Fundamental Fairness Resides Deep within the Human Heart
Posted by Chuck Freeman | Filed under Religion & Culture
The U.S. State Department is currently considering whether to approve a request from TransCanada to construct the Keystone XL pipeline, that would carry bitumen 1,661 miles from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada down to Houston, Texas. The State Department is holding public hearings in the states through which the pipeline would run. Along with over 100 others I testified on September 28th in Austin,Texas. Here is my testimony that was entered into the public record.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Whether we went to Sunday school or not we know this timeless spiritual teaching. It is expressed in every religion because it resides deep within the human heart.
Today, I am asking you to say no the Keystone XL Pipeline snaking it’s way from Canada to Houston because it violates the fundamental fairness of the Golden Rule.
I am here as a Unitarian Universalist Minister representing 250 souls from the Live Oak church in Cedar Park and as a voice for Texas Interfaith Power & Light.
I want to ask you some very basic questions. Are you willing for this pipeline to run underneath your home? Do you want your children drinking from the Yellowstone River where a similar pipeline spilled 42,000 gallons of crude oil this summer? Is it worth risking the same fate for the Ogallala aquifer?
Do you believe allowing this pipeline to be built will create a world you want your grandchildren and great-grandchildren to live in?
Will you be able to look them in the eye with pride if you grant permission for this pipeline’s completion?
If you can answer yes to these inquiries then by all means give the Keystone XL a green light and help me buy some stock.
Tar Sands is the second-largest pool of carbon on earth. The foremost climatologist and NASA scientist, Jim Hansen, has stated if we begin tapping into this, it’s “essentially game over for the climate.”
The record – breaking heat wave and wildfires we have suffered here in Texas are not random anomalies. This is our future if we continue 20th century solutions.
Let us take Apollo determination and apply it to a 21st century green economy that will create jobs and fuel the future of our sacred earthly home.
I’m asking you to say no to Tar Sands oil and in so doing speak with clarity and purpose a higher yes.
October 11, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Where & to whom do we write to oppose this pipeline?