Doris “Granny D” Haddock died peacefully today in her Dublin, New Hampshire family home at 7:18 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, 2010. She was 100 years old. Born in 1910 in Laconia, New Hampshire, she attended Emerson College and lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. She was an activist for her community and for her country, remaining active until the return of chronic respiratory problems four days ago.

I only met Doris once briefly when she visited San Luis Obispo in connection with the Cal Poly Preface Reading Program but she touched me permanently.  As I seek ways to adapt to growing old in a world that feels easy to abandon, her love of life, her pride in her past, her urgent concern with the future, her fighting spirit, and her refusal to give up in spite of disappointment, provide me with guidance and inspiration.  What a sad irony it is that during her last few months, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that, for the time being at least, reverses so much of what she worked for. Finally now she gets a break from that relentless struggle.  Or perhaps, somewhere, her spirit still is on the march.

Two freshman student responses to Granny D’s visit to Cal Poly in 2004

Go Granny Go!

When I got to Cal Poly this fall, I soon learned that not too many people actually read the shared reading book, Granny D., You’re Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell.  Furthermore, those who did read it did not really like it.  I was surprised because I loved reading the book!  I love to travel and have been to most of the states of our country, so I loved hearing about her adventures in the different states.  In addition, I have gotten really into politics over the summer, and I have loved forming my political identity and views.  Doris “Granny D” Haddock is very inspirational, and she demonstrates what a difference one person can make.

I have looked forward to hearing Granny D. speak since I read just a few pages of the book.  I was very excited to finally have the opportunity last Friday night when Granny D. gave her speech entitled “I am in the Example Business.”  She is an engaging speaker, and it was delightful to hear her.  I liked how her speech started regarding writing a cheaper and shorter book, although I was not one of the students with an “independence streak” (at least as far as this book goes).  I liked how she drew us in with her stories of New England autumns, which I remember vividly from the year I lived in Massachusetts.  Additionally, I loved all the “political stuff” and her stories of life in New Hampshire.  My favorite part of her speech was when she said, “We cannot move the world toward our wisdom and love so long as we permit political systems that run on greed and fear instead of love and ideas.”  At the end of the speaking, I enjoyed the question and answer time.  For example, her sticker that said “Vote Dammit!” and when Dennis Burke told her that a question was “regarding Iraq.”  Throughout her speech, I loved to applaud her and give her standing ovations.

Attending Granny D’s speech was one of the most enjoyable things I have done at Cal Poly.  It was motivational, and I felt “the hero inside my heart.”  Granny D. is one of my heroes, and she is what this country is all about!

Granny D

When I found out Granny D was coming to speak at Cal Poly, I was excited but did not think it would be worth my time. Looking back to the event and reflecting on what she said, I am extremely glad that I decided to attend! As in her book, her speech was filled with inspiration, politics, life lessons, biographical anecdotes, and of course humor. Her opening statement “Had I known that 3,000 of you would be forced to buy and read my book instead of enjoying your summer, I certainly would have written a cheaper and shorter book” had the crowd roaring with laughter. That statement was a perfect example to explain her personality. She is a person who loves life and has made her mark in the world and will continue to do so in the United States Senate if she gets elected.

I enjoyed learning about life in her small hometown of Peterborough, New
Hampshire. Her description of autumn made me want to become a “Leaf Peeper”! Peterborough seems to have a lot in common with San Luis Obispo and through the examples she gave, it made me want to get involved here in my new hometown and find out about local issues since I am a citizen. The fact that a play was written about the town struggles showed what a tight- knit community Peterborough is and how it is good that people don’t take things too seriously in the end. There has to be a sense of humor to get through life and not let differences divide one another. That message was strong throughout her talk.

It was nice that the forum was opened for questions. It was good to hear about local issues and hear what Granny D had to say. She is a person who knows her stuff and is not afraid to tell you. She has and will continue to fight for what she believes in until she gets what she knows is right. The United States Senate is a good move for Granny. She will be a strong influence and I believe a good influence to the senators. She will make changes for the better. Granny D will make America better and keep its ideals alive and on track.

My notes in preparation for the discussion of Granny D, during the 2004 Preface Program at Cal Poly

