Teresa Heinz Kerry

I am humble when I remember that the sea is so large and my boat is so small. I've carried this quotation around in my head for years; I understand that it is a prayer, but I cannot find a source for it. No matter. In my relationship to the earth, it is apt.

I have wandered often in the woods, seeking truth and solace. And, each year, I take risks, stupid risks, because my own hubris tells me that I will always be able to think my way out of whatever nature throws my way. Frequently, my biggest problem is that for a wanderer, I have a lousy sense of direction, and like Hansel and Gretel, I try to leave behind small traces of myself, markers, so that when I leave, I can find my way back to safety.

Sometimes, I think that those who would deny that global warming is taking place, that the earth is in trouble, should be required to spend a week in the wilderness. Not in some tourist hotel at the edge of the glacier, but sleeping in tents, cooking over open fires, dealing with the elements as they present themselves. And Lord, they do present themselves.

Well, not the entire city of Pittsburgh -- only 2000 people sitting in a big room in Pittsburgh.

They're all here for the same macro reason I am, which is to attend the Women's Health & the Environment Conference. Only a handful of them are here for the same micro reason I am, which is to live-blog the conference over the intertubes.

Rather than tie up this shared laptop by repeating here what's being said there, I'll just point you guys to a few of the live-blogging threads where we're doing the play-by-play, in case any CKers want to visit Pittsburgh by proxy too:

http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2007/04/live_blog_nati...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/20/94027/8000

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/

I am happy to kick off Teresa Heinz Kerry's blogtour promoting the “Conference on Women’s Health & the Environment” held in Pittsburgh on April 20th.

Teresa Heinz Kerry’s two marriages bring together two American political traditions, the Republican Heinz family and the Democratic Kerry family, and shows how good people in both parties have common ground. Teresa herself is of Portuguese descent and grew up in Mozambique. To those who think French is the most romantic of the Romance languages, to my mind Portuguese is a much more beautiful and romantic language, though also a bit sad and wistful. Educated in South Africa and Switzerland, Teresa is fluent in 5 languages. She received the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism in 2003 in recognition for her philanthropy through the Heinz Family Philanthropies which also sponsors the conference.

Much of her philanthropic effort has focused on two areas: the environment, and women’s health and economic security. To most Americans, environmental issues and women’s issues tend to be put in separate conceptual boxes. We have an environmental movement and a feminist movement and the two are not perceived as intersecting. But in Europe, particularly in the European Green movement, these issues are conceptually much more closely linked. I once was able to hear my mother, an Anthropology professor and one-time coordinator of Women’s Studies at California State University Northridge, speak on the link between these two movements, presenting them as, in essence, the two areas where traditional, patriarchal attitudes have most glaringly failed, leaving problems and inequalities that are among the most difficult issues of the modern world. The way I look at it, human society from the development of agriculture on has been understandably obsessed with fertility: the fertility of our crops and our families. This obsession has led both to the success of our species in thriving practically everywhere on earth, but also has led to what amounts to unacceptable treatment of both the land that sustains us, and one half of our species--women. Industrial poisoning of our water supplies and fish stocks, global warming, overpopulation, domestic violence, unequal pay for equal work, laws limiting a woman’s right to control her own fertility, and many, many other issues that make headlines today are at least in part a result of the patriarchal and agricultural obsession society has had with fertility for some 10,000 years. Not to say there aren’t other aspects to these issues, but the cultural mindset that dominates the world is one where both the environment and women are resources to be exploited for the benefit of the species and are not often valued for themselves.

Teresa Heinz Kerry has a conference coming up Friday, April 20th, discussing women's health and the environment sponsorder by the Heinz Family Philanthropies. Leading up to this she is on a "blogtour" which I am happy to kick off on 4/14. Here is the schedule to date (changes possible):

4-14 Culture Kitchen http://culturekitchen.com/

4-15 Light Up The Darkness http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog

4-16 Democracy Cell Project http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/

4-17 A Dem Fine Woman http://www.demfinewoman.com

4-18 The World Women Want/Big Green Purse
http://theworldwomenwant.com/blog.htm
http://www.biggreenpurse.com

4-19 John Kerry Is My Hero http://www.johnkerryismyhero.com

4-20 Democratic Daily http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/

4-21 Post Carbon http://postcarbon.org/blog/3475

4-22 The Unofficial Kerry Blog http://kerryblog.blogspot.com/

4-23 Culture Kitchen http://culturekitchen.com/

4-24 We Love John Kerry http://www.welovejohnkerry.com

4-25 Violet Voices http://www.meredithefken.com/blog

4-26 Cocking A Snook http://cockingasnook.wordpress.com/

4-27 VB Dems http://www.vbdems.org

4-28 Tough Enough http://www.toughenough.org

4-29 Liberal Values http://liberalvaluesblog.com/

I was surprisingly inspired by John and Teresa Heinz Kerry’s new book, This Moment on Earth, coming out March 26th, 2007. This inspiration snuck up on me around the third chapter. Prior to that, I found the book good, well worth reading, but a little bit like just one more book outlining what humans are doing wrong. Starting around the third chapter I realized I was referring to the book in several conversations and several blog diaries and that several of the people and organizations featured in the book I mentally filed away as worth looking into for future political connections, diaries and general research.

In short, almost without my realizing it, John Kerry’s book was getting into my brain and inspiring me. The book starts a bit dull but by the end is excellent.

My earliest impression, from the press material that arrived with the book and from the introduction, was that this book promised something really new and welcome. The book was billed as the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate. I was ready for a book that took as given the problems and focused primarily on solutions. Having been through way too many “debates” online where I yet again outlined the very clear scientific evidence for global warming only to have yet the same false claims that global warming was some kind of scam or myth (these claims are never backed up by scientific evidence of any substance), I really was ready to have a book that moved beyond that.