What Did YOU Do?

I offer here the oral testimony I gave today at the Massachusetts State House on Sen. Barrett’s carbon pricing bill, S. 1747, An Act combating climate change before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy. --KZA

The time is 50 years hence,

and this story is told –-

you are old and your hair is gray .

Children gather at your feet.

They ask,

Wise One, Ancient One –

we have heard of a time

when the inhabitants of the Earth

became aware

that time was limited,

that little time remained

to save the Earth,

to save the people

and the plants

and the animals.

Wise One, Ancient One,

we have heard it said that the Earth cried out,

and people heard that cry,

they heard it from the oceans

and from the mountaintops and the glaciers,

from the rivers and the lakes,

the trees and the coral reefs;

they heard it from the butterflies and the bees,

from the babies and the children,

the poor and the orphans,

and the widows and the strangers.

People heard the Earth crying out,

saying:

The time is short,

the danger is real.

Save us now.

Save us now.

Wise One, Ancient One,

we have heard of this time long ago

and we want to know –

What did you do?

How did YOU help to save our world?

Tell us, please tell us.

How did YOU help to save our world?

And you will fall silent and look at their eager questioning faces, and you will answer them.

And so today, I ask you,

What will YOU say to those young people?

Jewish tradition teaches us to love G!d with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our might. To paraphrase we can understand this to mean that we are to love all of Creation will all our heart, with all our soul, with all our might.

You, our leaders, can support carbon pricing because it makes economic sense.

You can support carbon pricing to continue our state’s leadership in moving our country away from fossil fuels.

You can support carbon pricing because it will provide economic justice.

AND

You can support carbon pricing because it is the right and the moral thing to do.

You can support carbon pricing so that 50 years from now, when you are old and gray, when children yet to be born ask about the time when the Earth cried out, you will be able to say:

Listen, and I will tell you a story – this is how I showed that I love the Earth and all it contains with all my heart, and all my soul, and all my might. Listen, and I will tell you, this is what I did to help save the Earth.

© 2015 Katy Z. Allen All rights reserved.

Rabbi Katy Allen is a board certified chaplain and serves as a Nature Chaplain and the Facilitator of One Earth Collaborative, a program of Open Spirit. She is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long. She is the President pro-tem of the Boston-based Jewish Climate Action Network. She received her ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion.