Thursday 24 March 2016
Letter #581
Dear President Obama,
Turkey is another ally we should distance ourselves from. The last few months have been particularly bad. The US wanted access to a Turkish airbase to “help” control ISIS, and in return Turkey said it had to secure its borders and started massive shellings of KURDS. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/world/europe/turkey-kurds-pkk.html
Turkey’s president Erdogan hates all Kurds and concentrates more on wiping them out than ISIS. He does much to destabilize the region and prolong the Syrian war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/opinion/how-turkey-misreads-the-kurds.html
Now Syrian kurds are trying to carve out a Kurdish region and we should applaud them. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world/middleeast/syria-kurds.html
Kurds by their actions have proven to be honest, honorable, effective managers of oil assets, liberal, secular, more democratic, and less sexist than their neighbors. We should support them, NOT Erdogan. And now that Turkey is the gatekeeper for Syrian refugees trying to escape to Europe, what chance does a Syrian Kurd have of getting to Europe?! None. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/world/europe/turkey-european-union-refugees.html
All will be labelled terrorists: men, women and children. We cannot close our eyes and condone a Kurdish genocide. Did we learn nothing from the Armenian genocide? Don’t kid yourself on who your friends are. Disengage from the tribal slaughter of the Middle East and spend more energy on keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Respect Kurds
Saturday 23 April 2016
Letter #582
Dear President Obama,
Yesterday I was thrilled to hear that Harriet Tubman will grace the front of the $20 bill – the one everyone uses everyday! https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/us/a-cashless-society-not-before-tubmans-20-arrives.html
I wrote these haikus to honor the occasion:
Tub woman and spy
Gladdens our everyday
Twenty dollar bill.
Spy no longer
She celebrates the 20
Reasons she should be there.
Harriet Tubman
smiling to this balmy day
White man on the back.
You know, Harriet would want us to give more people freedom and longer lives, and the only way to do that is to quickly stop using fossil fuels. We are making a terrible mess for future generations. So for Harriet, please KIITG! Keep it in the ground! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honoring Harriet Tubman
Sunday 24 April 2016
Letter #583
Dear President Obama,
I recommend to you the opinion against the Constitution pipeline by Karenna Gore (16 April). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/opinion/stop-a-pipeline-for-fracked-gas.html
And I was thrilled to read NY state denied the needed “water quality certificate” and so, for now, has stopped this large detrimental project. We cannot continue to rape the planet and warm the atmosphere so future generations bear the brunt of our egotistical short-sighted follies! New York is moving in the right direction, but we need to speed it up! Please do everything you can to move the country away from fossil fuels quickly! We have got to KIITG! Keep it in the ground. Every pipeline delay buys us time to educate more people that natural gas is NOT a clean energy! Please end all offshore oil and gas leases. You will be doing your daughters a huge favor.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Stop the Constitution Pipeline
Sunday 1 May 2016
Letter #584
Dear President Obama,
I write to you today about a predatory lending practice called “contract for deed” which preys on people of color in depressed areas. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/opinion/the-racist-roots-of-a-way-to-sell-homes.html
Investment firms should not be allowed to profit from poor people with these predatory contracts where they can be evicted for tiny matters and stand little chance of ever owning the house. I am ashamed to be an American when I read of such abuse of power and such insatiable greed. Greed will bring down much that is good in human achievement if we let it. Greed and the lure of short-term profit is also severely hampering our ability to slow carbon emissions and climate change. I know that racism poisons the daily lives of millions of people and honor you for all you do to combat it. But tolerance will only thrive in a climate that flourishes. Remember, the planet will continue to warm for 20 years after we stop burning fossil fuels! Please stop drilling leases on all federal lands right NOW. It will do much to lessen RACISM! Please think deeply about the links between climate justice and social justice! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Making Connections
Monday 2 May 2016
Letter #585
Dear President Obama,
Government-paid public defenders are the backbone of “liberty and justice for all.” Yet we spend LESS in our states and counties on public defense now than 20 years ago, while the number of felony cases has risen by 40%. This is a mockery of justice for the poor as Prof. John Pfaff so clearly details! https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/opinion/a-mockery-of-justice-for-the-poor.html
I applaud his suggestion for a $4 billion grant to local governments to improve access to public defenders. But, as yesterday, I also repeat that tolerance can only thrive in a climate that flourishes! Leadership is really about long term goals and vision that sees way beyond today and tomorrow. Money for public defenders is important, but money to stave off the worst of climate change is even more important. Please use your leadership and influence to KIITG! Keep it in the ground! Stop federal drilling leases, off-shore and on. It won’t win you a popularity contest this month, but it is the only hope for your children and grandchildren – and justice for those generations – after we are gone. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Taking the Long View
Thursday 26 May 2016
Letter #586
Dear President Obama,
It is with sadness that I read Prof. Loeb’s article about sand mining in the Midwest.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/23/opinion/the-sand-mines-that-ruin-farmland.html
To the fracking industry, the fertile soil they need to scrape off to mine the sand is OVERBURDEN. What a word. That overburden is a rich ecosystem that provides food to many. Over economic system is truly messed up when such richness holds little economic value. Not only do we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground KITTG! But we also need to damage the fertile land still remaining far LESS. Climate change is creating less arable land, and we allow “cheap land prices” to destroy great arable land? We really ARE stupid. Please do everything you can do reduce carbon emissions and slow down climate change. We are not handing off a healthy planet to our children. A farm is more valuable than a sand pit. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Stop Frac Sand Mining on Farmland
Friday 27 May 2016
Letter #587
Dear President Obama,
I went to a Cambridge City hearing yesterday to advocate for Columbus Day to be changed to Indigenous People’s Day. Boy – we should have done that a long time ago.