I.   Introduction
A.    This is a discussion—an exchange of impressions and ideas
B.    In a good discussion you don’t  expect to leave with the same ideas and opinions that you entered with.
C.    I’m hoping that in the course of this discussion we all will have express ideas and reactions to the book and its subject matter, and then allow the ideas that we came with be modified, enriched, reversed or deepened by listening to others.  One of the questions I’d like to end with is how has the discussion changed your original response.
D.    So no matter how strongly expressed they are, let’s try to take what say and hear during the first part of this hour as somewhat tentative.
E.    Have you talked about this book with other members of your group or with anyone before our discussion today?
F.    What were some of the things you said about it? And what people you spoke to said.  What did you dislike and what did you like?  Was it a good choice for this immense project.
G.    I’m 62,  heading toward retirement, recently turned  grandfather.  I have no problem identifying with this granny.   But is there any chance you can you connect with such an old person.  Is it possible for 18 year olds to do so?   How do you relate to old people?
II.    Genre
A.    Writing a book—what is a book; relation of book to journal
B.    Journaling—142-3
C.    Journey
1.    Beginning, middle and end—road trip; hike;
2.    pilgrimage—Canterbury tales, Divine Comedy, Odyssey—the adventure journey and self discovery
3.    Travelogue—On the road; America—love song to the country and the culture—Jack Kerouac—meeting the people…relation to politics
4.    What makes people go on journeys
a)    Thoreau—death of his brother, goes to the woods
b)    Get out of your comfort zone
c)    Renew yourself
D.    Autobiography—through the introduction of memories
III.    Structure and Plot
A.    Structure and style and genre—on writing
B.    Title and subtitle
C.    Forward, Overture, 3 parts, epilog, appendix, speech excerpts, grannyd.com
D.    Part I
1.    Small quirky band—atmosphere of isolation and ordeal
2.    Isolation in desert
3.    Lack of media attention 29
4.    Crossing colorado river brings Marine corps band playing happy birthday and earns credibility
5.    Almost dies from pneumonia and dehydration—rushed to hospital and recovers
6.    Idea of creating a groundswell of support with the walk
7.    Going from disintegration of community and loss of place at the table to being surrounded by friends 80
E.    Part II
1.    Coming alive—excitement of Texas
2.    New York Times reporter—taken seriously
3.    Walking over the mountains and remembering climb of Katahdin and reflecting on mountaintops and cloudsplitters
4.    Crossing pecos river—center of the world—boundary of the far west
5.    Reform Party address; Ross Perot; Flies to New Hampshire to work with John McCain; crowds along the road; Flies to Michigan
6.    Closing off second section with retrospection and address to tired reader 145
F.    Part III
1.    Into the south, reverse of falling out with Ken and tribute to him
2.    Linking up with civil rights movement—memories and present-day; Dick Gregory
3.    New awareness that there are no parental leaders out there—it’s us  195
4.    Long autobiographical narrative about her courtship and marriage
5.    Making way across Tenn and Kentucky—opponent Mitch McConnell
6.    Hills getting steeper; Alaska story from 1960—saving the eskimos from Edward Teller
7.    The whiteout in the blizzard—death is an illusion  231
8.    The skiing trip in the snow
9.    Arlington cemetery—life and death
10.    Meeting with old friends like heaven  242-243
11.    End of the pilgrimage, parading through Washington [like Canterbury, St. John de Compostela, Jerusalem]
12.    Speech at Lincoln Memorial
13.    Arrested in Capitol
14.    Thankful for the  troubles that have shaped me 257
15.    Happy endings finally reveal themselves and flow slowly into the bright and mysterious river of the divine 257 –conclusion
16.    Thanks reader for spending time with her
IV.    Characters
A.    Doris–Present
1.    Self-assertive, confidence grows, becomes a Moses; elder—authority; nothing to lose
2.    Vulnerable and humble and generous
3.    Repetitious and garrulous?
4.    Righteous but unorthodox
5.    Impious but religious
6.    Self conscious—seeing self in others’ eyes  6  Losing self—ego
7.    No longer a village elder; woman scorned; no place at the table
8.    Flamboyance—parade at Rosebowl; grand arrival in Washington
9.    Pain—hip and back  20 [my aching back]; falling apart 27; coming alive 83-5 (the pains)
10.    Cries herself to sleep with pain and grief for loss of husband
11.    Still sexy—a man magnet—attractions to Ken and other male and females
12.    The culture hero.  Her heroics and daring; people’s  response—hugs and worship; expands possibilities of life
B.    Doris—past
1.    Tuesday morning academy—voluntary association 8—self education
2.    Felt backward because dropped out of college to marry Jim
3.    Dundee 66—more walking
4.    On stage—crescent moon70
5.    Learning the power of her persuasion; regret for Sybil, don’t make fun of anyone  92
6.    Overhearing mother say she was most difficult child—wonder if she’s mine;  Doris’ terrible hurt 126
7.    Mother’s hatred of Germans because of brother’s death in war
8.    Not strong enough to stand up for persecuted minority
9.    Scar tissue from social insecurity and class consciousness from being a servant while in college 187
10.    Courtship and Secret marriage; kicked out of college 197
11.    Alaska
12.    Fighting the Interstate  229
C.    Companions
1.    Doug—quirky vegetarian, looking for his groove 25
2.    Ken Hechler – 84 year-old West Virginia Sec. State
D.    Family and Friends
1.    Jim—developmentally disabled
2.    Supportive but challenging relationship—parent-child role reversal  12
3.    Children, grand children, great grand children
V.    Themes
A.    Journey of self discovery;
1.    mission; ordeal; challenge; accomplishment—having stories to tell and forming
2.    call of the road—wanting to be on the road—jack kerouac, etc. –hitchhiking and adventuring
B.    Walking—using your feet—personal power, human scale, modesty and power
1.    Noticing things, greeting people  58
2.    Political Marches—MLK, march on Washington, pilgrimage
3.    My patented method of putting one foot in front of the other 83
C.    Pain and loss
1.    Of youth and beauty; the walk made her 20 years younger 252
D.    Heroism
1.    Self discipline and training and extraordinary achievement
a)    Getting in Shape  — training and preparation with letters of introduction [Reading this during the Olympics and with victor Plata in mind]
b)    Falling apart in the desert 27
c)    Sleeping the ground; dealing with traffic
2.    Ego and selflessness
a)    She’s being honored as an elder 59
b)    Wanting a place at the table 79
c)    First time in my life not afraid of what someone might think of me 254-5
3.    God does seem to favor gate-crashing heroism  143
4.    Taking on risk  252
5.    The blizzard—hard work  238
6.    Motivational speech to students—your life is not trivial…241
7.    Arlington cemetery—sacrificial death 243
E.    The personal, emotional, political and spiritual-religious
F.    Old Age—life a journey
1.    Loss and defeat—her husband and friend; her own body—but miraculous extension of energy and rejuvenation
2.    Secret to a happy life…help other people until you don’t notice your own needs and pains anymore  39
3.    Nursing homes; taking care of elderly 40-41
4.    Jim had Alzheimers 10 years—finally stops eating 40
5.    Rich past comes back with memories of Dundee in commune  70
6.    The ache du jour—after forty its always something.  But after 85 its always nearly everything  84
7.    Adult children interfering 97
8.    Loss of youth and beauty 127
9.    Arlington cemetery—sacrificial death 243
G.    Spiritual enlightenment
1.    Fear of death—fear of death leads to fear of life for life leads to death 44 [related to her near death experience]
2.    Journaling and meditation 142
3.    Granny Luck; providential career  142
4.    Eternity in blizzard 231—Thornton Wilder…Old Einstein
5.    Responsibility and risk when taking on leadership 252
6.    Moses had wonderful timing –comparison 235
7.    Fitting in with God’s plan—the towpath in the blizzard
8.    Using up ourselves in a good cause 239
9.    Redemption from sin  240
10.    Happy endings finally reveal themselves and flow slowly into the bright and mysterious river of the divine 257 –conclusion
11.
H.    Practical wisdom
1.    Secret of long and happy marriage: never let sun go down on your anger 30
2.    You need to have a purpose to your life and you need friends.  Friends often come from your commitments, your passions…you need to give yourself away  35
3.    Secret to a happy life…help other people until you don’t notice your own needs and pains anymore  39
4.    See a therapist 41
5.    Managed to stay married for 62 years—great sex is answer, meaning both people enjoy it.  59
6.    Moving from feeling excluded to becoming a leader and thereby making friends 79
7.    Pains and distractions from pains  84-5
8.    Parents need to convey positive self image and also self reliance, character and empathy  126
9.    Meaningful things—202 people have a need to live a life that expresses their values…culture makes us people of great longing for meaning
I.    Values: wanting to be of use  7
J.    Love and Friendship and Family
1.    Husband jim still with her
2.    Her father and his role in the family—kingly power resulting from ability to take care of us, discharge responsibility  90
3.    Together and parting and reunion with Ken Hechler
K.    Political organizing
1.    How to approach people  16
2.    Talking to strangers—sense of community
3.    Talking to media 20
4.    Senator Kyl—a bad guy—she makes him look bad
a)    Luxury office  46  contrast to everyone else’s accolades
5.    Congressman Kolbe—courteous opponent
6.    Power of new york times 93
7.    Meaningful things—202 people have a need to live a life that expresses their values…culture makes us people of great longing for meaning
8.    Politics as personal thing 203—passionate
9.    Max’s connections …access is the soul of politics…should never be sold for cash  225
L.    Campaign finance reform and other populist movements
1.    Lost sense of belonging to America  7
2.    Powerlessness; only money talks
3.    No room of regular citizens
4.    Democratic ideal—populism—small towns, chambers of commerce
5.    Politicians not interested in little people: interstate highway system vs.  small towns
6.    Challenge to take it on –Tuesday academy  9—letter writing campaign
7.    Anti corporate, small businesses
8.    Speech and arg 36-7
9.    Eisenhower’s interstate program he copied from Nazis 38—hates the interstate
10.    Walmart vs. small town 55 annihilate small businesses
11.    Unhealthy vs. healthy communities
12.    HMOs and Drug companies in cahoots with crooked politicians—popular perception
13.    Cloudsplitters: her heros—John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt: populism and progressivism, American Mt. Sinai
a)    Of the people, By the people, for the people
b)    Roosevelt vs. Taft; big money won  102
c)    Progressive party; reform energy
14.    Long X ranch cowboys agree politicians are in pockets of the wrong people 106
15.    The Chatauqua 115—populist education
16.    Val the opponent of nuclear waste dumping in her area  121—representatives no good to her
17.    Reformists all over battling the big bad bullies—cf. Orion
18.    Reform Party—Ross Perot, big money…different from her progressive populism
19.    Dsicovery of public financing of campaigns 153-5
20.    Attack on fundamentalist preachers  155
21.    In the steps of Dr. King 172
22.    West Virginia struggles agains the coal mine owners—labor unions in 1920s, stop mountain top removal today
a)    Ken’s long struggles, black lung disease, Coal King thugs murder Jock Yablonski
b)    Ken as hero  177
23.    Speech at Lorraine Motel—equal opportunity, economically divided—blames laws favoring wealthy passed by their politicians  193
24.    Destruction  of human scaled cities and towns by developers suburbias and family farms and family units by corporate policies 215
25.    Speech in Washington—her march proves that people do care—shame on you senators and congressmen 248
26.    Modest bill against soft money
M.    American culture
1.    Creeping subdivisions of LA  19  pollution and look-alike
2.    Enjoyment of small towns and quirky places
a)    29 Palms
3.    Trailer parks on Colorado River—runaway grandparents—hometowns ruined by too many vehicles
4.    Tapestry of America—SEWING, FABRICS 43
5.    The reservation—
a)    development stops; middle of nowhere.  Good Morning America promises to come but doesn’t show up—typical
b)    outlines the ancient canal system of Pima Maricopas and attributes invention of Maple syrup to indians
c)    a potlatch of gifts
d)    vignettes of impoverished Indians
e)    causes of Native American suffering: unresolved political defeat and inability to discharge traditional duties—diabetes
6.    what’s behind the curtains 61 Sigma chi and biker bar
7.    Membres—free love commune
8.    Being a valued and honest employee and paid accordingly—honest and modest profit  [is this romanticising earlier capitalism?] 90
9.    Disgrace of illegal immigrants dying 98
10.    Baseball and cowboys and stars spangled banner 125
11.    Jeffersonian Hi
12.    Getting to know the alien west and south  149
13.    Black and white—memories of Ida and Dilsey while working at Nantucket hotel; class difference and racial difference—rope on the beach  162
14.    Meaningful things—202 people have a need to live a life that expresses their values…culture makes us people of great longing for meaning
15.    Destruction  of human scaled cities and towns by developers suburbias and family farms and family units by corporate policies 215
VI.    Style
A.    Descriptive and narrative—
1.    opening description on p. 1
2.    the flying hat 5;
3.    dust devil  87
4.    dundee story—lost and found and
5.    crossing the ice with Sybil 90-92
6.    from the heat to the cold;
7.    power of imagination; snows of imagination melted—interweaving of two stories past and present
B.    Dramatization—old man on the road  6
C.    Symbolism
1.    Desert 3-4 and blizzard
2.    Cloudsplitters  99ff  mountainous place memory of mountain go tell it on the mountain  mt. Sinai and Moses; prophetic language 103
D.    Structured by voyage and chronology, but also associational—going from riding in car with son to Tuesday academy discussion, and then addressing reader to put us in position of looking at Jim  11
E.    Humor and sarcasm  “Mr. Plan-Ahead”  12, Jim’s company  14  on Doug  25, confidential gossip
F.    Always a bit of sexual attraction or memory 133, 205
G.    Structure of individual chapters—beginning middle and end
H.    Direct address to reader at  end of each section, but also throughout—catches us immediately if it doesn’t put us off.
1.
VII.    Discussion questions
A.    Is this a big accomplishment?
B.    What about the anti corporate message—how do you feel about large corporations, multinationals
C.    You need to have a purpose to your life and you need friends.  Friends often come from your commitments, your passions…you need to give yourself away  35
1.    Alternative views
D.    What statements do you disagree with
E.    What did you find attractive about her,  her experience, her cause, ; what unattractive?
F.    Corporate wal-mart destruction of small businesses 55
VIII.    Reader responses
A.    Did you not like the book—hate the book?
B.    Old people—any you relate to? –90 year olds
C.    Grandparental relationships
D.    What are Grannys?
E.    What’s nasty about relating to 90 year olds
F.    What’s interesting about relating to them?
G.    What do they have to offer that 40 or 50 year olds don’t
H.    Youth Against Age—both marginal
I.
J.    Read GrannyD.com responses and others—hero worship; what is hero worship
K.    What would you want to ask or say to her?  Would you want to greet or touch or hug her?
L.    What is her religion?  How does it relate to your religion?
M.    Anybody Google her—she’s running for the Senate

