Letter | ‘Sacred’ Earth should be cherished every day

‘Sacred’ Earth should be cherished every day

It is my belief that we should revere the Earth everyday because it is our mother, sustainer and our only real home. As did our ancient ancestors, we should see it as being sacred, miraculous and worthy of praise.

Now we have evolved to see the Earth as something to be tamed, taken advantage of, and even abused. Through overpopulation, pollution, deforestation and animal homicide, we are wiping out our ecosystems to move us into extinction. This Earth day, let’s begin to not just notice the Earth, but return to enjoying, cherishing and loving it as we act sanely to allow our species a future.

Don’t forget lessons from the Exxon Valdez

At 12:09, March 24 1989, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker, broke up off the coast of Alaska. Eleven million gallons of toxic crude oil spilled onto a pristine coast.

Soon, 1,000 miles of that coast was impacted. The congressman I worked for at the time was a member of the Water Resources Sub-Committee of the Public Works and Transportation Committee. That sub-committee had oversight of the clean up.

It was a mess.

The coast is still not totally clean. Many species of animals have not recovered. Generally, the after action report blamed human error and fatigue.

In my opinion, off shore exploration, drilling and the on-shore industrialization that goes with it is too risky for South Carolina.

Scholarship available for Italian students

I am a member of the Order Sons of Italy Lodge 2662. Every year we give a $1000 scholarship to high school seniors of Italian Heritage.

This year, so far, only a few seniors have contacted us for information about this scholarship. I know that sometimes it is difficult to know about every scholarship.

I’m writing this to help students learn that there are a lot of scholarships that never get awarded, and we don’t want ours to be one of those. School counselors have information about this scholarship and others that are available. Students should feel free to contact them.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 10:45 AM with the headline "Letter | ‘Sacred’ Earth should be cherished every day."