Dear Friends,
In front of Fort Garland during the 2014 Great March for Climate Action.
Before I share my Veterans Day reflection, here’s an outline of this week’s program:
First, I interview author Lawrence MacDonald about his book, Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? The book’s subtitle reads, “A Boomer’s Guide to Climate Action. How America’s most promising generation allowed climate change to become a planetary emergency—and what to do about it now.” Visit Climate Boomer to snag a copy of this excellent book.
At the 19-minute mark, author and Civil War historian Dr. Stephen Goldman joins me for his reflection on Veterans Day, and how Trumpism presents perhaps the greatest threat to American democracy since the Civil War. Check out Stephen’s book: One More War to Fight: Union Veterans’ Battle for Equality through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Lost Cause.
To wrap up the program, Kathy and I discuss the recent outbreak of avian flu, and why that’s almost exclusively a large turkey- and chicken-confinement problem, not one that threatens most backyard poultry flocks.
For the third segment of the program (beginning at the 36-minute mark), I read the chapter from Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim about my experience camping at Fort Garland, Colorado, during the Great March for Climate Action.
Steve and Ed in front of the memorial on Omaha Beach, Veterans Day, 2015.
I also read the blog I wrote on Veterans Day, 2015, when Steve Martin and I set out from Omaha Beach, walking 200 miles to Paris for the UN climate summit. Here it is:
Today was hard. Steve and I hadn’t realized that the shops and most restaurants would be closed on Armistice Day. Our food consisted of meager amounts of nuts, dried fruit, and cheese.
Our only meal came at sunset, from a fast-food joint striving to compete with the worst possible American swill dispensary. Despite being famished, I could barely choke down the dry burger, and I simply gave up on the soggy fries.
Halfway through today’s journey, my legs announced that they did not appreciate 15-mile walks. The unexpectedly brisk pace didn’t help. Normandy’s daylight is scant in November, and one does not walk the narrow, windy roads after dark.
Steve and Ed with Josianne Rudd-Guillemette and Sandrine Paunet at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.
We had started late in order to spend time at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. I explained our mission to the staff, and they enthusiastically approved of the urgency of climate action. They also understood the connection between the sacrifices made in WWII and the sacrifices needed to battle the climate crisis. One told me that the Earth does not need us; we need the Earth.
I thought of that as Steve and I walked over ground that, 70 years ago, had been ravished badly, sacrificially, in the struggle to liberate Europe from Fascism.
Yes, it was a hard day. My hamstrings screamed at me to stop. But as we passed reminders of the hardships faced by Allied soldiers in 1944, our walk from Omaha Beach to Paris felt like a Sunday stroll in comparison. I imagined landing there in 1944, struggling to fight my way through the pounding surf under heavy artillery fire, dead and wounded men piling up around me. What a hell-on-earth that must have been. And what tremendous levels of courage and heroism must have been needed to get through it.
We walked through the village of Longues and saw the still-evident scars of a town bombed by Allied forces to root out Nazi troops. For the residents of Longues, witnessing the destruction of their town must also have required courage and heroism, knowing that they were being liberated even as their homes were being flattened.
Our host for the first two nights, Amy Swanson Salmon, heard about our walk from a friend. I hadn’t met Amy until she greeted us at the train station. I asked what had inspired her to offer such amazing hospitality to two guys she didn’t even know.
“The act of crossing the Atlantic and walking in foreign territory seemed like a heroic act to me,” explained Amy. “I knew I would be offering you some protection, some much-needed assistance.”
Amy said that if she had had more time, she would have encouraged churches to ring their bells as we came through town.
“November 11 marks the end of WWI. On that day, the bells rang in all of France. In my mind, I have always connected that with the slow, quiet act of walking.”
While I appreciated Amy’s kind offer, I confessed relief that churches were not ringing their bells as we came into town. That would have felt distinctly immodest, even if what we were doing was seen as heroic by her and others.
That said, for humanity to successfully address the climate crisis, acts of heroism are demanded of all of us, individually and collectively. Small acts from those who can do small things, larger acts from those who are able to do big things.
Perhaps this walk is a notable act of heroism in response to the climate crisis. I don’t know. What I do know is that for me, this walk feels like the most significant thing I can do to push for a positive outcome from COP21.
This walk will continue to be difficult. Yet so far, as my steps lead across the fields, beaches, and towns of Normandy, I am reminded that this journey is so much easier than what others were called to do in response to the crisis of their time.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action!
Ed Fallon
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Ed Fallon