Filed under: ACLU, Brooklyn, Episcopal, friends, gay, Only in New York, parades, speak up!
With the Marriage Equality Act set to take effect on Sunday, 24 July, granting all New York couples the right to marry, I’m absolutely ecstatic to call myself a New Yorker! This weekend, 823 gay couples will say “I will” or “I do” thanks to the New York legislature seeing the light a month ago. That’s right, the stars are aligning for my Liza Minnelli loving friends, and I’m tickled pink about it. It’s truly a victory for individual couples, marriage equality, and human rights. Here’s a story about how a few couples will celebrate this monumental victory. Here’s a link to what the ACLU is doing to advance LGBT rights. And here’s why I’m proud to be a Brooklyn Episcopalian.
To all of you tying the knot on Sunday, mazel tov!
Filed under: Arkansas, bagels, c'mon!, drinking water, environment, Fracking, friends, Governor Cuomo, greed, hydrofracking, Marcellus Shale, natural gas drilling, New York, polluted water, toxic, Working Families Party
Dear friends,
Please take a moment out of your morning to do something very important. For those of you who have lived in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and a number of other states that have seen the effects of hydrofracking due to natural gas drilling, you’ll understand the urgency of this message. Polluted drinking water, sick water foul, and ravaged landscapes are not even the beginning of the terrible results of natural gas drilling, specifically hydrofracking. If you’ve ever seen water that sizzles, pops, or remains cloudy for more than 10 minutes at a time, you are acquainted with hydrofracking.
Drilling for natural gas requires a toxic brew of chemicals to be forced deep into the earth’s surface by a process called hydrofracking. That process leaves millions of gallons of a toxic waste water to be absorbed into our streams, drinking water, and other waterways. I’ve seen the harm it creates in my own home state of Arkansas. The promises made by natural gas companies that drilling will generate thousands of new jobs in the state and great fortunes for all New York residents are faulty at best, malicious at worst, and greedy by any account. Do NOT listen.
Today, the issue of hydrofracking squarely faces New York. Energy interests have the ear of Governor Cuomo, and he is inclined to lift the ban on hydrofracking, implemented by Governor Patterson before the end of his tenure. The decisions made today could be irreversible, so please act today FRIDAY, 1 July! Here are 5 easy ways to help, whether you are a New York resident or not!
1. Call Governor Cuomo‘s office and tell him not to lift the moratorium on hydrofracking: 518.474.8390, (apparently calls are most effective because they are so rare; please call!);
2. On Facebook: click here to post the petition to your Wall;
3. Tweet this: Tell @nygovcuomo: Don’t lift New York’s ban on dangerous fracking! http://bit.ly/ivndFX @CREDOMobile ;
4. Sign this petition
5. Pass along this message to your friends and call the ones who don’t email.
I took time to do all for of these, and it took me 15 minutes, and that included the time it took to collate all of the information, make a passionate plea, and create a blog post. You should feel free to lift what I’ve written here or send along what I received earlier today (see below). Just take action!
If you want more information, please call me, Tweet me, email me, whatever. This is a concern near and dear to my heart. I want to continue drinking our amazing NYC tap water, and I want our bagels to continue to taste perfect. Most of all, I want our children to enjoy a better and cleaner environment than the one we’ve had. Many thanks for your consideration, friends!
All the best,
From Working Families Party 6/30/2011 in the afternoon:
Dear ,
Just a few hours ago, the New York Times reports that Governor Cuomo may lift the statewide moratorium on hydrofracking [1]. Now may be our last chance to urge him to protect our state’s drinking water from this dangerous drilling process.
The drillers want to drill first and ask questions later. Tell Governor Cuomo not to let them:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3271
We’ll deliver all of our petitions and your personal messages to the Governor’s office pronto. This can’t wait.
The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is due to release its report tomorrow, and reports say the regulations may give the go-ahead for fracking on private lands in parts of the state soon thereafter.
Study after study has shown the dangers of fracking — including carcinogens and dangerous chemical contamination in drinking water — along with its negligible economic impact. In fact, in areas where drilling has taken place, communities have seen their economies worsen. That’s in addition to the degradation of their local environments.
Sure, the drillers say it’s safe. But they’re also facing a possible federal investigation for allegedly misleading their own investors. [2] They’re motivated by one thing only: money.
The reports say that Governor Cuomo will keep some areas of the state, including New York City’s watershed, off-limits to frackers. That’s a very good thing. But do you think there are any areas of the state that should be put at risk?
Sign our emergency petition here, and then tell your friends:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3271
Thanks,
TJ & the WFP team
Sources:
1) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/nyregion/cuomo-will-seek-to-lift-drilling-ban.html
2) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/us/politics/29naturalgas.html
Here are a couple of points of view I thought you might appreciate in this debate. I’m sure you know where I stand.