Dennis’s Burke’s Eulogy for Granny
Dublin, New Hampshire, March 14, 2010

Thousands of news services, from Peterborough to Bangkok, from personal diaries to the New York Times, have reported these last few days on the life and death of Doris Haddock. In her life, she did not cure a disease or end a war. She did not write ten symphonies or do whatever normally occasions such notice. So what did she do? It is worth thinking about in this moment.

If people no longer spoke aloud, or if they no longer looked at things with their own eyes or through their own thoughts, if they let others do those things for them, then they would take it as unusual if one among them suddenly spoke up and dared see the world independently, describing without filter or permission the vivid colors and true conditions of the world.

It is difficult to understand why a lady from New Hampshire who did little more than take morning walks–though she sometimes did so without coming back for several years–should be so lionized in death, unless we also consider what has become of the world around her that made her exceptional by comparison. She is seen as exceptional perhaps because the rest of us have become a little too reticent, a little too slow-moving, in response to these times of high challenge.

A thousand people have told me that, when they reach her age, they want to be like Granny D. I have always agreed with them, but we have had it a little wrong. We must not wait until we are 90 or 100; we have to be, even today, a little more like Granny D. Our challenges will not wait for us to age.

Walking down long highways, I remember that sometimes she would want to look at the small things killed beside the road that others could not bear to look at. She was a great artist in fibers and colors, even in how she dressed. No one had a better sense of hat. She would see rich beauty in places where some would never dare look. She seems to have turned off her hearing aids for the lecture when the rest of us were told we must not look here or there, and told how some things must be presumed beautiful or ugly, true or false. She simply and always wanted to see for herself.

Too often we are told what to think, even about ourselves. We are encouraged to trivialize our lives; to participate in our own reduction to mere consumers of products, passive witnesses to history. She wanted to see for herself what she might become, what she might be capable of doing that was helpful to the people she loved, whom were honestly everyone. She could see no defects in others without measuring them against her own shortcomings. Her anger was real and righteous, but it was about things and actions–it never lodged in her heart for long against people, even those whose actions she most opposed.

Because she could see our present democracy clearly, and because she could remember in properly punctuated detail the conditions of this self-governing country in her youth, this young lady of Lake Winnipesauke, this product of New England’s town halls, this elder resident of the lanes where Thornton Wilder wrote “Our Town,” this friend of ours who will be more durable to history than any Old Man of the Mountain, was the truer granite measure of where we have been going as a people and where we must go, one step at a time, into the American future.

The important thing Doris Haddock would have you remember was that she was no more special than you, and that you have the identical power and the responsibility to make a difference in the community and the world.

She received tens of thousands of messages from people who told her they had decided that, if a woman her age of bent back, of emphysema and arthritis, could step forth to be a player on life’s stage, to make a contribution, then so could they, and so would they. And so they did. Those people live all over the world. We can never know what good that legion of people has done and will continue to do.  Have they cured diseases, ended wars, written symphonies?  Remarkably yes, they do important work now all over the world, and they live their lives, by their own accounts, with more satisfaction and meaning because of what they learned by watching our Granny D. And politically, if you care to trace the origins of the present progressive movement, you will find at its root a bare handful of people, including Granny D.

Her youthful energy lives on through those she touched, just as the youthful energy of the people who raised her and taught her many years ago continued on through her. You could hear the voice of Jesse Eldridge Southwick of Emerson College of Oratory in Doris’s every word, and see in Doris’s constant energy the creative joy of her Laconia High School teacher, Grammy Swain. If Doris was partial to the poetry of Robert Frost, it was because she knew him. He was her husband’s freshman English teacher at Amherst. If you ever heard her recite “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” as I did on a desert road, you may as well have been in Frost’s presence. All of those people lived on past their own lifetimes through her.

She was an extension also of those much younger than her, who are with us today. She was an expression of Jim and Libby Haddock’s supportive love and many sacrifices, enabling her to become what she became. Her grandchildren and great grandchildren were her inspiration to keep working for a better world for them. She was an extension of the love and learning of her study group, led by Bonnie Riley and a remarkable circle of friends. Beyond their warm living rooms, Doris traveled on a river of their love and energy. If there were ever a list in marble of the names of the people in her personal world who supported and propelled her, who, in turn, were inspired and loved by her, it would extend three thousand and two hundred miles across America, and then across the seas.

Doris was always a little confounded by her late-life fame. She deeply believed that she was merely fortunate enough to find herself in a good play with a good cast. The old drama student never wanted to be more than a very supportive player, so that the leaders of our democracy might better move us toward the honest, just and kindly democracy ever just ahead, a vision that she kept as close to her thoughts as that old feather in her hat.

She would have us remember that our country is Our Town, that we each have the power and the responsibility to make a difference while we are alive, knowing that what we set in motion today will make a difference long after we are gone.  Far more important than the old bodies we find ourselves patching up and hitching along, we are each also an idea and a vision of the world. We give the rising gift or dark weight of that vision to each person we deeply know. And that idea, that vision, is like the manuscript that grows from an old typewriter that will soon rust away to earth, leaving but the living manuscript. The Idea of us is the real us. The Idea is the living thing that survives because it lives on in our friends, survives in their hearts to help them better interpret and shape the world.

