As I spend a little time editing web copy for the launch of our new collective website TinMansHands.org, I ran across this post from many years ago. As the keystone exxon pipeline is still somehow up for debate and CO2 emission standards are not getting more stringent under this administration, I feel that the letter is still current. At the time I was referring to the talks in Copenhagen which, as I recall, was another cycle of going no-where with ensuring a habitable planet for future humans.
My letter to the president- 2009
Dear Sir-
I write to you from the cold attic of my carriage house, two
candles over there, dirt under painted nails here, as I have been out in the
garden all day. You have a slow and steady way, and I do yet believe that you
will manage to wash some sins of past administrations. I struggle with many of
your decisions, aware that you balance daily a multitude of pressures and
global needs. I do not agree with many of the positions you steadfastly hold,
so sometimes I despair. Until I remember your wife. I look forward to the day
when the news coverage of your organic garden extends beyond her fashion sense
and gives greater weight to her statements about the sensible economics of your
little victory garden. Could she speak a bit more about the way a body feels
after a day in the garden? Tired but satisfied, with oxygen in the blood and
the brain. Cheap health insurance. Perhaps I should write to her...
But I write you because you have the voice. May I introduce
myself? I am a “maker of things”, a potter; I glowed to the praise of your
inauguration speech. I am a young woman with a mind made keen by travel and
high-quality education, a body made hard by labor. I have strong ethics about
my consumption of energy, so when it came time to establish my own studio, I
designed and built an innovative kiln that fires with wood and waste vegetable
oil. I fire functional porcelaineous service-ware to 2300 degrees F in a kiln
that is completely carbon-neutral. I am part of the scattered army of green entrepreneurs
just dying to break into this supposed new paradigm of ethical consumption, and
I clarified my position in an interview with the radio broadcast Speaking of
Faith.
I have been trying to dance on the grave of bloated big
business but it just won't die! Here's what I'm thinking- I'm not against
capitalism, I'm against exploitation. Fair business practice without abuse of
power is a must in ethical society. America has lost its moral standing? Well,
we should quit being complicit in the abuse of other nations' people and
resources (not to mention our own). The more effectively we can keep our sights
on the acquisition of the materials, their construction and sale, the more
accountable the business in question can be to the community it creates. In other
words, make local, buy local. Or at least national. But it's a big nation,
these United States. The wheels of change turn so excruciatingly slowly.
Perhaps it is this that you encountered more forcefully upon ascending to the
high office in which you are now find yourself. Congress is mostly in the
pocket of lobbyists, seems to me. It is so painful to watch.
What can you do? You can risk it all. Everything it took to
get you to where you are now. Mary Oliver says “Tell me, what is it you plan to
do? / With your one wild and precious life?” (the summer day). I feel a great
pressure in the world, but not nearly enough. We are teetering on the edge of
calamitous climate change. Everyone is looking at America. You know it- they
are looking at you. Well, you and India and China. But, You. And Me. Little me,
with no voice, no press, no gilt-edged fingernails. I have nothing to lose by
giving the finger to big oil. You, well, I'm not sure what you have to lose
either, quite honestly. We all die someday- you could go down in history as the
president who, in a time of great crisis, gave dirty money the finger and told
the truth: we are running out of oil and there is no such thing as clean coal.
Harness the tides, implement bio-char, rip up the lawn. Oh, it would be
marvelous! Of course, the press would roast you. Ah, but the people would hear
you again!- you could just say it over and over- fair, ambitious, and binding.
Explain why it is crucial, you know the facts. Fair, Ambitious and Binding. All
the way to one of my favorite countries where the sun shines at midnight and
the bike lanes are ten feet wide. Will you? Will you help clear the rubble and
let us build a sane, ethical and accountable future? What will you do with your
one wild and gifted life?
With love almost always-
(and give Michelle a hug from me)
Careen Stoll
