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If the safety, health and wellbeing of your family were at risk, you would whip out that superhero cape and take action, right? And if your home, and your neighbors’ homes and families were at risk too, you would want to do everything that you could to help, right? But what if you felt that not everyone was aware of the risk or the danger, or even worse- that no one cared? Then, you have two options:
1. Feel defeated, helpless and do nothing.
OR…
2. Shout it from the rooftops!
The other day, I shared some thoughts about being fueled by coffee and, more importantly, passion. I had posed the question, “Besides coffee, what fuels you?” Below is a response that I had received:
Hmm. What fuels me? Well, I’ve been going through a lot of stress recently- massive pipeline threatening my house, broken water heater, transmission out on my car, etc. It’s been rough.
I guess the fight for my family’s physical, mental, and financial well-being has stirred up a massive amount of passion, but it’s not feeling like a rewarding or positive pursuit. It’s feeling like a massive, scary, life-threatening (and/or quality of life-threatening) fight. It’s been hard for me to get away from it, to put it aside, to compartmentalize. It’s caused near constant anxiety like I’ve never experienced before in my life.
Last night the car was finally fixed, I was taking a night off from fighting the good fight, and my husband and I decided to take the kids out to dinner near the repair place. We just sat as a family, no pipeline talk, to jumping up to start the dishes, no worrying about food on the floor. It was great. It was like a reset/refresh button had been switched (at least until we got back home, the kids were in bed, and we made the mistake of addressing all the missed pipeline-related FB posts and emails).
This is coming from one of the smartest women that I have known since I was in elementary school. This is about the area that we live in, our neighbors and our homes. This is about what we will say is acceptably safe for our children, and what we will leave behind for them to deal with in the future.
I will not even begin to claim that I know the details of what is going on with the pipeline that will cross through and under this area that is “home,” but I do know that when people as intelligent as Courtney are standing on their rooftops shouting for us to pay attention, it is about time that we listen. She’s not shouting because she wants to stir controversy or challenge one political party over another- she is shouting because she cares. For all of us.
So, instead of me attempting to sum up the importance of taking a closer look at this issue, I will share with you some of the links and resources that she has provided.
Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE)
Did you know: The proposed new 42″ diameter pipeline would cross from Stony Point, Rockland County under the Hudson River into Westchester County, NY, intersect two proposed mega voltage power lines just a few hundred feet from the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant and its 40 years of spent nuclear fuel rods, near the Ramapo and Stamford faults. It will continue through Westchester and Putnam Counties and into Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
lohud: Don’t turn N.Y. into transit route for fracked natural gas
Letter to the Editor: 2nd Natural Gas Pipeline Proposal Would Extend Expansion
Sign the Petition (Over 25,000 signatures have already been received)
Just imagine if this was proposed to run under your home, alongside your child’s school or near your loved ones; what would you be doing to make people aware of the risk?
Does something have YOU feeling overwhelmed?
That’s okay- we’ve all been there. Here are my tips for Running Life Like a Marathon.