So, at the next turn of history and of opportunity, will we not wonder what Granny D would have said, would have thought?  It is a part of us now, a measuring tool, something new in us that thinks like her. That is Doris alive and still walking with us.

Finally, she would want us to remember to keep working at things and to take walks every day if possible. To send Thank You notes. To keep asking for and expecting honorable change. To stay strong. After the recent Supreme Court decision that did damage to the bill she walked for, she asked me if I thought she might walk across the country again. I told her that she might only be able to do five miles or less a day. She had last month been in Arizona working on a book and doing three miles a morning.  She calculated how long it would take her to get to Washington at 3 to 5 miles per, and decided she needed a quicker way to fix the Supreme Court decision. Well, now it is up to us, of course, and we won’t let her or our country down.

Thank you Doris. You didn’t fear death very much–you told me so. You needn’t have feared it at all.

February 28 2010

Ruth’s 90th Birthday

More pictures

David Orr is one of my gurus, but the first time I read this book I was disappointed by its repetitiousness, vagueness, lack of sequential structure or sustained, fully supported and defended claims, and its preaching to the choir, who have already heard most of this many times.  The central points were hardly controversial or new for us, but still unacceptable to the great majority of citizens who are looking more than ever at short term rescues or pleasures. For that reason the urgency and insistence of the tone seemed irritating and disrespectful of the audience. Compared to his last book, Design on the Edge, which contained a fascinating autobiographical narrative and a detailed account of the remarkable history of the building he was responsible for planning, designing and financing at Oberlin College, this book felt vague, uninspired, and sentimental. What does it mean after all to insist that what we should do is “deepen our humanity.” (202)

I also found it sadly dated.  Though filled with topical references to the impending Obama adminstration, the events of the fifteen months since his inauguration made many of the proposals about transforming governance and launching a revolution in Washington seem painfully overoptimistic.

Nevertheless I decided to give it another try, either to be able to articulate specifically what I found wrong with the book or to give it a more sympathetic and engaged reading.

First, I confirmed what I suspected about the book’s process of composition.  Most of the material here was previously published in the form of essays that Orr writes for the journal Conservation Biology and others.  Many of these can be found at the website, http://www.davidworr.com/index.html.  That accounted for and in a way justified the sense that each chapter recovered much of the same territory and started from scratch rather than building on what preceded.  Viewed from this perspective, each chapter had the coherence and scope of his remarkable speeches, such as the one I heard at the organizing conference for Focus the Nation in Las Vegas.  And even when general points were repeated, Orr seemed in each essay to summon up different examples and sources.

A second reading also revealed an overall structure of chapters that moved forward from beginning to middle and end despite the backtracking.  Preface and Introduction both state the predicament and his solutions. We are facing what has been called a long emergency or a bottleneck, a worldwide period of crisis brought on by the environmental degradation and climate change that misguided human impacts have produced over the last 200 years. The way out will be long and arduous, and only possible with strong, transformative leadership, primarily in the presidency but also at all levels of government and society.  Leaders have three leading tasks: move the citizenry out of a state of denial to a recognition of the dangers, develop energy policies that reverse our dependence on carbon and promote renewables, and foster a deepening of public morality emphasizing fairness, compassion, nonviolence and a sense of purpose and reverence for nature grounded in appreciation and gratitude. These three mandates are reaffirmed throughout the book.

The three chapters of section I, Politics and Governance, assert that Government is the only agency strong enough to effectively address the emergency but that government needs to be transformed. Chapter 1, Governance, asserts that the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change and its associated catastrophes can be faced by reversing the trend toward unregulated corporate power, trivialized and ineffective journalism, excessive consumerism and rule by lobbyists.  This can be done by redistributing wealth and privilege, publicly funding elections, smartening land use and agricultural policy, guaranteeing universal access to communication media and promoting small community autonomy.  But first government itself must be transformed from its present corrupt and dysfunctional state to a just, effective and elevating one. This will have to be accomplished through a mechanism like a new Constitutional Convention and the establishment of a new consensus.

Chapter 2 is a meditation on democracy, the form of government most likely to succeed despite its faults, the failures of its alternatives, like natural capitalism, and unregulated free-market capitalism, and the proposal of a legal, constitutional framework for instituting the kinds of social transformation needed to address climate change based on the new idea of the legal standing of future generations. Chapter 3, Leadership in the Long Emergency, compares today’s crisis with those faced by Lincoln and Roosevelt, and concludes that Obama can learn leadership lessons from both his great predecessors, which include the necessity of understanding and framing those crises both as legal-constitutional issues requiring preservation of law and tradition and as moral issues requiring deep personal insight and unshaken commitment. Orr repeats the laundry list of reforms mentioned earlier that Obama needs to accomplish.  Chapter 4, Leadership, defines true leadership, like that of those predecessors, as the capacity to energize and give direction to the populace.

Part II, Connections, is transitional in the overall structure of the book, but provides a sample of some of Orr’s strongest qualities as a writer, manifested when he lets a more imaginative, associative principle guide his design.  Chapter 5, The Carbon Connection, juxtaposes two powerful narrative descriptions: nature’s devastation of humans in New Orleans by Katrina, presumably caused by climate change, and humans’ devastation of nature in Coal Companies’ mountaintop removal, causing climate change. This is connected to Chapter 6, The Spirit of Connection, which explores spiritual and religious perspectives on Climate Change, differentiating the apocalyptic fundamentalism that both affirms and brings it on with the subjective experiences of wonder, reverence and gratitude for the gift of life that provide meaning and hope for those struggling to protect it.

Part III, Farther Horizons, contains three chapters overlapping earlier chapters and one another in content.  Chapter 7, Milennial Hope, lists factors blocking us from taking the steps necessary to confront and deal with the coming crisis and solutions, psychological, political, and spiritual, concluding with a story of Gandhian non-violence displayed by Amish toward a mass murderer who shot a number of their children. Chapter 8, Hope at the End of our Tether, expands the emphasis on anti-militarism, Gandhian Satyagraha and other Gandhian principles like anti-materialism—shift from wealth to happiness—social justice, and localism.

The final chapter, The Upshot: What is to be Done? echoes both Aldo Leopold and Lenin, verbally in the titles of two of their well known works, and thematically in calling for the creation of a community that includes natural beings and systems and in calling for a total revolution to be initiated by a vanguard of leaders, giving direction and energy to an awakened populace. The first section covers the same ground as the preceding chapters, but the chapter and section ends with a powerful vision of a desireable outcome from the long emergency only ten years in the future, imagined in his home town of Oberlin Ohio, where the  programs he has set in motion as an activist and educator have run their course.  The vision is startlingly similar to the kinds of programs and visions activists at Cal Poly and in San Luis Obispo County have dedicated themselves. More than anything in this book, these few pages (212-215) provide some of the grounds for hope that present conditions don’t encourage in regard to most of the books larger recommendations.

“Postscript: A Disclosure” is vintage Orr.  It’s a recollection of the  extraordinarily hot summer of 1980 when he and his brother worked like slaves on a farm in Arkansas, as the temperature reached 111 degrees and stayed there. It was then that he became interested in climate change.  He says he felt it viscerally, the memory recorded in his body.  That’s why it’s presented as a disclosure.  But the impact of that memory, I’m afraid is unlikely to be felt until the rest of us consistently experience such nasty conditions, and by then it’s likely to be too late.

Taking issue:

• “leadership”—is Obama like Lincoln and Roosevelt, sticking to the moral vision, keeping legal and constitutional integrity at the fore, reaching the people?
• Seemed so at inauguration, but less so now, largely because of loss of confidence resultant from bailouts and compromises, failure to seize the opportunity with courage—e.g. Copenhagen
• The long emergency—less perceivable now than in 2006, when much of this was written and when Katrina and An Inconvenient Truth and IPCC and oil spike converged to shake people up.
• Non-violence, Satyagraha—true, and a manifestation of deeper humanity, but turmoil is less likely to bring it to the fore, especially when the rulers and perpetrators are becoming more brazen
• Coupling peace, justice and sustainability has advantages but also makes any progress seem hopeless, because it will leave so much undone.

