To the Editor:

The time for denial
and evasion is over. For the first time in a long time, Congress has
taken steps to heal the environment by passing the stimulus bill and
approving $80 billion to be spent on clean energy solutions to global
warming. I thank Congress and my Representative, Michael Capuano, for
starting us on this road to recovery.

I feel compelled to act
for the environment because of the innocent bystanders; the infamous
polar bears and penguins, starving, the birds shifting migration
patterns north to survive, swaths of forest succumbing to disease and
drought, frogs warning of dire changes to the ground we walk on. Each
death, each extinction quiets another voice. Perhaps because they don't
share the responsibility, perhaps because they have to suffer the
consequences without the understanding we are privileged to enjoy or
alternatively to dread, perhaps this is why I feel sorrow.

I
have always believed in the wisdom of older cultures that treasure the
past as well as the future, remembering ancestors and lessons learned,
celebrating where you have come from and what history lends to who you
are. With this celebration, comes a sense of responsibility, to take
the gift that our ancestors have left us and to protect it for those
who follow. We need to stop ignoring science and our consciences and
listen to these voices, and remember what we want the voices seven
generations from now to say about us. Ask yourself, what legacy do you
want to leave?

Michele Gielis