

These letters I've been writing are my life preserver. They have been good for my soul, sort of like when your write a letter to a friend or lover that your are having issues with and you NEVER send it. You just get to VENT and then burn or tear the letter up.

These letters are not changing anything but ME, they are helping me refocus, I just signed up for a week long workshop in New Mexico with one of my SHE-ROS (female hero), Joanna Macy. The workshop is on despair and empowerment. It's a mentoring program to learn how to deal with feelings of loss (species & environment) and how to help others. For me this is especially important for children. Here are the lyrics to another song I wrote on this subject of feeling 'overwhelmed'. I had just watched the movies...THE 11th HOUR and AVATAR and they threw me into a low place. This song was very cathartic for me. Maybe it can be a life preserver for others.

THE WAILING WALL
Words & Music Donna Stjerna Jan 16th 2010

I feel like a prayer scribbled on a piece of paper
crammed into a tiny crevice in the Wailing Wall
How can I keep my words from falling on deaf ears?
Is anybody listening? My voice seems small.
I feel like a boy with his thumb in the dike
holding back a river of fear...we've done so much damage
to our fragile planet...I can't hold back my tears.

CHORUS
So I huddle in the corner, curl up in a cozy blanket
Close my eyes, forgetting everything
For a little while I need to give in to the crying
Acknowledge all the pain and suffering
and THEN......get back up again.

I feel like the very list Passenger Pidgeon
Carrying a message to the world...or a Bald Eagle
scavenging for food, when it used to be the symbol
of the flag unfurled...remember as a kid
when you fell off your bike, bumped your head
cried & cried...Mama picked you up-kissed away the hurt
made you get back up and ride.     CHORUS

Rap Talking Part
I'm a Polar Bear standing on the edge of thin ice
not knowing which way to turn
I'm a Toucan perched on the edge of the forest
watching the canopy burn...
I'm a Pelican diving into Gulf waters
feathers oily and black
I can no longer hide my head in the sand
Time is running out fast!

I fell like I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve
Raw and unprotected...I can watch it bleed
bent and broken, I've been down on my knees
The weight of the world, pressing down on me
I know sometimes...a good hard cry
I just what I need to do...SO if you're feeling
what I've been feelin'...here's my advice to you...

Huddle in the corner, curl up in a cozy blanket
Close your eyes, forgetting everything
For a little while you need to give in to the crying
Acknowledge all the pain and suffering
and THEN......get back up again.

Obama Coal Miner

Dear President Obama,

I LOVE BIRDS!  My partner and I are avid birders. We have the honor of teaching at a summer camp for 11 & 12 year olds every summer. It is an Audubon ecology camp and it is a powerful thing to help inspire kids to get out in nature and away from TV and computers.

In our travels, we find it odd that many habitats that we visit are missing bird species that we would expect to see.  We also participate in the annual Christmas Bird Count and year after year we log which birds we see in specific locations.  The numbers of many species are WAY DOWN.  Many birds such as the Red Headed Woodpecker and Bobwhite Quail have almost vanished here in our area, they used to be fairly common in the right habitat.



The loss of many species of birds, bees, frogs and other creatures is largely due to Climate Change. Scientists have shown this to be a fact.  I think that birds (and frogs & bees) are the CANARY IN THE COAL MINE.  They are much more sensitive to environmental changes than we humans are.
Coal miners, traditionally...would bring a cage with a canary into the mines. If the canary died they knew it was time to get out of the mine because the air was tainted and lethal.

We need to heed the loss of these beings and realize they are giving us a WARNING. 

Sincerely,
One Worried Mom