July 2006 | Editor’s Note
Time to Move On and Go With the Flow
It was almost exactly two years ago to the date I am writing this that I walked into the Conscious Choice offices as the new editor. It’s been a remarkable experience for many reasons, and I am grateful for it all. I am especially indebted to you, our devoted readers and contributors. But now it’s time for me to move on.
In the months to come, you still may see some of my handiwork, as I’ve put in motion several stories that are slated to appear in the future. You’ll probably also see a few more changes as the redesigned magazine evolves under the new owners.
Last month, a couple of mistakes were made in the push to get the new redesigned June issue launched. For instance, the first section of my Editor’s Note was deleted. Instead, copy not written by me was run in its place in the printed issue.
But as time passes, all sorts of kinks should be ironed out as the production process is refined.
Now please indulge me as I talk about a different remarkable adventure I had years ago but seems all the more relevant today as it relates to our current water supply. It’s a long story how I got there, but some years back I engaged in a fast and a thirst on the side of a mountain cliff that was part of a wilderness area under threat of development and considered sacred by a Northern California Indian tribe.
The fast was relatively easy. But the thirst was another matter. Days later, as I stumbled down the mountain, I could literally sense the water about a quarter-mile away. Nothing has ever come close to tasting as glorious as the pure mountain water seeping out of a crack in the mountain’s side that day.
I quickly realized that we can survive without food for weeks on end, but without water, we can die in a matter of days. Water is not a luxury. It is an everyday necessity for survival.
When I returned to Chicago, and walked down Michigan Avenue, my lungs rebelled in the readjustment from the clean mountain air. Why did we need all these cars anyway? People had survived for centuries without cars and oil. But water was a different matter. Some day people would understand that. But that day probably would come only after a lack of clean water made it a commodity more valuable than oil. Eventually, I feared, pure drinking water could become the prerogative of just the rich. We needed to start working on this. Now!
Of course, many people back then thought I was bit eccentric, to say the least. You see, while I was fasting and thirsting on that mountain, most of everyone else here was deeply engaged in the party-hearty, all-about-me-excess days of the 1980s. Chicagoans looked out over Lake Michigan, climbed into their big V-8 cars and shrugged off my concerns.
Today, most people still look out over Lake Michigan and think we have an endless supply of clean drinking water for our area. At a recent press conference held on the shores of the lake outside the John G. Shedd Aquarium, state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-29th) and the other speakers at the event explained that the beautiful water backdrop was deceiving since we didn’t have unlimited access to the lake’s water, and we need to protect it. To that end, Garrett helped shepherd though the legislature a 5-year Illinois Water Supply Initiative.
It comes on the heels of a report entitled “Troubled Waters: Meeting Future Water Needs in Illinois.” There’s no space to get into the details here, but you can check out the report at openlands.org. It’s a long-overdue positive step in the move to ensure the safety of our water and well-being.
And so to close, let me offer this: When faced with the choice between oil and water, choose wisely.
— Marla Donato
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