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by Brian Dugas
For those of you who don’t know, one of the previous duties of the CDC was to monitor foodborne illnesses through the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. Of course this network, and 60 other programs were eliminated by the present administration. The number of pathogens being surveilled dropped from 8 to 2, with Cyclosporiasis being one them cut. This is in addition to a 50% budget cut in 2026, ¼ of the workforce being cut, and the rescinding or blocking of 600 million dollars worth of grants. Erica Schwartz was recently nominated to be the new CDC Director and has bipartisan support. She is a real physician and lawyer with years of experience in public health in the military and has served as the Deputy Surgeon General in the past. She is a black woman, and get this, she believes in vaccines. She is quoted as saying ”If confirmed, my first priority will be restoring trust in public health institutions through radical transparency and unwavering scientific Integrity,” Schwartz said, “As CDC director, my sacred responsibility is to provide the American people with public health guidance that is clear, honest and evidence based. I will never betray the science.” I don’t know about you, but I almost fell off my chair. There is some question as to whether she will be able to stand up to the pressure from her political bosses whose names I won’t mention, but it seems to be a positive step and demonstrates that pressure does work on our politicians. Now is the time to use that pressure on your elected officials. Stay informed, get active, and most important of all, get out and vote. There are a few important elections happening in our area for the November elections. They could use our help, and Ward 12 is looking for some pollworkers.
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by Eoin Carroll
Our love of tidiness and our desire to shape nature to be more attractive to us is killing the natural world. When I started gardening as a teenager it was constantly stressed that the good gardener should always remove dead material from the garden as soon as possible. By removing dead trees and plants we are eliminating the spaces needed by insects, birds, and bats for nesting and overwintering. We are short circuiting the carbon cycle by removing the plant material which if left would be food for many more organisms. We find large lawns to be the most attractive option for our landscape and therefore have created ecological deserts where there is no food or shelter for the rest of nature. To keep our lawns green we apply lots of water, fertilizers, and pesticides. Unfortunately most of these end up in our waterways due to over application, poor timing (applying before a rainstorm), not testing the soil and thus fertilizing when it is not needed, and the inability of most lawns to infiltrate more than a small amount of water at a time. Also by fertilizing we create the perfect conditions for most lawn weeds which prefer a richer soil and thus require us to spread even more pesticides. We spend an enormous amount of time mowing our lawns and in the process create lots of air pollution (lawn mowers produce much more pollution than cars). The constant walking or riding over the ground compacts it and makes it even less able to infiltrate water thus causing stormwater issues. We modify the color, size, and shape of flower blossoms to be more pleasing to us but most of the time these changes make the plants unrecognizable to our native insects. We abhor any insects eating our plants and unleash hellish brews of toxic chemicals to kill them which in turn kills the butterflies and fireflies that we want but wonder why they are disappearing. We plant nonnative trees and shrubs because we think they are prettier and novel and that is what is available at most nurseries and big box stores. The solution is that we must reduce our lawns and plant more natives. We need to learn to embrace the messiness of nature and stop trying to tidy it up if we want our native animal world to survive. by Joseph Czarnecki
It appears that phone calls or letters to your Republican congressman will not change their behavior, because they are afraid of being primaried by Trump’s support for their opponent. The solution seems to be to support and vote for Democratic congressmen. |
The Social Action Minute
One of the most popular features of our Sunday services is our Social Action Minute. During this time, a member of the Social Action Committee speaks on a topic of their choice in order to bring awareness and a call to action to the members of our Congregation. These are the archives of the Social Action Minutes presented at our Sunday services. If you missed a service, or are interested in the topic, you can revisit it and get information here. Archives
September 2026
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