The Journey

I subscribe to The New York Times, my friends to The Wall Street Journal. Both newspapers are targeted to the intellectual reader. So, why is it so difficult to discuss matters of importance? The daughter of an Irish Catholic mother and a father of...

I do not want to “send her back”, but welcome her, instead, with yellow roses. On August 18, 1920, thousands of yellow rose petals floated wildly through the air above Tennessee’s legislative chamber as a 24-year-old first-term Republican cast his “Aye” vote in...

Our climate is changing now. Extremely rapidly.Expect wetter winters and springs with heavy rain, snow events. Intensity and frequency of tornadoes, large hail, damaging thunderstorm winds.Rain events exceeding 6 inches now occur...

Check out this story in today's Detroit Free Press to see why Laura O'Brien and so many others give me hope someday the only colors we will see in the skies above our Great Lakes will be those gloriously painted by God! "18,000 pieces of balloon waste were found in...

My name is Lara O'Brien and I am a master's student at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. I am currently researching the environmental impact of balloon releases in the Great Lakes, Here's a link to a...

Forty-two volunteers picked up 43 balloon remnants and ribbons along the shores of Saugatuck Dunes State Park on Saturday, April 20th. They also collected 860 pieces of plastic, 528 straws, 393 plastic bottle caps, and 326 cigarette butts and cigar tips.  Our litter...

In researching Mandamin’s journey, I learned that women, as life givers, must understand the meaning of water, and how it gives life, just as women give life. The copper pail is a reminder that it is women’s responsibility to care for the earth and her water. And...

Members of an Aldea cleanup team: Elly and Daniel Bollweg, Josh Manzer, Brittany Goode “Sometimes, I feel like the lake is the only entity who truly gets me,” Brittany Goode told me. One of the leaders for the two Grand Haven beach cleanups scheduled in April, she was...

I bought a bag of balloons recently for my 92-year-old mother who is leading an exercise class in her Holland retirement community. She wanted the balloons for an activity that involves batting about balloons with swim noodles. She tells me it is the most fun and the...

Left to Right: Mike McDonnell, Lori Sickenberger, Paul Shellaway, Candy Tomes, Ron Thornton, Ron Tomes, Bill Sickenberger “I can’t write or speak, but I can bake,” said a 90-year-old woman arriving at a fundraising bake sale with two Pennsylvania Dutch Funny...

What if every 4th grader in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario, and Quebec followed the lead of the 4th graders in Zeeland, MI and launched a “Don’t Let it Fly or the Great Lakes Will Cry?” campaign to eliminate...

What if everyone knew Mylar balloons, when released, can float into power lines--where Mylar’s metallic coating can melt, become tangled, and result in power outages? even spark fires? What if they knew power companies from California to Virginia are concerned about...