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Dear {name},
This week, I was supposed to be in Florida for an annual meeting of Lutheran State Public Policy Office directors.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) maintains a network of nearly 20 state-based public policy offices (SPPOs), some specifically Lutheran and others housed within larger organizations. Texas Impact serves as the SPPO for Texas, giving us a unique relationship with Texas’ three ELCA synods and also connecting us with fellow faith-based policy practitioners across the country and in Washington, D.C.
I was supposed to be in Florida, but on Saturday morning Texas Impact’s resident climate scientist, Becca, texted me a link to a social media account called The Eyewall with an accompanying emoji:
😳
Within a few hours, the convening was canceled, and Americans were realizing that a second major hurricane was about to hit Florida with cleanup barely underway from Helene. The search term “window to evacuate” has had more than 33,000 hits on Google in the past 24 hours, the top result being “window to evacuate is closing.”
As we pray for and minister to our siblings who are currently experiencing disastrous climate impacts, it’s crucial we acknowledge that human-induced climate change is real and unfolding now, and the window to mitigate its impacts on human settlements appears to be closing.
One of my policy mentors once said windows of opportunity are fickle, and we can’t control their behavior. One day, he said, a window might be open, but the next morning you wake to find it shut tight. He advised me, “That’s why we have to work so hard as long as a window is open, even if it’s just a sliver.”
The work you do for justice, even when success seems unlikely, is vital. Your advocacy in hard spaces helps keep those windows cracked. The conversations you have, the events you attend, the letters you send, and the votes you cast all keep the air moving.
One day, we may find that the window to mitigate climate change has closed, the way the window to evacuate closes before a hurricane—but today is not that day. Thanks for all you are doing to keep the window open.
Love, |
