There was a country western song written by Stan Jones the year before I was born that became popular back in the day called Ghost Riders in the Sky,
Those riders made me think of the term Ghost Writers. Not at all the same, but the tune came to me when Mark Drajem with the Natural Resource Defense Council - NRDC called me this week.
We had a conversation about the flooding we experience in Ottawa County and not that we can do much about the flooding, but we did talk about the THING we can do for the next month. We can submit comments to the Federal Emergency Management Agency about the revisions they are considering in the 50 year old regulations that have been their guidelines for those decades. I was trying to explain the difficulty high waters cause us and how flooding is always a "dirty deal." But add a layer of toxic water coming down Tar Creek and that water laying down in our front yards, parks and across that segment of the NEO College property. It was a heartfelt visit, as I guided him on the editorial he would be writing and hoped to have accepted in print in the news outlets that are more apt to think "environmental" isn't a radical topic to cover. We exchanged several emails as he worked on his editorial and accepted my corrections, or clarifications on wording. Then this evening he sent me the notice his work had been accepted and would be published in Morning Consult this week, but when he forwarded his work, titled: Making Sure the Next Flood Isn’t a Tragedy by Rebecca Jim!
I had met a ghost writer who had written my article for ME. But the story is not ME, the story is WE.
We all have our moment in time to say a thing, reply, comment about the rules the generations who follow us will have to help them as they use FEMA to get to the other side of the disaster they have endured. So many of our residents know what didn't work for them after our lived disasters. Let's comment, let's tell our stories about how we prepared, how we endured, how we recovered afterward and what would have made that easier.
We are the middle of the United States, not on the coasts where we know the oceans are rising and those living on the edges of our country will face flooding on a scale we have never dreamed soon. We are upstream of trapped water. The climate is changing and weather will be more extreme in the decades and centuries to come. We are dealing with a man-made, man-controlled flood for the most part. As our lake continues to fill with sediment from Kansas, chat from our superfund site, when flooding rain begins the water is backing up quicker, and we will experience flooding sooner and more severely. If EPA and GRDA and FERC and FEMA would sit down together and look across the table at each other, AND we locked the door... Perhaps they would see this is a single issue and should be dealt with by all of those agencies working together in a united effort. Our issues could be dealt with by agencies with the power to do it, should they receive the motivation to act.
So until that miracle happens, choose up sides, flip a coin and see who Ghost writes who on the comments to FEMA. You can hum that tune if it helps motivates you to motivate others.
But a last thought: Only a few weeks ago, I saw a dear old friend. It was a moment I will relive, the feeling of how special it is to be accepted as a friend and to know the privilege that is. She died this morning with COVID. Our unvaccinated relations have every right at this time to keep that status. But I am old and making new friends is not easy. I treasure each of these gifts of trust and know that they are mingling in the world and breathing the same air we all share. I ask for each of us to have conversations with our people as we are watchful to prevent accidents, we are mindful to put our seatbelts on, we do and are a part of the world we inhabit and we care for one another. Be the gift that keeps old friends a bit more time together, a few more times around the sun.
Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim
Those riders made me think of the term Ghost Writers. Not at all the same, but the tune came to me when Mark Drajem with the Natural Resource Defense Council - NRDC called me this week.
We had a conversation about the flooding we experience in Ottawa County and not that we can do much about the flooding, but we did talk about the THING we can do for the next month. We can submit comments to the Federal Emergency Management Agency about the revisions they are considering in the 50 year old regulations that have been their guidelines for those decades. I was trying to explain the difficulty high waters cause us and how flooding is always a "dirty deal." But add a layer of toxic water coming down Tar Creek and that water laying down in our front yards, parks and across that segment of the NEO College property. It was a heartfelt visit, as I guided him on the editorial he would be writing and hoped to have accepted in print in the news outlets that are more apt to think "environmental" isn't a radical topic to cover. We exchanged several emails as he worked on his editorial and accepted my corrections, or clarifications on wording. Then this evening he sent me the notice his work had been accepted and would be published in Morning Consult this week, but when he forwarded his work, titled: Making Sure the Next Flood Isn’t a Tragedy by Rebecca Jim!
I had met a ghost writer who had written my article for ME. But the story is not ME, the story is WE.
We all have our moment in time to say a thing, reply, comment about the rules the generations who follow us will have to help them as they use FEMA to get to the other side of the disaster they have endured. So many of our residents know what didn't work for them after our lived disasters. Let's comment, let's tell our stories about how we prepared, how we endured, how we recovered afterward and what would have made that easier.
We are the middle of the United States, not on the coasts where we know the oceans are rising and those living on the edges of our country will face flooding on a scale we have never dreamed soon. We are upstream of trapped water. The climate is changing and weather will be more extreme in the decades and centuries to come. We are dealing with a man-made, man-controlled flood for the most part. As our lake continues to fill with sediment from Kansas, chat from our superfund site, when flooding rain begins the water is backing up quicker, and we will experience flooding sooner and more severely. If EPA and GRDA and FERC and FEMA would sit down together and look across the table at each other, AND we locked the door... Perhaps they would see this is a single issue and should be dealt with by all of those agencies working together in a united effort. Our issues could be dealt with by agencies with the power to do it, should they receive the motivation to act.
So until that miracle happens, choose up sides, flip a coin and see who Ghost writes who on the comments to FEMA. You can hum that tune if it helps motivates you to motivate others.
But a last thought: Only a few weeks ago, I saw a dear old friend. It was a moment I will relive, the feeling of how special it is to be accepted as a friend and to know the privilege that is. She died this morning with COVID. Our unvaccinated relations have every right at this time to keep that status. But I am old and making new friends is not easy. I treasure each of these gifts of trust and know that they are mingling in the world and breathing the same air we all share. I ask for each of us to have conversations with our people as we are watchful to prevent accidents, we are mindful to put our seatbelts on, we do and are a part of the world we inhabit and we care for one another. Be the gift that keeps old friends a bit more time together, a few more times around the sun.
Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim
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