Annotated Outline
I.    Preface
A.    General
1.    3 ways to commit suicide: nuclear annihilation, environmental degradation, technologies that can self replicate and find humanity useless
2.    We’re in the bottleneck—E.O.Wilson—era
3.    Optimism—we’ll come through chastened and bettered
4.    Carbon trap—reducing footprint from 22 tons per person per year to 1-2 tons
B.    Great leadership essential: courage to help public understand
a)    Cassandras and Jeremiahs treated with denial
C.    Long emergency ahead—leaders need clarity about best economic and energy options—climate destabilization outcome of system created by dangerously incomplete image of reality
D.    foster vision of under stress, a humane decent future…kindness [vague]
a)    Get worse before better for a long time. –need for a long term view, knowing we wont live to see results
b)    Climate change not a problem to be fixed but worsening condition
E.    His thesis
1.    Different from two general positions:
F.    rising tide of groups, planetary immune system—Hawken
a)    However “no adequate substitute for better leadership at all levels”—bromide
G.    focus only on solutions, not problems or dilemmas—
1.    his position is neither; tech fixes not enough; need more analysis of source of problem—we need better leadership and improved democracy, more creative and competent management of the public business
H.    This book is about consciousness raising—quote: leader’s task is consciousness-raising.  [weak, over optimistic about Obama, controversial term and one that’s dated]
II.    Introduction
A.    Warnings have been ignored—trivia has been emphasized
B.    Tepid response by US leaders to global warming
1.    No tech solution—already stated
2.    Abrupt changes are likely
3.    We are still burning more fossil fuel
a)    Extreme weather is breaking records – weak
b)    Description of what will happen
4.    Problem is really bad
5.    Leaders denied and delayed—acted imprudently, no insurance
6.    Positive side
a)    Polls indicate Public awareness is increasing rapidly—weak prose and questionable
b)    Markets for carbon
c)    Boone Pickens investing in wind—old and misleading news
d)    Cities and localities have climate plans
e)    Not big enough transformation considered
C.    Political failure
1.    What leaders didn’t do—eight bullet points, including wasting money and starting wars
2.    The enemy is all of us—lifestyle
3.    New public priorities required
4.    Must be dealt with by governments
D.    Assumes we’ll succeed
1.    Need for leadership
2.    3 challenges:
a)    prepare public to understand seriousness of climate change and challenge to our style of government
b)    develop connections between energy choices and ecological consequences
c)    provide honest vision of future, authentic hope
III.    Part I: Politics and Governance
A.    Ch. 1 Governance
1.    Need new constitutional convention to alleviate anti-democratic and dysfunctional elements
2.    Climate and environment are complex, interactive, nonlinear
3.    Govt. operations are the opposite
4.    Attributable to constitution’s obsession with property rights
5.    Govt has been incompetent: organized to exacerbate environmental problems; shrouded in secrecy
6.    Political demobilization of people, empowerment of corporations and military
7.    Converging challenges—the five (plus 2)
a)    global warming consequences (again!)
(1)    Not a moment to waste; 350 ppm
(2)    Later disasters coming—as if this hadn’t already been stated
(3)    The list repeated in expanded form…storms etc
(4)    Level of public awareness and policy discussion doesn’t match gravity
(5)    No technical solution
b)    2.Breakdown of ecosystems
c)    End of cheap oil
d)    Blowback; military vulnerability
e)    Collapsed financial system
(i)    All parts of long emergency, and will interact with one another
(ii)    Another challenge is population growth—why an afterthought?
(iii)    Also a bunch of domestic problems—infrastructure etc.
8.    Implications—vague heading
a)    First priority of govt is reduce emissions by climate and energy policy
(1)    Not clean coal or nuclear
b)    Economic growth should slow down; boom is bad
(1)    We need to redistribute wealth; relearn frugality, sharing, neighborliness (how?)
(2)    Resilience
c)    Government will have to relocate and house growing numbers
d)    Government will have to reorganize food system; localize
e)    Government will have to mobilize people to work together; great leader
9.    Government and markets
a)    Corporations cant save us; rejecting market fundamentalism
b)    Government must regulate them in interest of the public
10.    Governance and public order
a)    Our situation more grave than the founders’
b)    Robust organizational ecology—Senge
c)    Government must be better at getting its job done after decades of neglect
d)    Box 1
(1)    Land use—counter sprawl
(2)    Landowners have too much power—coal companies etc
(3)    Limits on property rights—adapting Locke
(4)    The commons and public property; need for property constraints working on long term; example of NEPA
(5)    System of ownership modified in favor of “trust conception of government” to protect other species
(6)    Second section of Magna Carta: Charter of the Forest, to protect basic natural resources as the commons
(7)    Basic guarantees of food and shelter underlie property rights.
B.    Ch. 2 Late night thoughts about Democracy in the Long Emergency
1.    Democracy and the Greeks—couldn’t manage it for long;
2.    it may have thrived in last 200 years because of lack of scarcity of resources; everyone could try to get rich—scarcity may now threaten it
3.    Also threatened by advertising and consumption which dumbs people down
4.    Recent decades support skepticism about democracy
5.    Hardin, Lovelock, Heilbroner see need for authoritarian govt to deal with environmental threat
6.    Record of authoritarians is worse; commons were well managed by people
7.    [Lapses again into description of coming crisis, losing thread of argument]
8.    Alternatives to democracy
a)    Conservatives: trust markets [already discussed]
b)    Design revolution—government still needed
c)    Natural capitalism—based on harnessing rational self-interest
(1)    Not plausible because of lamentable history of corporations
(2)    No reason even green corporations would be just or democratic  59
(3)    Natural capitalists will keep consumer economy growing
(4)    Overarching governmental supervision necessary
(5)    Necessary but insufficient
9.    Restoring democracy
a)    Depends on wisdom of people, wisdom of crowds
b)    Requires good press, which has failed
(1)    Because of monopolization
(2)    Short term profit obsession
(3)    Restore it with fair and balanced  rules, need to serve public interest, break up monopolies
c)    This results from all the money in the political system
(1)    All federal elections publically financed—[cf. Supreme Court decision]
d)    Improve voting system
e)    Habits of the heart—vs. contentiousness, right wing dirty war
f)    Failure of liberalism and conservatism—liberals sell out to corporations, conservatives to fascists, who distracted us from noticing the transfer of wealth upward
g)    Election of 2008 is desire for new direction, but unclear if we go there
h)    Analogy to Greek: democracy diverted from serious issues  68  [correct]
10.    Beyond left and right: case for protecting posterity
a)    Examples of Democrats and Repubs coming together for NEPA, Clean Air and Clean Water Act 1969-1972
b)    Roosevelt era
c)    New agenda must be based on awareness of resource constraint
d)    Concern for future –Burke
e)    Law has nothing about the rights of posterity—how can it have standing?
f)    Intergenerational obligation—searching for legal arguments [what about present day obligations: life, liberty, pursuit of happiness? Education? Crime-free homes, etc.]
g)    [No answer supplied to a question that may be questionable—or not]
h)    Proposes a statement of limitation of rights—“no generation and no nations have the right to alter the biogeochemical cycles of Earth or impair stability, integrity or beauty of natural systems, the consequences of which would fall as a form of intergenerational remote tyranny on all future generations.”
(1)    Effort at Jeffersonian formulation
11.    Box 2.1
a)    Richard Posner, conservative legal scholar, book Catastrophe, calls for legal community to be more educated about science and large threats.
12.    Box 2.2: Shelf  life of economic ideas
a)    Ideas have consequences: some of his ideas: consumption is bad, slow down, use less energy, don’t finance with debt, build economy on ecological realities, don’t allow stock to be sold until six months after purchase
C.    Leadership in the Long Emergency [drawing heavily on Gary Wills and Arthur Schlesinger historians]
1.    Analogy to civil war and Lincoln
a)    [invoking Lincoln—looking for leadership 84]
(1)    He frames the meaning of the civil war, from before it started until it was almost over, looking to a long term horizon
(a)    Slavery a great wrong, preservation of Constitution was prior issue
(b)    All framed as moral issues
(2)    Didn’t equivocate about the wrong of slavery
(3)    Needed to address it within the existing framework of law and philosophy
(4)    Used language and logic brilliantly
(5)    Did not abuse religion to describe slavery or the South
(6)    Combined shrewdness and sagacity with moral clarity
(7)    Following his example: avoid complication and contentiousness—Climate change and sustainability are primarily issues of fairness and intergenerational rights, not technology or economics
b)    We need to state the great and permanent wrong  89
c)    We need to appeal to Universal Declaration of Human rights and the Earth Charter
d)    Following Lincoln’s use of religion, “we need to ground issues of climate change and sustainability in higher purposes resonant with what is best in the world’s great religions but is owned by no one creed.” 90  NB Higher Purposes
e)    We need leaders to persuade not on the basis of polls or spin, but persuasion at its best. [Gore?]
f)    Civil war tragedy arose out of evasions of previous generations; same for climate crisis and sustainability crisis of the future.
g)    Lincoln saw it as a longer term moral issue not solved by the war and the Constitutional Crisis.  He laid the framework for future solutions by naming and defining the moral issue
h)    Sustainability is a worse and broader crisis
2.    Analogy to Roosevelt’s first 100 days
a)    Model for restoring public confidence, though he didn’t solve underlying problems of economy
b)    Depth of crisis, energy and productiveness, understanding of American people
c)    Aimed first to overcome rampant fear, restore confidence in government and avoid economic collapse
d)    Experimental approach; new technologies of communication
e)    Didn’t solve any of the problems, but created confidence in capacity of democracy to confront serious problems
3.    Obama
a)    Facing greater crises than Lincoln or Roosevelt
b)    Needs to surface Bush admin’s crimes, restore rule of law, not paper them over—account for recent abuses
c)    Apart from all other problems, good climate policy is fundamental for the long haul and to restore confidence in government
d)    Think tank generates 300 actions over first 100 days he could take
e)    This issue must be primary [it hasn’t become so]
f)    Need to staff positions with people with scientific understanding
g)    Will have to raise morale of nation as things get worse
h)    Public reassurance, clear direction, honest information artfully delivered
i)    Need for access to public; airwaves, etc.  –  already stated
j)    Set framework for rational public debate about energy policy
(1)    Carbon eliminated per dollar spent
(2)    Energy return on investment
(3)    Speed of deployment of technology
(4)    Near term technical feasibility
(5)    Resilience
