Upper Chi mom makes political point with Dr. Suess
SPRINGFIELD >> “The Lorax” is on its way to Washington, all thanks to Cathy Spar of Upper Chichester.
Since February, Spar has been collecting copies of the Dr. Suess book and having children across the United States from California to Kansas to Maine fill it with messages intended for senators and representatives such as “Save the Earth, It’s the only one we’ve got,” “Please keep our (E) arth clean” and “We need the environment to survive!”
The 43-year-old mother of two is planning to visit Senate offices Monday and House offices at a later date. But she started Friday with a visit to the headquarters of U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-7, of Chadds Ford.
He wasn’t in the office at the time, but Spar is hopeful he, and his colleagues, get her message.
As she dropped off the book, Spar told Meehan’s staff, “We would ... like to ask him to back up legislation that backs up green-energy and climatechange issues.”
“I’m hoping that they think about the decisions that they make,” Spar said. ““I would hope that they’ll think twice and they’ll realize that there’s a whole other generation that’s next to come.”
According to Wikipedia, “The Lorax” is a children’s book first published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees. The book is commonly recognized as a fable concerning the danger corporate greed poses to nature.
Spar and the handful of activists who showed up to Meehan’s office Friday said their top concern was climate change, although the exercise was meant to instill children with a desire to become active citizens.
Meehan was not available for comment, but spokesman John Elizandro issued a statement:
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a House Republican that does more to protect the environment than Congressman Meehan. He’s one of just 17 House Republicans that have cosponsored a resolution urging bipartisan action to address the challenge of climate change. He’s a member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. He’s among the leading congressional advocates for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, America’s most successful conservation program – just this month he led more than 200 of his colleagues from both parties in urging robust funding for the LWCF. He supported the Obama-era Clean Power Plan for new coal-fired plants, just one of ten GOP members to do so. And he’s a supporter of tax credits that incentivize investment and innovation in renewable energy sources.”
Donning a hat she knitted with truffula trees from the book, Spar explained why climate change is so important to her.
“In Pennsylvania, we don’t have a shoreline to worry about ... but drought and heavy storms and rains do impact us and they impact our stormwater and they impact our road infrastructure, our stormwater infrastructure and that’s a direct cost to the taxpayer.”
Peggy Wilson of Drexel Hill carried a sign to Meehan’s office with a picture of the book’s namesake, reading, “The Lorax is going to Congress!”
Wilson voiced her
“It’s getting really scary all the protections that we’re losing on everything – the environment and health care,” she said. “I thought we were headed towards building an economy around alternative energy and now it seems like we’re going backwards and depending on fossil fuels.”
She said she concerns. wanted the effort to appeal to the more centered politicians.
“I hope that it’s a message to the moderates that we are supporting them, we are out here,” she said.
As intent as she is on environmental issues, Spar said she also wanted to encourage young people to get involved, even if they chose to participate in causes opposite to hers.
“I think that’s how democracy truly works,” she said. “We don’t have a huge voter turnout at election so who we elect isn’t necessarily representative of the people. It’s more of an oligarchy than a democracy and some of that is because people have become complacent and complacency ends up hurting the people.”
She enjoyed having students locally at the Media-Providence Friends School write their own messages in the books.
“I had one set of girls that were really nervous about doing it but they decided to go ahead and do it,” Spar said. “Then five minutes later, they showed up with some friends and got their friends to do it too.”
She was pleased that.
“It really means something to give them a chance to have a voice and I think if we celebrate that then we can create a generation of kids who are engaged citizens because when you have engaged citizens, that’s when democracy really works,” Spar said. by