Today is our Independence Day. Tomorrow can be theirs...

From BONO'S organization, The One Campaign:

Dear ONE Member:

One year ago, I stood on the stage of Live 8 in
Philadelphia, the biggest concert event in history, talking about something that
was only an idea at the time. It was the idea that, with the stroke of a pen,
eight of the world's leaders could change the future of millions of the poorest
people. Five days later, they did. That moment resulted in unprecedented
commitments to the world's poorest people for debt relief, fair trade, and
better development assistance. July 4th is our Independence Day. It
represents the day our nation started down a path of our own making. Many people
don't realize that development assistance is not about handouts, it's about
providing the means for a country to provide for itself. It's about giving that
country the opportunity to celebrate its own Independence Day. Every three
seconds someone dies of poverty-related disease, but sometimes it's hard to
remember that we are talking about people, not numbers. An actual person —
somebody's daughter, sister, or mother — dies every three seconds just because
she was born on the other side of an invisible line. Together, we can make
statistics like that history.

Thank you,
Will Smith, ONE Campaign

To take action or join the ONE Campaign visit http://action.one.org/ActionSignup.html

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An Inconvenient Truth

Three years ago my husband and I took a vacation to Glacier Park in Montana. There were no glaciers. My husband was really bummed out, having flown across the country to see them. I teased him endlessly, thinking he had taken the name of the park too literally. After seeing Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, I now realize why there were no glaciers in Glacier Park. To understand why check out http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/

I owe my husband an apology. I also owe it to future generations to do my part to preserve what is left of the earth's treasures, so they do not disappear the way the glaciers in Glacier park did. I also urge you to help by viewing http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/

With the odd weather we had this week, I couldn't help but remember Al Gore's warnings. Just this week alone massive rains flooded upstate New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, while Texas suffered severe drought. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stbing304800987jun30,0,7639032.story


In Suffolk County Long Island, residents couldn't swim at many beaches because the overflow from the rains caused a rise in the bacteria in the ocean water.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liclos27vr4797456jun27,0,1980032.story

In a separate incident in Nassau county, NY, West Hempstead and Garden City South residents were warned not to use their water supply to drink, cook, bathe, swim, or even brush their teeth because of a chemical that got mixed into the ground water from an oil or gas leak.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limtbe284798604jun28,0,2529552.story

The environmental crisis is hitting home. Every American citizen should see An Inconvenient Truth to start a national dialog about the dangers of neglecting our environment and what we can do about it.