Austin, Texas, was the site for the 15th annual conference of the SEJ (Sept. 28 – Oct. 2, 2005), bringing together 600-some eco-scribes from around the country, from the auspicious to the acolyte. Also on-hand were oil company execs, the California congressman who’d just succeeded in gutting the Endangered Species Act, and Bill Moyers to […]
Month: September 2005
Managing for the Ecosystem
It’s conceivable many of you have never even heard of a small, bony, inedible member of the herring family called Atlantic menhaden. Yet they are one of the most important fish in the sea. Moving through the water in schools numbering sometimes in the millions, these silvery sea-strainers are a “filter feeder” that consumes huge […]
Striped Bass – The American Fish
When I became involved – much to my surprise – in a campaign to save the Atlantic striped bass in the early 1980s, I must confess I knew next-to-nothing about the environment. Most recently I’d been a staff writer in TV Guide Magazine‘s Hollywood bureau, doing profiles on folks like Bob Hope. I was, however, […]
Should We Change the National Anthem?
One of the principal functions of a national anthem is to honor a head of state or a monarch at special ceremonies. In Europe, the tradition of playing the anthem in theaters, and then in cinemas, began in London in 1745 with the playing of “God Save the King” at the Royal Theatre. Many anthems […]
Oceana’s guest blogger starting Monday, September 26, 2005
Introducing Dick Russell:: By Jason :: Fri Sep 23rd, 2005 at 02:31:58 PM EST I want to say thanks to Susan Casey for taking the time to guest-blog with us over the last few days, and introduce you to our next guest: introducing Dick Russell, Oceana’s guest blogger starting Sep. 26. Dick Russell has dedicated […]
The Fight to Save the Oceans is Just Beginning
He’s a veteran journalist and activist. He recently appeared at North Cover Outfitters, in Old Saybrook, for a slide presentation and book signing of his latest work, Striper Wars: An American Fish Story (Island Press). He’s Dick Russell. This is what Russell had to say about Striper Wars: “Actually, the book is twofold. One is […]
We Must Take America Back
t r u t h o u t | Speech Saturday 17 September 2005 Speech delivered at the Sierra Summit 2005 San Francisco, California I want to tell you how proud I am to accept the William O. Douglas Award. Two of my most poignant memories as a child involved Justice Douglas. One of them […]
Levees Made of Lies
Rage, Grief, and the Chimera of the American Dream An entire American city has become an uninhabitable mire of fetid water, sodden ruins, and toxic sludge. Moreover, the destruction will not end there: the financial, political, and psychological spill-off, incurred by the deluge, will cause our nation to sink further into a morass of debt, […]
The Choice Between Two Americas
There have always been two Americas – the progressive America of Abraham Lincoln’s Union and the reactionary America of Jefferson Davis’s Confederacy. Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy symbolize the progressive tradition, whereas Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush are the icons of the reactionary tradition. The constituency of progressive America consists […]
How the striped bass survived and thrived: A true fish story
A conservationist writes, in vivid prose, of the struggle to protect the rockfish and a new threat it faces. The striped bass – dubbed by author Dick Russell the “most confounding of fish” – is a success story like no other. According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates the fish and, in […]