k)    Craft policies that join conservatives and liberals—consensus on
(1)    List on p. 102
l)    Right energy policy will solve or lessen many problems.  [Pollan: the right food policy will do the same]
m)    Need for big interface between policy and science, coordinate efforts across departments, assess technology, 100-year committee, assessing long term impacts
n)    Capacity to respond quickly to climate driven disasters
o)    Great encampment of K street lobbyists needs to be sent packing 104
(1)    Public finance of elections
p)    Mitigate and adapt to climate change at state and local levels
(1)    Food systems
(2)    Distributed energy
q)    Green Jobs program
r)    Lead the world on addressing climate
s)    Persuasive powers to rid us of outworn economic doctrines
D.    Leadership
1.    Provides direction, not framing issues
2.    Energizes people
3.    [those people engaged in sustainability have that direction and try to spread it; this book takes our position and moves it front and center, just as AASHE and Michael Crow at ASU; and the authors of all our books; the vision is there; needs leader to make it central; what we want from Cal Poly President]
4.    Argument for leadership, not just bottom up change; the two must work together [this book a testament to January 2009]
IV.    Part II: Connections
A.    The Carbon Connection—scenes of devastation
1.    Katrina, carbon dioxide increase
2.    Massey coal, Mt. top removal
3.    The connections
4.    Tragic sense of life, not false optimism
B.    The Spirit of Connection
1.    Repeats earlier point again and again, that technology, economics and politics wont provide answers; it’s a moral question [what does this mean?]
2.    [We have choice of life and death; back to the urgency of the problem—no forward motion of the argument, restating truisms and short logical chains]
3.    Some Christians share the concern, but not the fundamentalists
a)    End-time believers
b)    Bushies
c)    Need for abandonment of politeness—style of martin luther and luther king
d)    Dialogue constructively with religion, but don’t pandar [false dichotomy]
4.    Imagining the way religion and science could meet: telling a story
a)    Question: why should we be sustained? Are we worthy of survival?
b)    Trial of humanity before other creatures—prosecution
(1)    Defense: we are able to learn and create culture faster than other species
(2)    New movement is coming now
(3)    We are first species to show kindness to other species
(4)    We now have a sacred opportunity
c)    Berry and Swimme: humankind is part of an evolving universe
d)    Larger story: gratitude for gift of life
(1)    Start with harmonious rhythm; keys to paradise; sense of wonder and gratitude
(2)    Fall: improve creation by changing rhythm; control other men by seizing control of nature
(3)    Exploiting carbon
(4)    Later: change the rhythm of creation altogether 147
(a)    Baconian, Galilean science; quantification
(b)    Natural cycle to business cycle and other cycles
(c)    Change cadence of Creation and seize control of the great mystery of life
(5)    No sense of gratitude
(6)    Gratitude begins in the heart; thanksgiving for a gift, not entitlement—idea of grace
(7)    Expressions of gratitude: green business, biomimicry, animated by deeper than practical motive
(8)    Give back by getting away from carbon based civilization
V.    Part III: Farther Horizons
A.    Milennial Hope
1.    Dark views: Burns, Berry, Lovelock—no effect of warnings
2.    Descendents after the bottleneck
3.    Appropriate responses will come but too late
4.    Proposals of denial will counter them—geoengineering
5.    Immediate steps:  long list of what we need to do now 160   [I agree but see the opposite happening]
6.    Localism and making children aware and capable, promote community
7.    What blocks us from taking action
a)    Evil: nature of it hasn’t changed, but its become more powerful—is pg ande evil? Is every republican?
b)    [see aldo Leopold on the evolution of consciousness]
c)    near vs. long term thinking
d)    denial of uncomfortable realities
e)    people hold contradictory beliefs at the same time
f)    conform to peer pressure
g)    uncritical acceptance of authority under pressure
h)    exposure to violence in early life
i)    susceptible to fear
j)    cognitive traps
k)    erroneous thinking leading to self-fulfilling prophecies
l)    belief in atomistic self
8.    we need
a)    transformational  leaders and followers
b)    promote goodness in people and promote our biophilia—design of spaces
c)    corporate learning: Interface
d)    study successes
e)    move from self gratification to transcendance from self
f)    need better indicators of well-being—GNH not GDP
9.    spirit to rewrite national story
a)    people in cancer ward—less arrogant, more open, stubborn resilience [existential?]
b)    people overcoming addiction: public confession, reshaping of intention, stabilizing influence of support group, reclaiming of self mastery towards higher ends
c)    native story: radical hope for “future goodness that transcends current ability to understand what it is.” 173
10.    emerge from crisis transformed
11.    first necessary change
a)    improve societal resilience by reshaping how we provision food, energy, water and economic support—capacity to withstand and recover from disturbances
b)    global system is less resilient than ever 175
(1)    local efforts underway—food systems
12.    second change
a)    change education—siloing and inflexibility
b)    sustainability in education – institutional transformation
13.    third change
a)    reform political life; move money out of the political process [reading this is like reading Granny D—she walked across the country at 90; what happened to McCain-Feingold?]
b)    work as we did to establish NEPA
14.    Another, by now irritating laundry list of good things we must build 178
15.    Story of gunman in Amish school and Amish forgiveness
a)    Applied grace, compassion, revolution in kindness  [Gandhi—transition to Vananda Shiva?]
B.    Hope at the end of our Tether
1.    Definition of hope:”ability to work for something because it is good.”
2.    Daunting consequences of climate change [once again the list]
3.    Sum total of opinions: “there are no easy answers….”
4.    Optimism/realistic hope under these circumstances
5.    False premises that need questioning—e.g. capitalism doesn’t need to change; public cant handle truth, better design and market adjustments are sufficient—[who are these straw men?]
6.    We are not told that the consumer way of life will have to be rethought
7.    Time to discuss deeper changes; climate change is symptom of larger disease
a)    People need to hear the truth
b)    Leaders need to summon people to extraordinary achievement—Gore?
8.    Carbon neutral society:
a)    List of items starting with front porches—[random goodthink]—“better poetry,” better schools
b)    Do the same things we’d need to do anyway
9.    What people need to know
a)    Laws of thermodynamics imply that economic growth only increases the pace of disorder
b)    Basic sciences of ecology and biology—how the world works as a physical system
c)    Fundamentals of ecological carrying capacity
10.    Human fallibility and ignorance
a)    Leaders read literature; children learn practical skills
11.    Our fondness for violence
a)    Against people and nature—cf. Lewis Mumford
b)    Brute force
12.    Need change of mind-set
a)    Addiction to force—back tracking
b)    Overmilitarization
c)    Impossibility of perpetual economic growth in finite biosphere
d)    Need change
(1)    From more to better
(2)    Economy addressing needs
(3)    Fairly distribute wealth
e)    All are connected
13.    Evidence of hope
a)    Lack of happiness in this society
b)    Anti-consumer movement
c)    Gandhi and non-violence—lots of emphasis
d)    Question of realism
e)    Satyagraha; Gandhi on consumerism and industrialism
14.    Anti war
a)    Erasmian
b)    Get rid of nuclear weapons
C.    The Upshot: What is to be done—[echoing Leopold and Lenin]
1.    Epigraph: “deepen our humanity” 203
2.    “Emerging climate realities will drive this or the next president…to more comprehensive measures—as a matter of national and global survival.” [basic assumptions that could be questioned if they were clearer] 203
3.    Economic problem will be solved in a few years; larger encompassing problem is climate
a)    Again provides evidence of coming climate emergency [perhaps repeated because it seems to be forgotten—this is a big concern]
b)    And repeats thesis
4.    Reasons why we’re not suited to respond to this emergency—psychological and political and economic
a)    No concept of rights of future generations
5.    Political challenge for president
a)    Necessary transformation in politics comparable to 1776—1800 [another historical comparison], showing it can be done
b)    Revolution needed [Lenin]—
c)    First: climate policy as linchpin connecting other issues
(1)    Accurate price on carbon fuels and incentives to develop alternatives
(2)    Coordinate government agencies
(3)    [hope in State and County responses]
d)    Second: public process to consider long-term changes in systems of governance, politics, and law—constitutional convention—a presidential commission
(1)    Reform system of governance to improve democracy and promote wise deliberation to solve problems in accord with ecological realities
(2)    Amend constitution to guarantee rights to future generations and the rights of nature—[Aldo Leopold]—“should trees have standing”
(3)    Remove rights of personhood from corporations. [the opposite has occurred recently]
(4)    Create Earth Atmosphere Trust—based on recognition that Atmosphere is public commons; Earth Systems Science Agency—independent Federal Agency
(5)    Council of Elders to advise President, Congress, nation on long term climate matters—appointed with advice from NAS, ABA and other groups, to join Global Council of Elders
e)    Educate Americans from bully pulpit
(1)    Federally financed elections
(2)    Reform FCC
(3)    End lobbying revolving door
(4)    Desubsidize coal, gas and nuclear
(5)    Reduce pentagon budget by half
(6)    Confiscate 100% of profit from making weapons
(7)    Fairness and decency are essential to prosperity
(8)    Members of wider community of life
6.    All leaders and teachers must carry out this education
a)    We have the precepts and principles: “The time is now.”
7.    Revolution in Oberlin Ohio—[Orr as activist—first transform College, then town—[apply to San Luis Obispo]
a)    Civic gathering to prevent ruin by megamalls
b)    Four problems
(1)    Practical vision of post carbon prosperity
(2)    Financial means to pay for transition
(3)    Building new infrastructure
(4)    Structure private choices to provide incentives to choose renewables and locals
c)    Feasiblity studies commissioned
(1)    Ten years later—green businesses, green jobs
(2)    Revitalized downtown, LEED platinum hotel
(3)    Post fossil fuel prosperity
(4)    Farms and green belts, local food and forest system
(5)    Local supply of biofuels, advanced wastewater treatments
(6)    College spreading revolution
(7)    Scale large enough to be nationally instructive, but small enough to be both manageable and flexible
d)    Imagine a transformation just in time.
VI.    Postscript: A Disclosure
A.    Recollection of hot summer 1980—111 degrees in Arkansas
B.    First time springs went dry
C.    Evocation of drought and heat [well written, vivid]
D.    No one can say with certainty that these climate events are result of anthropogenic climate change.  But the odds they are rise
E.    He felt it viscerally; memory recorded in the body
F.    “Both the climate system and human systems are non-linear, which is to say both are subject to rapid and unpredictable changes that can spiral out of control with small provocations at certain times and places…We will not be the same people at a consistent daily high of 110 degrees…”

