Planting Peace: Tall Tale Woman Wangari Maathai

One of my great heroes is Ecologist Dr. Wangari Maathai. She's just the right person to think about in the summer as we watch our tomatoes send out little yellow flowers and pea plants furl and twirl their leaves up and around to pass out their pods.

First of all, her smile is as wide as the African plains and her eyes are as welcoming as sunlight glinting off a lake. She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in East Africa. She's stood up to presidents, survived prison and discouragement, endured beatings and public shaming. To listen to her talk and laugh, you would not know it.

To fix up the dust-covered, rain-starved lands and the collapsing villages she visited in Kenya, she got the women and children planting back the trees that had once grown there. The trees and the people working together started to heal the lands and hold the moisture in till the rains began coming back to parched places. The Green Belt Movement she launched has planted over 40 million trees throughout Africa. Now that's heroic, tall tale stuff to me.

She's a giant, but she's a hummingbird as well. Listen to her tell the story of the hummingbird and the forest fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHtFM1XEXas

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee thought she was so extraordinary and groundbreaking in her work that it awarded her a Peace Prize in 2004. She said:
“Through the Green Belt Movement, thousands of ordinary citizens were mobilized and empowered to take action and effect change. ... They learned to overcome fear and a sense of helplessness and moved to defend democratic rights.”

Trees growing into united voices, growing into listening, growing into peace. But not enough, trees or peace. Africa needs more. The world needs more.

Elected to Kenyan Parliament, Maathai has been a leader in her country and active with women's rights, conflict resolution, and peace-making in the United Nations and the world at large.

Amazing just isn't a big enough word for her. She asks us all to be hummingbirds and just do what we can, where we are, with what we have. So plant a tree. Plant a few. Join with some others and plant a million.

You can read all about her in a new children's book: Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola.

For more on Maathai and her Green Belt Movement, check their website: http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/a.php?id=90

Hear her speak on her work and her faith "Planting the Future" http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/plantingthefuture/
PBS ran an independent film on her in spring 2009 "Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai" :http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/takingroot/

You can a short clip of Wangari Maathai's "disobedience" to men for what she believed was right: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x295229

For a short sum up of her accomplishments:
http://www.america.gov/st/democracyhr-english/2009/March/20090309102117ebyessedo0.1575891.html

Cool Hot Heads & Work Together for Planet -- 350.org

Paul Bunyan had his hands full when he tried to make a sweetheart out of Lucette Diana Kensack. She says to him:
"Have you ever looked around the woods after you're through? They're a mess! I can't go marrying a man who expects me or someone else to clean up after him."

Well, through three funny love tests in Paul Bunyan's Sweetheart, she has Paul convinced he has to start thinking and acting differently if he wants to win Lucette and keep those forests growing even while he's logging, keep those sparkling lakes clear and swimmable, and keep the air smelling piney and fresh and even more appealing than French perfume.

What about us? We've got our chance, too, to start learning how to clean up after ourselves on this planet. Who wants a planet that's too hot for polar bears, too stormy and drought-ridden in places for crops, and too dirty for clean air and clean water for all.

On October 24th, scientists, religious people, and lovers of nature and the human race are joining together in small and large groups to show how they want to change their actions and work with others to change our communities and nation to do what we can to work with the planet to clean up the air and slow the warming of the planet.

Maybe you -- along with your family and/or friends -- can start or join in some action in your community. Go see the 350.org website.

You can also find many ways at home, school, and while you're hanging out with friends to use less electricity (turn of teh lights, use electronic devices less, etc.); to bike, walk, run or skateboard more to events, gang your trips, or carpool; plant trees and gardens; get outside more -- go camping, birdwatching, canoeing, exploring, fort-building, playing night games in your neighborhood, etc. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. The more you love the outdoors, the more you will find ways to care for it and us all.