Left In Lowell

I got an email from the organizer of the March to Re-Energize NH, a five-day effort to jump start the discussion about renewable energy. It will go on from August 1st (tomorrow) until the 5th. The kickoff is tonight in Nashua.

I’ve often said that I don’t understand why people aren’t marching in the street in response to the Iraq War or global warming, or the health care crisis. Well, these people are doing it for renewable energy - from Nashua to Concord in five days. Why NH (and Iowa)? Because they are still the traditional first primary and caucus states in the union, despite the now front-loaded primary schedule for 2008. They want to make this discussion a part of the 2008 election, because that’s the front lines of policy decision-making for the future of our nation.

They’ve asked if they could send us details about their march on a regular basis, which I will be posting. I actually suggest you go sign up and join them, forget reading about it.

Yesterday’s post, which I couldn’t get online because I had to leave:

March to ReEnergizeNH - 6 Days Left: Farming for the Future

6 days, thousands of Granite Staters from all walks of life will gather on the State House lawn, calling for national action on global warming.

You can sign up at:
http://www.climatesummer.org

You should see our office:  coffee donations  stacked high, green flags and green shirts, maps and laptops, the lavender walls barely showing beneath lists of our endorsers and newspaper clippings.  It’s not that we’re messy (well, that could be true); people just keep showing at our door, asking to help - friends, neighbors, and the guy from the bagel shop downstairs.

And it’s not just the office that’s swelling with activity - it’s the whole Granite State.  Now we have a bus coming from Portsmouth and carpools from Hanover.  Newspapers are publishing letters from natives of Hooksett, Amherst, and Nashua daily.  A woman we met at the Canterbury Fair yesterday remarked, “You guys are everywhere.”

It certainly feels like it - one second I’m on the phone with the Governor’s secretary, and the next I’m wondering if I bought enough pancake batter for Saturday night’s celebration of New Hampshire maple syrup.  Amidst the hype and excitement growing all across the state, it’s easy to forget why exactly Granite Staters are set on walking
five full days in the first place.

One farmer reminded us this morning.  Eero Ruutila looked out over his rows of summer squash and said, “For the past three years, it’s flooded.  It hurts everything.  The climate never used to be like this.”  He’s in his 21st year of managing the Nesenkeag Cooperative farm, where the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire will stop on Wednesday night.

Farmer by summer, artist by winter, and an every season advocate for the land he works, Eero knows what it takes to build a community around a green enterprise.  The farm cultivates nearly 100 organic crops:  the specialty varieties go to restaurants in the area, and the others he sells for no profit to food banks to feed low-income
families.  A walking, breathing almanac, Eero’s spoken at nearly every National Organic Farming Association (NOFA) conference across the state, and he educates on the importance of sustainable farming.

We weeded the garlic, built a stage, dried the rye, and strung our banners, visible from the road.  Eero stepped back, approved, and said, “Now we just need people to come.”

And I hope you do.  There could not be a better place, or a better time, than right here and right now to send a call to action for real, national global warming solutions.  Join the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire - walk for an hour, a day, or all five.  By the time we get to the State House Lawn on Sunday, August 5 at noon, we’ll be
thousands strong!

Sign up at:
http://www.climatesu…

Peace,
Sierra & the whole ReEnergize NH Team
http://www.climatesu…
reenergizenh@gmail.com
(610) 220-5378