Emma Ruth Howell was born in Houstonia, Missouri 1916, four years before women got the right to vote.  She told me that her earliest memories were of horses, buggies and carts.  Her great grandfather Reverend John Montgomery was a pioneering Presbyterian minister and her great grandmother Katherine Lee Rennick was descended from Mayflower and Jamestown Lee families.  Her 93 years saw the Depression, WW II, and the advent of computers and cell phones. Just imagine the changes during her lifetime.

She told me that 16 was her lucky number because she was born in 1916 and she was 16 in her heart.  I remember her at her happiest as an energetic, fun loving, creative young mother in Long Beach California.  She helped found Lakewood Presbyterian Church, taught Sunday school and volunteered tirelessly for the local hospital, the PTA and the community. We had all kinds of pets and she turned our backyard into a garden. She always wanted to be “modern.” She enjoyed living in a brand new town, having a shiny Formica kitchen table, a new Chevy with tail fins, and her very own washing machine. She was proud our family was the first on our block to have a television.

She loved her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  She took excellent care of us children, her husband Bill, her grandchildren and of herself. She worked out with Jack LaLanne when he was on TV and later at his gym in person. After Bill, our Dad and her husband of 43 years died, Ruth carried on and enjoyed her independence.  She traveled to Japan, Israel, Egypt and Africa.

Even in her old age, she had an active and curious mind and wanted to know all about the news and the latest technology.  She loved the Bible and was fascinated with its history and archeology. She taught us habits of punctuality, honesty, responsibility, thrift, hard work and the importance of walking on “the sunny side of the street.” She valued relationships above all else. She made friends even during the last days of her life, as shown by the presence of her Hospice nurse and her last caregivers here at this service.

It was a rare privilege for me to have spent the last seven years living close to my mother.  We got to know each other as adults and had lots of “sister fun” together. Ever since she died, so many people have been telling me how much she meant to them, how she reached out and lifted their spirits.  I miss her and I know I will miss her every day of my life, but I am thankful that she no longer has to contend with the aches and pains of her last year. I do not believe that her love has died, because we all still feel it in our hearts.  As Emily Dickinson wrote:  “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.”

When we first met, the Son-in-law//mother in law relationship was material for every cheap stand up comic and cartoonist, and mine with Ruth fit many of the negative stereotypes.

She thought this New York radical Jewish Phd candidate had dishonorable intentions toward her chaste church going daughter. I thought of Ruth as a Missouri rube, content to keep house in her Southern California tract. At their first meeting at our wedding a year later, she and my mother had little to agree upon but their disapproval of their child’s choice of spouse.

42 years later that son-in-law//mother-in-law relationship had grown into its opposite.  The last fully coherent words she said to me were “Thank you for coming, you cant know how much it means to me.”  But when I think of what she means to me, I believe I can know that.

Though her decline in powers of sight and hearing and ability to walk was tragic, it allowed for a growing physical intimacy. Like a baby, I could put my arms around her, hold her hands, stroke her hair.  Until just before the end, she had the bright eyes, the warm smile, the easy laugh, the chiseled features, the lustrous hair and the sonorous voice of a pretty and vivacious lady.  And six months earlier, during a dark mood, when she’d said to me, “Don’t come back, I don’t want you to visit,” I felt crushed like a spurned suitor.

