Letter: Our neighbor in need, the environment

Graphic by Lori Deaton

It seems that the goodness you see coming from all these disasters is neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers. That is happening right now in Southern California, as it did here in Western North Carolina, and is still ongoing here, as there is much cleanup to be done and still many people in need. The altruism you see of people helping people is a hope and resilience that people have within them.

But what about when time passes after the storms and things seem somewhat stable again? Do we alter our behavior so the disasters happen less frequently? Do we care about the fragility of our environment that we are a part of?

For so long, humans have felt that they could shape and control the environment to fit their needs, but we forget that the environment is like that neighbor you would do everything in your means to help during a crisis. The environment is a living thing that deserves our care and compassion, for we have always been a part of nature, not separate from it.

Will nature snap back on the cries of “Drill, Baby, Drill”? Will that slogan and the acts stemming from it set up the next disaster just waiting to happen so we can once again become the good people helping our neighbors, perhaps forgetting that our environment also needs our care? For the environment is also our neighbor in need.

— Phil Okrend
Black Mountain

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