Lorraine Margeson: Gulf Coast Activist

This someone you should know: Lorraine Margeson, Tampa Bay's best known environment activist; a woman working on the forefront of the gulf oil spill. Her story is compelling because she is not wailing or wringing her hands, she is not standing around feeling depressed or helpless about all this nor is she ranting on net about how bad it all is without doing a thing herself. Instead, she does what I think any one of us can do; she does the good that's in front of her:

She and her husband built a three-story house with a bird-watching deck on the roof. They replaced plants from foreign lands with native vegetation. They joined Audubon, they joined Sierra, they became friends of whatever park needed them. On her block, she persuaded neighbors to stop killing rattlesnakes.

She and her husband have a computer hardware business. They would rather watch birds. They count robins. They see hummingbirds and cedar waxwings and the occasional rose-breasted grosbeak. They drive over to Fort De Soto to look at the warblers in the mulberry tree. Then they head for the beach, where Lorraine picks up trash and snarls at "idiots" who get too close to the endangered least terns that nest on the sand. She watches black skimmers. She never tires of watching the pelicans.

And now there's oil in her gulf. And it may end up here, on Lorraine's beach, where it might hurt Lorraine's birds.

So that's why she's on the phone today. That's why she is on the computer. She is networking with other people, leading their next move.

You can read the rest of her story here at Tampabay.com

Brava!

Sia

More oil spill & environmental news can be found at BirdGarden

PanGaia & PantheaCon

The most recent copy of PanGaia arrived in our mailbox this week (we've been snowed in for days) and I was pleased to see it was a Special Issue on Science, Magic and Planetary Change. John Michael Greer is on the cover under the heading "Path of the Green Druid". I do not know this gentleman, so I look forward to reading this.

Speaking of PanGaia, Anne Niven (Editor and Founder of Sagewomen, PanGaia and New Witch) has recently moved her home and business to Oregon, just outside of Portland. This makes her my neighbor. I've known Anne for years (she was a long time supporter of our charity Witches' Ball and The Pagan Voting Project) and I'm look forward to haunting Powells Books by her side.

Anne will be at PantheaCon this year over President's Day weekend- it's her first time ever. Sadly, I am traveling elsewhere and cannot go with her. I hate to miss this convention, which I have attended since it started over a decade ago, but so it goes.

I've pleased to see that East Coast Pagan presenters and authors have finally discovered this wonderful West Coast convention. The line-up this year is diverse and interesting and includes names you know, along with some very good home-grown talent from in and around the Bay Area and the western states. These folks include, among others:

Starhawk, Margot Adler, RJ Stwart, Caitlin Matthews, T. Thorn Coyle, Z. Budapest, Luisah Teish, Amber K., Christopher Penczak, Raven Grimassi, Holly Tannen, Macha Rising, Anne Hill (who is now teaching at the Cherry Hill Seminary and will have a vendor booth there selling Pagan music as she does every year) and the always witty Thalassa (if you love Tarot and literature, by all means catch one of her seminars).

The theme for this year is Gaia and the Spirit of Activism. (Holy Zeitgeist, Batman!)

My hat's off to whoever decided to offer Pre-Con Intensives this year: One is about spirit and the other is titled "Growing a Pagan Non-Profit". The presenters in both cases look like they know their stuff.

I have long argued that if Paganism is to have an lasting or valuable impact, then we need to have groups which are organized, healthy and self-supporting. Let us hope that this is one more more step on that long and winding road.

If you go, have much fun. And be careful in that Vendor Room. There are many shiny things to buy - have someone else hold your wallet until you've walked the room at least once.

Pantheacon is organized and hosted by Ancient Ways and is run by hundreds of dedicated volunteers. My thanks go out to all those who work so hard to make this large and complex event possible for our community.

All good things,

Sia

Art: Gaia

Links

Gaia's Guardians