[Oe List ...] Nobel Peace Prize

[LAURELCG at aol.com]

Isobel,

I, too, feel inspired by the Nobel peace prize -- both the recipient and the 
committee for choosing her.  I'm forwarding a note from Pat Waak, a D.Min. 
program friend, also inspiring to me.  Pat lives in Colorado, and was with the 
Audubon Society for years.  Ran for Congress a couple of years ago, but was 
defeated by the Democrats' good old boy network.  (She was running as a Democrat.)

So sorry about Australia's election.  Fear of the future is powerful 
everywhere.  Here's hoping we defeat Bush in this country, and then help the new 
administration move away from patterns that cause so much suffering.

Blessings,
Jann McGuire


Wangari and I first met in the early 1980s when I was still with U.S.A.I.D. 
Our paths have crossed over the years at interantional meetings and 
environmental confabs. We both had the honor of being profiled in Mary Joy Breton's Women 
Pioneers in the Environment.
When I heard she had received the Nobel Peace Prize, I was driving home 
barely able to see the road for tears.

The phone was soon ringing with messages from old friends who have been 
fighting for environmental and human justice for more then two decades.
This is my journal entry:
"We are grandmothers now. Those of us, who in another generation, would have 
died earlier or faded into the obscurity of old age. Now we are 'wise women' 
continuing the fight for what we believe in. Today one of our own was awarded 
the Nobel Peace Prize -- Wangari Matthai. And in response she went to her 
village and planted a tree. And the rest of us called out to each other with a 
ringing peal of joy and recognition. There is still hope in the world."
Pat Waak