Summer Update: Maria

I'm Maria, the human delivering these website updates to your inbox. When I'm not tinkering with the website, I'm usually growing organic vegetables at Lake City Catholic Worker Farm using the bare minimum amount of petroleum (read: might as well be a scarecrow, I spend so many hours out in the field), or putting together workshops and proposals for my paid work as an architect for communities traditionally excluded from design. The ripples of climate change such as farmer suicides, crop failure, food prices rising, etc and the rise of systemic violence against immigrants, who raise and process most of the food we buy in supermarkets, make me ever so grateful for the bounty of summer and the presence of my family and friends.

Summer Update: Michele

Since our last pretrial hearing at Itasca County Courthouse on May 8, 2019, I have been trying to settle in to the long wait for a decision on whether we will be granted the Climate Necessity Defense and an actual trial date. We were told it will be months of waiting. Meanwhile, we are watching the clock tick realizing that we are still no closer to reducing the amount of CO2 necessary to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees F. We recognize this is a global effort and have been seeing some really great clean technology coming out of other countries. However, here in the US we remain stuck with deadly government policies in favor of the fossil fuel industries and against environmental protections.

In our neck of the woods in northern MN, we continue to at least hold back the Enbridge Energy tar sands Line 3 expansion project, We are lucky to have a good governor and attorney general in MN as well as solid groups like MN350, Friends of the Headwaters, Water Protectors, and Honor the Earth.

On August 7, I headed to the Arizona Mexico border to help migrants who are seeking asylum. I am working with Christian Peacemaker Teams who is partnering with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) as well as a human rights organization on the Mexico side. I'm looking forward to being there with Allyson Polman who will be joining us through the PPF.

Aside from that, I continue to work at our Damiano Community Kitchen and ride my electric moped around town and pray and work with the Sisters at the St. Scholastica Monastery. Greg and I are even planning a camping trip. Peace, Michele

Late Summer Update

It's been a quiet summer for the Four Necessity Valve Turners and our support team, working on our farms going, spending time with our families, feeding the hungry, charting the progression of climate change in our own microclimates.

The biggest news came last week we heard from the Climate Defense Project that our cause had raised $5,000 towards legal defense! Thank you to everyone who followed our donate link to give any amount - over time, every donation adds up to a humbling total. This is cause to celebrate for a number of reasons. First, that will go a long way towards ensuring that if the Four Necessity Valve Turners are granted the necessity defense, they will be sufficiently resourced to support expert witnesses and other court expenses. Second, the Climate Defense Project and other similar non-profits need to demonstrate to the IRS that they are serving a public purpose, and donations are one of the clearest metrics that demonstrate support. So fundraising through them ensures that they can continue their mission of supporting climate activists and protecting vulnerable ecology in this era of climate change.

You'll notice that our "donate" button points back to our PayPal account administered by Eric Anglada, husband of Brenna Cussen Anglada, one of the Four Necessity Valve Turners. The money held in trust for our legal defense by CDP is strictly for lawyers and court expenses. Travel, public speaking events, and other surprises along the way get expensive quickly, and we are so grateful to be able to offer a cushion of support for everyone in the Four Necessity Valve Turner team.

Finally, we have some other good news to share: there have been posts from the Valve Turners on facebook over the last couple months (even about those elusive Valve Turners who don't have facebook accounts, coordinated by our support team), which we will mirror back here over the next couple weeks. Allyson and Michele are both traveling to the border, so keep them and the migrants they go to serve in your prayers. We are also still awaiting a final decision on the necessity defense, which will frame the next stage of this effort, so keep that close to your heart that the Four Necessity Valve Turner's sacred intentions may bear fruit.