Open Letter

I've been reading this really fascinating book called "Spontaneous Evolution". It explores the world of healing and humanity's evolution by recapping our biological, religious, political and scientific histories through a lens that marries spirit and science. The book shares how our commonly held paradigms of "how things work" has been dramatically challenged in the last 100 years by science, and our public perception has yet to catch up. Our modern thought is not so very modern after all. The future, so to speak, is already here but many don't recognize it.


I love books that bend my mind. Because of books like these, and because of my journey with art and healing over the past 2 years, I am starting to wake up and become a little bit more of an activist. I'm less satisfied with stressfully living my own life and more interested in being a part of a movement that wants to illuminate beauty and connection. We live is startling and magnificent times. I will recap some of my favorite 'new facts' in a post next week.


For now, I wanted to share a letter I sent to the Obama Campaign headquarters this month. I'm urging them to consider crafting a new American Myth that lives in balance with this land. I encourage every reader to find a way to raise your voice for one another. 

To the Obama Campaign,

I have emailed this letter to your campaign but I also wanted to mail it.  I feel compelled to let you know about an important issue that will decide who I support for president in 2012.

Hydrofracking is taking over my neck of the woods in Pennsylvania and I -- along with a growing group of citizens -- want it to stop. The President's position on natural gas harvesting of the Marcellus Shale is more or less supportive and I think it's worth it to share that he won't get my vote this time around if he touts this fossil fuel as the answer to our energy future or new sustainable jobs. I suspect I’m not alone. This is a tipping point issue.

I have become increasingly concerned with this administration's leadership on environmental stewardship as it relates to energy production; it's not nearly creative or inspiring enough. We as a nation need a vision to embrace when it comes to making these changes, we need an ambitious and seemingly impossible goal to strive towards, we need a new national story or new American myth of living in balance with our resources. I expect fierce and committed leadership on this issue as there is a clock ticking. Employ the youth and children in this endeavor and it will get done. Employ our president to lead the way and it will get done.

I had hoped that when I saw Obama stumping for election last time – when he very clearly said we'd bring about the end of the combustion engine -- that this would be a man who could lead us into a truly visionary future.

I haven't seen this future. I've seen nearly the opposite. Time and time again environmentally sound vision and policy gets woefully compromised. The natural gas drilling via the hydrofracking method is just another example, and I think people who care about this have had enough. We see the planet changing right before our eyes. It’s breaking our hearts.

Pittsburgh has an incredible resource in abundance of water. To use gross amounts of that resource for non-renewable fossil fuel extraction and to risk the pollution of that resource for future use, is doubly reckless in my view. The Obama campaign needs to know that simply getting clever or ‘smart’ about monitoring this type of drilling is not only reckless for the environment and our energy future, it’s also reckless for re-election. 

This is a real and very personal issue for me. I have been detoxing from industrial pollutants for the past 2 years and been feeling pretty awful for about 4 years (which suspiciously coincides with the uptick in drilling downwind from where I live).  Environmental illness causes job loss due to fatigue, lack of mental capacity, and frequent infections, and potential financial ruin due to expensive medical treatments that are outside of health insurance coverage. I'm lucky -- I'm recovering slowly but surely from my illness. However, if the environmental assault continues how will I ever become a fully productive member of society again?

I won't be silent if Candidate Obama campaigns on the back of my and my neighbor's health and the dangerous extraction of this region's resource, in exchange for the pollution of our other resources. I will actively campaign against him if there is any alternative to put someone in office who will do right by our planet's energy future, whether that person can win or not.

Don't get me wrong. I want Obama to be the guy, I truly do. I just haven't seen it yet on these issues. The chemical warfare waged by corporations because of the Marcellus Shale is the tipping point. 

                                                                          

I don’t presume that one letter will change his mind or your plan of action, but I thought it was worth mentioning so the re-election campaign could consider this new reality coming out of Pennsylvania.

Thank you for your time and for listening. I am open to further conversation if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Heather Kropf

Singer-songwriter

Pittsburgh, PA