During the seven years she lived in San Luis Obispo, I visited Ruth almost weekly, at that familiar succession of  homes  at the Palms, at Garden Creek at Sidney Creek, and at Cabrillo Care Center—often in the company of one of her great grandsons, Ian or Lucas. Her critical attentiveness, her vivid memories of her youth and mine, her sharp humor and verbal brilliance provided entertainment and challenge.  We would take walks around the block, and later around the corridors, we would sit and drink tea, we would work a crossword puzzle together and talk politics. I loved bragging to her about her daughter while marveling at their similarities of appearance and their differences of temperament.  Ruth was someone I could gossip and share my problems with, someone understanding, sympathetic but also detached.  While her sight lasted, I would bring my computer and show her pictures of the family in Idaho, of our annual trips to British Columbia, of other travels far and wide.  She always acted interested and made me feel I was doing her a favor, but I was having the fun.

Her personality remained vital and inventive until the last.  She’d be embarrassed about moving slowly or losing her train of thought, as if this was something neither she nor others might expect. But as she apologized, she’d find a smart alecky way to express herself that would crack me up, and turn the awkwardness of the situation into a moment of delight.  When I try to recall the actual words they elude me, not only because my wits are too foggy, but because that’s a sign of what we’ve lost.

After preparing a solo dinner last night with rappacini from the farmers market and a glass of wine, I lay down on the bed for a nap, which lasted until this morning. Tensing with the pains in my back and joints all day left me exhausted.  Settling under the old feather comforter felt wonderful, as if I had been up all night or spent hours at hard labor in the cold, even though it hadnt been a strenuous day, especially by comparison to Jan’s, who was at a Council meeting that would probably go till midnight.  I’d accompanied Lucas and Claire to the dentist in Arroyo Grande, driven home for lunch, driven back to A.G. at Dennis’ request to take Ian out of school and get his cast removed, gone with him to the beach to look at  storm waves and topple little sand cliffs, and then stopped at the nursing home to see Ruth.  It was a shock to find her no longer dressed in her wheelchair, but sprawled in bed in a flimsy hospital gown without glasses or hearing aids or false teeth, her mouth shriveled and gaping, her hair lusterless, her skin gray, her brow  furrowed.  I announced my presence and took her hand.  She squeezed it once, then pushed it away,  shuffled on the mattress, and resumed fingering the edge of her gown. One word escaped her: “help.”  Then she quieted, apparently off to morphine-induced sleep, though her brow never relaxed.

The night before, Jan prepared an elegant dinner for Patricia whom we hadn’t seen in two years, since before her cancer diagnosis, radiation, chemo, and surgery.  She was as vital, busy and considerate as ever, full of lighthearted stories of her ordeal and triumph, of recollections of experiences we’ve shared, of questions about us and the family, and of her own burgeoning plans for this year—directing six productions at PCPA while teaching full time.

On the topic of feeling pain during her new exercise-physical therapy routine I was especially engaged—trying to distinguish between the benefits of pushing limits of  endurance and recognizing signals to pull back, use drugs, seek medical help.  The knee surgeon had told me two weeks ago to take four Aleve per day to see if that reduced swelling, but after reading of the long-term side effects of such regular use, I was experimenting with doing without it and working in the yard.  The results were not encouraging.

All this wintry local experience takes place within the darker framework painted by the news flooding in on radio, internet, and newspaper.  The failure of Obama’s promise, confirmed by the fizzling of the Copenhagen talks on climate change,  the widening of war in Afganistan,  the increase of debt and reduction of government services, and by yesterday’s Republican victory in Massachusetts.  And behind this political gloom lurks the metaphysical horror of the earthquake in Haiti.

I’m in the habit of preceding my morning meditation with prayers to a god whose existence I don’t believe in. I make three silent utterances beginning, “Thank you,” “Please,” and “I’m sorry.”  The Please is most often for cure of disease or alleviation of suffering by friends and family members: “let the chemo work for T…, let the tumor  be benign for P, let R rest in peace.”  These requests affirm my concerns, discharge obligations and create the illusion of sending  positive influence their way through my obeisance to a higher power.  But when I think of the suffering in Haiti, the Please bounces back at me.  Even suspending disbelief and regressing to the innocence of the first graders in Ian’s  school who a dozen times a day hear of God’s benevolent intentions, I cant imagine a personality who would unrelentingly torment so many people while allowing me to listen to their story on the radio as I cook myself supper.

I woke up at 6:00 AM after a night of many trips to the bathroom and unquiet rest.  Before going to bed at 9:30 I sat for a while at the kitchen island looking at my hands in the beautiful overhead spotlight, feeling contentment.  Joe, Amy, and Jan and the two boys had watched the show I’d been thinking about since I cleaned and scanned the slides in the Art History lab: 150 or so images from 1978 to 1984 projected on the white wall behind the couch.  Most of the pictures were of the trip to England we took from Lund in June 1978.  Joe was Ethan’s present age and I was two years younger than he is now. It was a time of fulfillment and promise for our young family then, as this is a moment of fulfillment and promise for his young family now. Jan and I pieced together a story line about the trip, and Joe filled in details both of us had forgotten.  He marveled at the similarity between my past and his present appearance.  The kids watched patiently for more than an hour, even though exhausted, and Ethan asked many questions. We agreed that just as Joe now remembers those events of 31 years past, Ethan will remember this present when he is Joe’s and grandpa’s age.

As I copy these words written a week ago, they recall yet another déjà vu.

At the advice of your office, I am submitting some input on the search for the successor of Warren Baker as President of Cal Poly University San Luis Obispo.

I have taught here since 1988 and am recipient of the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Scholarship Award and the CSU Systemwide Quality Improvement Award.

During his tenure President Baker has led Cal Poly to become one of the country’s preeminent Polytechnic Universities. I believe the primary mandate of his successor should be to transform Cal Poly into one of the country’s leaders in Education for Sustainability—the long-term approach to integrated solutions of economic, social and environmental problems.

It is crucial that the Trustees Committee for the Selection of the President incorporate terms in the job description and advertisement that call for successful experience in leading such institutional transformation and that they make promise in advancing sustainability an important criterion for final selection.

Doing so would serve the interests of Cal Poly’s students, who seek employment in emerging fields, of the institution, which needs more cross-disciplinary collaboration in teaching and research, and of the larger community, whose health and welfare depend upon the next generations’ commitment to addressing these problems effectively. (see  http://presidentsclimatecommitment.org/documents/Leading_Profound_Change_ExecSum_final7-28-09.pdf)

In support of this opinion, I refer you to the University Sustainability Learning Objectives recently adopted by Cal Poly’s Academic Senate and ratified by President Baker:

Cal Poly defines sustainability as the ability of the natural and social systems to survive and thrive together to meet current and future needs. In order to consider sustainability when making reasoned decisions, all graduating students should be able to:
•    Define and apply sustainability principles within their academic programs
•    Explain how natural, economic, and social systems interact to foster or prevent sustainability
•    Analyze and explain local, national, and global sustainability using a multidisciplinary approach
•    Consider sustainability principles while developing personal and professional values

It also bears mention that the “Top Ten Best College Presidents” selected by Time Magazine in November 2009 are all Sustainability Champions. (http://www.aashe.org/blog/top-ten-college-presidents-also-sustainability-champions)

In recent years Cal Poly faculty and students have collaboratively demonstrated initiative and talent in developing major sustainability projects in and out of class—e.g. the Solar Decathlon (http://www.solardecathlon.calpoly.edu/mainpage.html),
Focus the Nation (http://focusthenationslo.wordpress.com/about-focus-the-nation/), the Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium (http://www.sarc.calpoly.edu/), the Business of Green Media Conference (http://www.californiagreensolutions.com/cgi-bin/gt/tpl.h,content=2983) —and Facilities Departments have moved forward in conserving money and resources, thereby teaching by example (http://www.afd.calpoly.edu/facilities/sustainability.asp). What is now urgently needed is creative, daring and seasoned leadership at the top to articulate the vision and summon the resources to strengthen this focus.