Remembering Wangari
I was anxiously waiting at the San Francisco Airport for Professor Wangari Maathai to arrive. Her plane was late.
Months before, I had invited Wangari to be the keynote speaker at the 1990 International Open Space Conference in Palo Alto. But my calls and letters to the Greenbelt Movement in Kenya went unanswered. I later learned Wangari had been beaten by police and was in hiding. Kenya’s then-President Daniel arap Moi had shut down Greenbelt Movement’s headquarters after Wangari opposed his scheme to build a skyscraper in Urhuru Park, Nairobi’s treasured public open space. Ultimately, investors withdrew their support for the high rise, and the project was cancelled. Wangari would go on to have many more clashes with the Moi regime.
 Wangari Maathai, Huey Johnson and me A week before the open space conference, I received word that Wangari would attend. I shuffled the agenda and arranged for her plane ticket. Standing by the gate at SFO, I wondered, would she be there? Passengers filed down the jet way. Wangari was the last to emerge, struggling with the overstuffed canvas book bags slung over her shoulder. Those bags were her trademark. Even at formal occasions—and there were to be many after she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004– Wangari would dig into her canvas bag and pull out a flyer or petition pressing for economic justice, democracy, and of course, trees—activism that inspired the planting of more than 30 million trees.
Although we had never met before, Wangari greeted me as if I were her long lost sister, (she would pronounce it “seestah”), beaming her thousand-watt smile and enfolding me in a formidable hug.
Wangari’s keynote at the open space conference made her an instant hero to those assembled. Later, Save-the-Redwoods League and the Midpeninsula Open Space District would dedicate a grove in the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve as the “International Open Space Conference Memorial Grove.” In 2005, that grove was renamed the Wangari Muta Maathai Grove, in honor of her work and the memorable talk she delivered at the conference years before.
I need to visit that grove now. Hug an ancient redwood, as Wangari doubtless would have done. And imagine my seestah’s bright, Cheshire cat smile shining from the big forest beyond.
Believing out loud–The Op Ed Project
I have a standard excuse for postponing something I want for myself but don’t think I can have. “When I win the lottery…” Maybe you use it, too?
In fact, my chances of ever winning the lottery would be at least slightly improved were I to buy a lottery ticket. The same logic applies to getting my opinions published. My chances would be better if I were to submit articles for publication.
Enter Katie Ornstein, author, teacher, commentator, and founder of the Op-Ed Project. Katie has published op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post and other leading media. She figured out that the reason relatively few women get our opinions published is because so few of us ever try. The Op Ed Project is about why we don’t and why it matters.
Katie calls the Op-Ed Project a “strategy for change.” Its goal is to expand the range of voices we hear through the media.
Women need to think bigger about ourselves Katie argues. Whether making our case to the media, potential funders, or in the halls of Congress, it’s not just what we write about or what we believe, it’s about believing in ourselves and that our opinions matter.
Find out more: http://www.theopedproject.org/
Soul of the Counterculture
Ted Roszak was 60 when we met in 1995. He was best known for writing “The Making of the Counterculture,” (1969), which recounts the social sea change sparked by the baby boomer generation. But it was his book “Ecopsychology,” that led me to interview him.
Ecopsychology draws the link between our relationship with nature and our mental health.
 If being outdoors surrounded by nature reduces stress and improves emotional stability, why not prescribe it?
“Finding our way back to nature may be much more helpful than Prozac or nitpicking through old sibling rivalries,” Roszak told me.
Roszak thought principles of ecopsychology should also be applied to environmental communications: ” I think we’ve probably exhausted the audience who can be recruited by being scared or scolded.”
“I believe that human beings have an innate love and loyalty for the natural world. They need to be treated as if they do. There is real joy to be found in nature, and there is heroism in honoring and preserving it.”
Last year at a San Francisco bookstore, Roszak read aloud from the last of his 20 books, “The Making of an Elder Culture,”(2009). He called upon the baby boomers–particularly women–to wage an elder revolution founded in the vision of the counterculture–a just, peaceful, and more equal society.
Ted Roszak died last week at age 77. His friends and family said he was hopeful about the future.
Save Bohemian Grove
For now, at least, the chain saws are off-limits at the Bohemian Grove, the woody Northern California retreat of America’s rich and powerful. The Bohemian Club, an all-male bastion synonymous with wealth and influence, had big plans for its private enclave on the Russian River, 75 miles north of San Francisco. Too big, as it turns out.
Elite club blocked from logging giant redwoods
High Country News
A Guide to the Bohemian Grove
Vanity Fair
Bohemian Tragedy
Vanity Fair
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