Dear friends,
Twenty-eight years ago, on this day, we were expecting a baby to arrive. Although the baby was late, October 24 always fills me with anticipation of someone wonderful coming into my life. It’s a good reminder to not be too particular about timing (which is handy, since this is yesterday’s post).
The bees and migrating birds are returning to Karl Wenner’s farm in southern Oregon. Wenner restored more than 15 percent of his 400 acre farm to its original state as a wetland.
The stakes are high. Considered “among the most productive ecosystems in the world”, wetlands are disappearing rapidly. Roughly 80% [of wetlands] around the world have already vanished. In the expansive Klamath basin that straddles the California-Oregon border, once described as the “Everglades of the west”, more than 95% of wetlands have been drained, diverted or dried.
Wenner is hopeful that other farmers will follow in his footsteps and accept federal funding from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act to restore wetlands.
In addition to the funding, Wenner and his co-owner are saving money by avoiding fines for run-off, which is cleaned by the wetlands. Furthermore, they anticipate greater revenue when they eventually go organic.
The House finally has a speaker and they need to spring into action to fund the government, including passing a new Farm Bill; parts of the last bill have already expired and other parts will expire at the end of this year.
Let your representatives know that you support land, climate, and food justice including equitable access to land and credit AND more support for organic farming. Personalize this quick action!
Columbus, Ohio is paying off medical debt for hundreds of thousands of city residents.
The $500,000 the city estimates they’ll spend to pay off the $335 million in debt was allocated to the city through the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9-trillion economic stimulus bill signed by President Biden in March 2021.
The Central Ohio Hospital Council is handling the debt relief directly with the hospitals, cutting out any third-party administrators and maximizing the number of people that will ultimately be helped.
Medical debt is a tremendous burden to millions of Americans. This initiative shows what a locality can do to invest in its people.
Purchase medical debt for pennies on the dollar from RIP Medical Debt. Be the someone wonderful who comes into someone else’s life.
Here’s Timothy Davis, a member of Henry Street Settlement’s Community Response Team. Timothy came into my life recently, when he attended a voter readiness workshop earlier this month. On Sunday, he registered 50 people to vote at a Halloween event.
Photo by Barbara Kancelbaum
with love,
L