RSS 2.0 FeedNovember 11, 2010, Weekly editorial
Fighting Cancer
WE HAVE FAITH that this will get fixed. Can you help? photos by Cristina Toscano
In honor of former publisher Faith Laursen, a three-time cancer survivor who served in the Red Cross during World War II and for whom the Faith Laursen Meroke Preserve on the Bellmore-Merrick border is named, we are printing this poem written by her grandson. Grandmother and grandson have shared the same feelings about the importance of cherishing and protecting the Earth 365 days of the year. Her birthday was November 13.
Fires of consumption blaze
Mortgaging my dying will
…We’re still here!
Industry churns and builds
Useless objects that fuel the economy
...We’re still here!
Mountains of trash and filth loom
Prospering higher and higher
…We’re still here!
Dark skies spit poison rain
Funding a hedge up on Capitol Hill
…We’re still here!
Water flows choked with corporate sludge
Spilling BP oceans to death
…We’re still here!
Why?
Why do we multiply, consume, destroy, invade, infect, and pollute everything around us?
A cancer…eating away at the flesh of the world
Corrupting, growing, spreading our filth
without the ability to stop
Is that what we are?
She turns and turns it over while the moon dances on
Till in her mind she knows that
One day she’ll be so sick
So polluted, so hot with fever, and filthy
That the cancer will have nothing to feed on
Then she’ll breathe a long sigh of relief
Wondering if our profits were worth it
Wondering what she’ll do now that she’s in remission
Wondering what kind of life will replace humanity
As she recovers and enjoys her victory over cancer
she’ll say…
“On Earth Day, some of them wanted to save me
They should have saved themselves
…I’m still here!”