A group of local 8th graders were perhaps the most compelling speakers. Columbus was an awful man. I spoke briefly in favor of the change and told the city councilors and citizens that indigenous peoples all over the world are far better stewards of the earth than white Europeans like me. If indigenous peoples had control of 80% of the earth, we would be facing far less climate change. We really need to connect the social justice movement and the climate movement. I wish I could do more to show people that all of these important struggles will be pointless if we mess the climate up so much that large swaths of humanity DIE. So please do everything you can to KIITG. Keep it in the ground! And please show people the connections between keeping the planet livable and social justice for all. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Admire Indigenous Peoples
Saturday 28 May 2016
Letter #588
Dear President Obama,
I write to you today to honor the cake-guy Art Smith from north Florida. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/dining/art-smith-chef-florida-disney.html
My daughter just graduated from college and that meant celebrations and cake-making and eating – which reminded me to write to you about him. He wants to revitalize a corner of northern Florida by teaching locals how to bake those gorgeous southern cakes, starting a cake factory – and selling them to restaurants at Walt Disney World. I love the synergy of his plan: Excellent local products sold to people on vacation near-by. Locals call him “a force of nature” and I hope his energy is catching!! This is a much better way to rebuild a local economy than huge extractive industries like fossil fuels. Please help entrepreneurs like Art Smith – and show the link between his vision and ours of KIITG! Keep it in the ground!! We need to rebuild corners of America with sustainable jobs of all kinds! So let them Eat Cake and let’s cut down carbon emissions! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Art Smith Fan
Monday 30 May 2016
Letter #589
Dear President Obama,
It’s raining and I am glad – we had a very dry month – only half the usual rainfall – each time they say it’s going to rain, just a few drops fall, until last night. We’ve gotten about an inch – good for the garden, the birds, the ecosystem. But it’s not actually my garden that matters, it’s the relentless increase in carbon pollution that we are doing so little about. In the New Yorker recently, Adam Gopnik praised your slow steady push for liberal change, likening it to trying to turn an ocean liner.
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/comment/liberal-in-chief
But what if we don’t have time? What is we’ve waited too long? I feel an urgency to pick up the pace of change and urge you to join us – to push harder, speak louder, act boldly to help KIITG! Keep it in the ground. It is the only way for decent lives for our grand children. It just doesn’t feel like slow and steady is enough these days. Please, please use your voice, your influence. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Too late for Slow and Steady
Tuesday 31 May 2016
Letter #590
Dear President Obama,
I’ve been meaning to write to you about Isle de Jean Charles, LA where 90% of the land mass has washed into the Gulf of Mexico. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/us/resettling-the-first-american-climate-refugees.html
The recent National Climate Assessment Report highlighted this place – home to about 60 indigenous people. $48 million has been set aside to move this entire community, or at least those that want to move. It’s supposed to be a test case for how to deal with climate change – and the money has to be spent by 2022 – but that just means consultants and land owners and who knows who will try to get a piece of that money – and earnest gov’t employees are going door to door trying to find out what residents want. Good education and health care and in short supply – so yet another generation will grow up without social and economic justice. If you could provide some speed boats and tutors, maybe the kids could do better in school – and learn about climate disruption and make choices for their lives. Maybe this test case should weight their voices ten times greater than their elders! As it is, we’re not going to learn much from the study, and those kids lives are already disrupted by climate chaos. If you do everything you can to KIITG! those kids will have a better chance. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Kids are the Future
