Washington Crossing the Delaware is one of the more iconic images in American history's visual lexicon. In the 1960's, the Delaware would literally burst into flames from the methane and other volatile by-products of industrial pollution. Sorry, George. Probably not what you had in mind when you were busy founding this country. Eventually though, the concept and enactment of clean water and air legislation had its desired effect, so that today the Upper Delaware River Basin provides clean drinking water to 15 million men, woman and children in four states. That could all change October 21 when the Delaware River Basin Commission meets to announce whether or not it will allow the permitting of 20,000 gas wells. And just when you thought you'd seem the last of Dick Cheney, the scoundrel has finagled a Halliburton loophole, so somehow they and their proprietary chemicals are exempt and beyond the clutches of the Clean Air and Water Act. The timing, name and location of today's grassroots' political statement was far from random. Inside the adjacent Philadelphia Convention Center, professionals and lobbyists in the non-Green energy field were gathered in a conference entitled Shale Gas Insight 2011.
Hydro-fracking has a long tradition. The technology of explosively-injecting chemical-laden water into shale-trapped natural gas deposits has been around in one form or another since 1949. Companies like Chesapeake Energy claim that the drilling process is so far below the water table, it can't possibly impact well water. Well, that is not quite true. In fact, it's blatant fabrication. Ever heard of backflow? There are countless cases of well water becoming not just undrinkable, but hazardous to one's health. For drinking, cooking, even bathing. Where landowners, who in some instances signed away their mineral rights, complained to the authorities, it has fallen on deaf ears. And in a variation of eminent domain, called forced pooling, drilling companies don't even have to ask permission from you if they already own the rights to your neighbor's property. You're just plumb outta luck, fella.
Josh Fox, an eco-champion and filmmaker whose video, Gasland, has galvanized the grassroots campaign against fracking, delivered an impassioned speech and got the crowd of 1500 going, as did Rebel Diaz, a hip-hop duo. I have to give credit to the bemused women signing for the deaf, for doing an admirable job attempting to keep up with the rapid-fire lyricism of the singers.
Perhaps the speaker nearest and dearest to my Jewish upbringing was Rabbi Melissa Klein, who mounted the sidewalk stage with shofar in hand, shared the microphone with a Lutheran pastor, under-scoring the interfaith nature of the Stop Fracking Now political action. She explained to the crowd that observant Jews are in the month of Elul, the 28 days leading up to the High Holidays. “It is a time”, she said, “of introspection, a time to reflect on where we've been and where we're going.
What the she didn't tell this congregation of souls was about the Judaic concept of tikkun olam,
an early rabbinical phrase which in its modern sense means repairing the world.
What the she didn't tell this congregation of souls was about the Judaic concept of tikkun olam,
an early rabbinical phrase which in its modern sense means repairing the world.
A mere month ago, I was in the dark about a lot of things. Fracking was not in my vocabulary. I didn't know squat about mountaintop removal or the first thing about tar sands or the proposed pipeline that would carry its dirty crude from Canada to the Texas Gulf. When Rabbi Klein sounded the shofar, she wasn't just issuing a wake-up call for today. It was a wake-up call for the ages.
Rock of Ages.
Rock of Ages.
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