Dawn has twice been listed among the top 101 lawyers in Tennessee by Tennessee Business magazine.  In 2004, she was named an Angel in Adoption by the U. S. Congressional Coalition on Adoption.  She writes gorgeous poetry and fries a mean chicken liver, as well.

And now she’s saving mountains. 

 The bipartisan, non-sectarian organization Dawn co-founded in service of those mountains and people who live on them is called, LEAF.  LEAF has continued to make great strides in changing the hearts, minds, and votes of our state legislators, and I would like to share Dawn’s beautiful work with you.  

Dear Caretakers of Creation:

We have lots of news this week.

Good stuff first — LEAF is proud to officially announce a star-studded concert, Music Saves Mountains, sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on May 19th, to raise awareness about mountain top removal coal mining. Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris are the featured performers, with special guests, Kathy Mattea, (LEAF’s much loved celebrity spokesperson) Patty Griffin, Patty Loveless, Buddy Miller and more.  Tickets go on sale March 5^th @10 am.  Prices from $ 45-300. For details:

LEAF only gets 10 tickets or I’d send one to each of you. Buy yours early so no one gets left out. If you can buy extra to share with VIPS or friends of LEAF, please do. LEAF runs on a shoe string and has no budget for that. It is long past time for us all to get together and just have fun.  Pat Hudson, Pat Chastain, and I will be there with our families. Please join us.

Now to the most critical issue — at this concert in May, will we be celebrating the first legislative ban on MTR in the country or will we be commiserating? I don’t know, but I do know the next several weeks and the position of Lt. Gov. Ramsey are decisive.   Honestly, Ron Ramsey has been the roadblock from the very first year. I didn’t say that publicly until now in order to give him space to reconsider and join us. Lots of LEAFlets and our sponsors have met with him. He understands the issue and our openness to talk compromise. He remains willing to spend his substantial political capital to stop us.

I am often asked, “Who on earth could be FOR blowing up our highest ridgelines for coal?” In the TN legislature, it is Ron Ramsey in the Senate. The next question I’m asked is, “Why?” I’ll have to leave you to your own speculation on that. The reasons they state change like a kaleidoscope. Last week, Ron Ramsey insisted, in the face of photos of decapitated Zeb Mountain, that we don’t do mountain top removal in TN.  (SB 1406 doesn’t use the words mountain top removal anyway and only talks about a ban on altering or disturbing ridgelines. It’s all a matter of semantics. What Ron Ramsey seems to be referring to is TDEC’s requirement that the rubble of the mountain be piled back on top. Certainly that is better than dumping it in a steam which is currently allowed in Kentucky and West Virginia. But this should not be a race to see which state reaches the bottom first. 

We at LEAF believe that when a man destroys a mountain he exceeds his authority, and when he tries to recreate a mountain he exceeds his ability. Only God can create a mountain.

So what’s the plan? To make sure that if Tennessee loses its mountains we at least get the fingerprints of those responsible. Maybe shining a bit of light will shame folks into doing the right thing. Stay on Ron Ramsey. If we can’t move him we are going to lose. Call [615-741-4524]  write [Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey  1 Legislative Plaza  Nashville, TN 37243-0219] and email [Lt.gov.ron.ramsey@capitol.tn.gov] at least weekly.  Ask Ramsey to cosponsor SB 1406. Ask your friends and pastor to do the same. Modify your letter to serve as a letter to the editor of your local paper. Talk with your friends. Ask them to help. Sample letters from some of you are on our website www.tnleaf.org.

Ron Ramsey is running for Governor. That makes all Tennesseans his constituents. He may become willing to discuss compromise if the political costs get to high. We are counting on you to help him see the number of Tennesseans who care about creation. Christianity has a long history of speaking truth to power, beginning with our Lord. Now is our time to be heard.

So how much time do we have? Not much. SB1406 must pass the Senate Environment Committee before the committee closes and then we’ll need time to get it through the House’s two-tiered committee structure. We don’t know for sure when the committees will close but it is likely to be in April, maybe even early April. We have about a month.

Here is what we are doing. We have posted a You Tube video of Ron Ramsey’s response to a question about mountain top mining before the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce Feb 18^th. We have added LEAF’s commentary. It is pretty pointed. Please view it and pass it on to others who may be interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-WNSIsZl1U

As you may recall, twelve very prominent scientists wrote a blockbuster paper in the journal Science in January establishing scientific consensus that MTR is a risk to human health and that the ecological damage caused is permanent and irreversible. (LEAF’s paraphrase — “Only God can make a mountain..”)

Two of those scientists are scheduled to testify in Nashville before the House and Senate Environment Committees on March 9^th.If you are inclined to watch on the internet or to visit Legislative Plaza to observe our legislators in action, March 9^th would be a good day to do that.

