Oil Disaster Round-Up

by: Mae Singerman

Fri Jul 23, 2010 at 13:34:41 PM EDT

 Wonder what's been going on this week in the Gulf Coast? Here's a bit of the news  you may have missed.

• Career whistleblower Hugh Kaufman says EPA officials know that the chemical dispersants they're using to clean the spill present a threat to public health and the Gulf ecosystem and should be banned; they just don't want to say so.
  
• Three of every four oil and gas lobbyists worked for federal government. With 600 lobbists who have very close relationships to DC, proposals to enact new restrictions or curb oil use have stalled amid concerted Republican opposition and strong objections from Democrats in oil-producing states.
• Senate Democrats disapointed environmentalists by putting off pursuing a broad climate change legislation. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he plans to bring up a narrower energy bill next week that would revamp offshore oil drilling rules in the wake of the BP oil spill.
• Oil spill illnesses, injuries double in past month
•  Faith at the Gulf takes a look at how people in and around Biloxi are dealing with the oil spill and the impact of faith on the crisis.

Sur mei'rah v'aseh tov

by: Mae Singerman

Fri Jun 18, 2010 at 16:31:46 PM EDT

Great piece on Jewish law and the oil spill, by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Presdient of Uri L 'Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice organization. My favorite part: 

"Religion, at its worst, can be used to eliminate human agency and responsibility. Texas Governor Rick Perry invoked a morally deficient appeal to religious language last month when he called the Gulf oil spill “an act of G-d.” While we can debate G-d’s presence in the world, we need not debate the issue of human responsibility and culpability.

"A primary charge of the Jewish social justice tradition is the demand that we learn both how to limit our damage and how to hold ourselves and others who cause damage accountable."

Oil Spill Round Up

by: Mae Singerman

Thu Jun 17, 2010 at 15:45:07 PM EDT

Here's what you may have missed about the oil disaster in relation to religion, workers rights and activism.  

• Sojourners, the National Council of Churches, and the Reform Action Center are all blogging about what is happening in the Gulf Coast from faith perspectives
  
• BP station owners sufer as people refuse to buy gas from BP stations. "That’s the catch for any franchise operator, whether it’s a pizza parlor or a Subway … you deal with the good and bad from the brand’s reputation"
• Activism or business? Guy bought domain names after the storm and now is cashing in on them to support vicitms in the Gulf.
• Week long protests happening on Capitol Hill this week, including dropping off oily water to oil company executives.
• Vietnamese-American fisherman held a protest on Tuesday, with more than 80% of their community working in the seafood industry.
  
• Fannie Mae announces relief for homeowners affected by spill.
  

Oil Spill Round Up

by: Mae Singerman

Tue Jun 15, 2010 at 14:33:50 PM EDT

After the jump, what you may have missed today about the oil spill...focusing on workers issues , activism and religion...

Oil Spill Round Up

by: Mae Singerman

Mon Jun 14, 2010 at 12:50:17 PM EDT

Meeting in the Middle

by: Adrianna Joanna

Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 21:30:35 PM EDT

Everyone here has something in common. We are connected to Judaism, and we care about making the world a better place than when we found it. But we call discovered this path a different way. Some of us were raised into the faith, others of us are converts. Even then, we are raised into or become members of different brances, for different reasons. We express it in different ways. Moreover, we all find that Judaism fits into our various agendas, especially as they relate to tzedek. There is much diversity in this cmmunity, and I thought, since it is so close to Shavu'ot, the renewing of the covenant, it might be nice to share how we came to this place, if you so desire.

 I mention it briefly in my bio, but I was not raised into the faith. as a child, I was enamored, and still am, by different people and cultures, and theology fits into that. While I remain fascinated by all faiths, I developed a special affinity for Judaism when I was eleven.  It remains, and today, I actually started a Book of Shadows for Judaism. (The Book of Shadows is a pagan concept. Practitioners share what they have learned and how they feel about their faith, as well as how they express it-prayers, rituals, tools, etc. It works for all faith. Wicca and the other pagan religions are among the other faiths that I have taken a special interest in.)

 At this point, I am reading, reading, reading, and thinking, thinking, thinking about all of my possible paths, paying special attention to certain ones, like Judaism. Something about Judaism just feels right. That is what every convert feels...that good feeling that something is just right for them. Granted, I will always study and appreciate other faiths for the sake of understand the world around me, which is important to being a citizen of the world anyway. Most religions share similar tenents anyway...whether it is a Judeo-Christian concept of the Golden Rule or the Wiccan Rede the Law of Three-whatever you put into the world will come back to you threefold (which fits in nicely with the concept of tikkun ha'olam as it related to Lurianic Kabbalah.)