The featured speaker was Governor Christine Gregoire, and she gave an inspiring speech about the progress the (Democratically controlled) Legislature was able to make on conservation and environmental issues this past year. Then--a complete surprise to me--she had a signing ceremony for a bill that passed this session enabling a regional transfer of development rights program to begin within the three metro counties of Greater Seattle. This is a landmark piece of legislation, in that it will create a truly effective market for development rights and has the potential to take most if not all of the development pressure off of the forests and farms near the growing cities of Puget Sound.
I sat at Charlie Raines' table with folks from The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Conservation Northwest, and a few other organizations. I've worked with Charlie for about five years on a wide variety of projects, and he's truly an environmental hero. I'm sure one of these days he'll be up on stage receiving an award from CLC, but not this year. The lifetime achievement award was given to Paul and Debbi Brainerd (they started the Brainerd Foundation, which has done a TON of stuff in the NW). Debbi gave a short speech, and she ended with a fantastic quote from George Bernard Shaw:
This is the true joy in life: the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. --George Bernard Shaw
I'm thinking of sticking that one on the bathroom mirror.
1 comment:
Thought you may be interested in another friend of mine's project...
www.thebikeshop1.org
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