We are in Legislative Plaza every week talking with policy makers and looking for an opening. We are always pleased for you to join us. We also talk with the press to build awareness of the urgent nature of the situation. Look for new stories weekly. We will keep you updated by Action Alert, Face book and Twitter. Of course we continue our work with churches and educational institutions spreading the message of Creation Care. And we, like you, keep this effort and the mountains in our prayers every day.

Thank you for your support.
Dawn Coppock, Legislative Director, LEAF

O,

How long it doth take

To scrape a single tablespoon of peanut butter

Across the vast and arid plane

Of one whole-wheat matzos.

But the good thing is

That such a tiny,

tiny

layer of God’s Greatest Gift

Will not fall, yea:

Shall not even drip

From that blessed surface

Even if held upside-down.

Which is good

As upside-down is the only way to eat it,

Lest the tongue

Miss the blessing completely.

————————————-
(p.s. — but I *am* down 10+ pounds!  Hurray, Weight Watchers!)

Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic. - Flannery O’Connor

Photos by WWW.POWNETWORK.ORG

Well, as it turns out, Knoxville evangelist Ernie Ray Lester didn’t really fight in Vietnam.

His 23 war wounds? The single-handed killing of thousands of Vietnamese? Waiting for rescue as the sole survivor of a massive enemy ambush?

Not so much.

But he did work as a biker assassin.  Really, he did.

And as for getting rammed at full speed by the Lincoln Continental? while collecting on a drug debt? which “knocked my eyes out of my head and my teeth out of my mouth” until they got sewed back in again by a biker doctor?  That really happened, too.  But not in Houston, as he’d said before. 

“That was Atlanta,”  he corrected the record on Friday.

Faced by a flood of evidence provided by attorneys, law enforcement officials, and other folk, Ernie Ray Lester has agreed to update his testimony a wee bit. 

I think he should consider opening a sperm bank, as well.

Last year I totally forgot to send out Christmas cards, so I made valentines for my loved ones instead.  This year, I had the pleasure of attending a “Make Victorian Valentines” fundraiser — what fun!

Making Valentines

In addition to a refreshment table with coffee, hot chocolate, and lots of cookies, organizers set out lots of fun stuff to use in our valentines, much of it purchased from thrift-stores or at deep discount the year before. 

Our choices ranged from vintageladies’ handkerchiefs to doilies; from beads and sequins to bits of lace. I loved what everyone made, but secretly loved the children’s valentines the best– big, lopsided construction paper confections with childish hand writing, “I lovE you mommY”. 

Victorian Valentines

I thought it was a WONDERFUL idea, and how many of us get valentines anymore, much less home-made ones, glue and real handwriting and all?

Hand-made valentines

There’s still time.  Go get your scissors and paper and make someone you love an old-fashioned valentine, too!

Be mine

Haitian children wait in a police car after a group of Americans was stopped tryingto take them out of the country. Photograph: Reuters (guardian.co.uk)

They’re so cute in the pictures.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sweep into their native environment,  assuring our donors that we intended to spend as little time there as possible  (because Haiti is so Ewww), and SAVE THE PUPPIES, er, the children in Haiti? 

And, since Haiti is just a comic book world where real laws don’t exist and where people aren’t  as complicated as they are back here in the real world, we don’t need to bother with any paperwork either.

The nice thing about working with cute little foreign children who simply need better homes  is that we can just fix that for them. 

There are a lot of children in America (particularly Idaho, I’m thinking!) who need better homes, too, but *American* children aren’t puppies, and we generally realize that it’s not our right to relocate and reassign them at will.

See, the whole “Haiti Earthquake” thing?  It’s all just a little test that God set up for us real people, so that we can earn our “Good Christian” certificate and move up to the next level.

I’m a little scared, though.  What if some nice Martian Methodists come to America next  and decide to remove all the kids here who need better healthcare, healthier food, and better parenting? 

The Almostgotits fed their kids M&M’s for lunch yesterday: we’re screwed. 

What am I missing?  And what do you think should happen now to the group of Americans now being detained for kidnapping in Haiti?

Cross-posted on BlogHer.com

Right now: 

read it again!

They’re a heck of a lot of work, kids.

But how I do love peeking into their funny little brains, and fortunately mine both still let me do that via their Facebook pages. Here’s the latest:

Almostgotit’s son: has suddenly, really rather abruptly, become a huge fan of “Ticket To Ride.” Awesome song.

Almostgotit’s daughter: I try to learn something new every day. Today I learned that spinning around in circles greatly improves one’s chances of crashing headfirst into the dishwasher.

Our dog Jerry also retains certain violent feelings about dishwashers, so we clearly have some things to work out at my house.