by Krista Richards Mann
As part of the jUNe day celebration in Westport, the jUNe day committee has committed to reduce waste. Each of the 300-400 visitors from the United Nations will be given a reusable water bottle. “Last year we went through cases of water!” Said, Michaela MacColl, jUNe day chairperson.
June 27, 2009, United Nations staff and diplomats were welcomed in Westport to participate in an informal day of recreation and celebration in honor of the signing of the UN charter on June 26th, 1945.
Each year on the fourth Saturday of June between 300 and 350 visitors from the UN enjoy the best that Connecticut has to offer: a casual setting, the beautiful Long Island Sound, sports and camaraderie.
The promotion of World Peace and international understanding is reinforced through friendship, both for the visitors and their hosts. Families representing countries from across the globe will have the opportunity to interact with local citizens and we are given the opportunity to represent Americans in an informal and friendly atmosphere.
“It was important that we emphasize Westport’s commitment to ecologically sound practice,” the committee writes in a statement. “Stewardship of our resources is a commitment not only to our community, but to the world.”
A welcome breakfast and brief opening ceremony commenced the morning and then the guests dispersed to play golf, tennis, soccer, baseball, explored Earthplace or had a walking tour of Westport led by the Westport Historical Society and a reception hosted by Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management. They are also sponsored a Taiko Drum troupe who performed on the bridge.


Reality Check
by Heather Burns-DeMelo
I started this blog two years ago when I was gripped by fear--the paralyzing sort that came as a result of being shaken awake by numbers spiking off charts in Al Gore's documentary.
It was as if a bucket of ice cold water was splashed in my face, and I felt in my bones that every day I was selling my children a lie. A lie that our society can be run on fossil fuel indefinitely and without negative impact. A lie that they will always have clean water to drink and enough to spray on their children on hot summer days. A lie that the mattress and pillow they sleep on at night is safe to breathe. A lie that the food on the super market shelves is healthy and safe to eat.
All lies.
So, I've kept my nose so close to the grind stone that many days I'm afraid to look up. For when I do, what I see around me threatens the sense of hope I've worked so hard to instill and foster and grow in myself and those around me. Why hope? Because hope fuels courage and fights despair. It creates a space for creativity, innovation and compassion to blossom. And those, we need in spades.
In Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, Barbara Kingsolver writes, "We abolished slavery, we granted universal suffrage. We have done hard things before. Each time it took a terrible fight between people who could not imagine changing the rules. If we run out of hope at the end of the day, we'll rise in the morning and put it on again with our shoes. Hope is the only reason we won't burn what's left of the ship and go down with it. If somebody says, "Your money or your life," you can say, "Life." And mean it."
Now that's perspective.
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