Dear River Community,
Such wonderful things have happened for the Global Rivers Project this month but I must admit I’ve put off blogging as I feel almost paralyzed with grief about Japan. I am beset by visions of radiation poisoning and devistation in our water and on our land. I’ve become prayerful and inward. Now it is time to reach out with all my might and start working again on our next project, which, was put in motion months before the tsunami hit, but, as serendipity, might have it, we have in the pipe line, an art exchange with Japan. We will be creating healing Origami for the people of Japan…

Thanks to Dr Peter Whitehouse we have been teamed up with the Saint Luke’s Hospital in Japan. We are calling the project, Healing Origami/Folding the River of Life. The idea is to get as many people as possible to fold and origami figures to ride above a folded river. We hope to have 1000 origami figurers just as in Japan it has been a time honored tradition to create 1000 cranes for someone who is ill. We will create 1000 animal birds and plants that grace the shore of our little, Cleveland , inner city river, the Doan Brook.

Next blog I will recap what I leaned as we completed the first stage of our  art exchange in Cleveland with the TIS School and nursing home, Judson Mannor. In the blog after that I’ll tell you about MoMA and the symposium on art and Alzheimers’s called Mapping Perceptions.

Thanks for visiting and please write back. Bernice

Dear Friends,
It is with a heart full to brimming, that I write to you today. I’ve just started the process of reviewing the Doan Brook Cleveland residency experience of last week and, I just can’t tell you how much I learned. The first thing that struck me is the amazing interconnectedness in concept and mission between the Intergenerational School and the Judson Smart Living community. The mission Statements of both create a perfect match, in that they are both based on compassion and connection with the earth. I might add, I witnessed some of the smartest and most effective, and compassionate methods in both childhood education and elder care that I have ever experienced.
I felt like I came into this perfect marriage with a puzzle, piece that was much appreciated, which were stories of the water and a few about the earth. The response to these stories was an incredible intergenerational celebration of what is.. How it is with the water. For this lesson I was embraced, agreed with and appreciated for one whole week by people of all ages who treat each other with respect.. Oh also, I got to meet 13 true hero/elders, the folks who fought to save the river in the late 60’s. During this residency they got to meet children from 4 generations later who appreciated their efforts. Sound like Heaven? It was.

Tori asks , where do we go from here? Let’s take a minute to vision about that… While we think I leave you with the words of some of these elder/heroes who worked in the late 60’s to save the Dan Brook.
When asked what words they would like to pass on to the youth about the waters here is what they said..
“Pru Garrettson
“Our bodies are largely made up of water, so, protect the Earth’s water supply for your health.”

Kathy Barber
“Don’t ever hang back! Jump in with both feet to save the water and protect the water of the Earth for your health.”

Florence Spurney
“Save the Earth let’s start at Home!”

Leanne Rayburn
The reaction to the highway was a huge spontaneous revolution. Everyone was in agreement, and against it. It was a ground swell.”
Let’s start our new chapter by passing these words along to the kids. They say volumes..
Much love to all new Friends,
Bernice

Way to go WSMV-TV, Nashville (Channel 4 News)!!!

Reporting on the cheap sale of Tennessee streams to developers, the Tennessee Stream Mitigation Program (TSMP) accepts $200 per linear foot of stream destroyed.  The buyer (developer) is required by law to ‘mitigate’ or replace each foot of stream that is destroyed.  However, according to Joey Woodard, Director of TSMP, they have only 70% compliance, which is, according to him “pretty good.”

Say What?!!  In what world is a 70% success rate “pretty good?”  This is at best a C- and at worst a D or an F!! 

Mr. Woodard also states in his interview that 80% of their projects to mitigate streams occur within a 30 mile radius of the original stream site.  With a sardonic grin he asserts that this is a “pretty good scale.”  While I agree that a B might be called “pretty good,” I flat out demand more than a PRETTY GOOD rating from an organization charged with protecting such a precious resource as our natural waterways. 

It is time to demand a higher success rate from the Tennessee Stream Mitigation Program approaching somewhere in the range of 100%. Period. It is time to uphold our GOOD LAWS.

Mr. Joey Woodard can be reached at:  (615) 831-9311, ext.111.

-Dharmaja, Editor

Dear Readers,

A small Tennessee town has taken notice of our message to protect the water supply.  Our mission to provide education and options to small towns which are likely to be presented with cheap water buy-outs appears to be working! We are focused on getting the word out to areas that have not yet been approached by a conglomerate so that when they are, they are armed with information, initiative, and community support. 

It looks as if Water Fandango will soon be a reality! Water Fandango, a fundraising concert in support of small towns getting the resources they need without having to rely on the cheap buyouts offered by multi-billion dollar corporations seeking new supply for the bottling industry.

Go go go!

For the past year, GRAE has been working on a project that connects progressive institutions to one another in the Cleveland-area:  The Intergenerational School (TIS); a retirement community called Judson Park; The Shaker Lakes Nature Center, The Doan Brook Partnership; and Parade The Circle, put on every summer by The Cleveland Museum of Art.  The goal: facilitate collaboration between institutions to bond people of all ages to their local watershed.

The next phase of the project will begin on February 28th, 2011, and here’s the agenda:

Bonding the Youth and Elders of The School for Intergenerational Study to the Doan Brook Watershed.

Project Description

A five day artist-in-residency program created for elementary age students and their elder mentors, wherein the participants will learn the rich history of the Doan Brook.

The course of study will proceed in chronological order of events:

• the Wisconsin Glaciation and the tribes that migrated from Asia during prehistoric times. 
• The Erie Indians and other native groups that lived in this region. 
• The Shaker people and the wool mill they operated on the Doan Brook.
• The late 19th century, when the Rockefeller family purchased the land bordering the Doan for city workers to have a lovely place to stroll and appreciate nature.
• The 1960′s, when the Army Core of Engineers proposed to cover the Doan Brook with a highway system. Residents protested against this idea with demonstrations and were successful in preserving this natural treasure for the people of Cleveland.

The students will interpret these stories in drawings and a core group of participants will work on making giant puppets and hats to wear in a “river appreciation parade” which will take place in their neighborhood. In June there will be another opportunity to “wear their river” costumes in the famous Parade the Circle event hosted by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Working with the Elders
As mentioned previously there is a fascinating component to the Doan Brook history which occurred in the 1960’s. Neighborhood activists blocked the proposal to cover the Doan brook with a highway system. Several of these Freeway Fighters are living in Judson Manner and Judson Park retirement centers. Judson partners closely with TIS. They both share the philosophy of the importance of integrating the different generations and bonding both the students and the elders with the natural world.

The Global Rivers Art Exchange shares this exact goal. We will blend our projects by taking up residency in the guest apartment at one of the Judson facilities; there we will meet the elders who heroically stood up for the Doan. As they tell their stories I will create large watercolor portraits that the students will carry in the parade. We will also be collecting Wishes for the River Doan that the elders offer to us. The children will fold these wishes into Origami figures that they will wear in the parade.

A Sister School Collaboration                                                                                                                                                                                                          The students of the Martin Methodist College Art team have joined TIS in a creative partnership to help teach the participants in Cleveland about their river. They have created headdresses to be worn in the parade and are working on a giant puppet called Pappy Water who will hold the history of the Doan on his garment. Since the Doan is famous for the Shaker community and their wool mill, Pappy Water is made entirely of wool felt. The students will be shown the simple process of felting and will be able to contribute felt pieces to the puppet.

The TIS School already has a wonderful environmental project called the Forest Garden. Our goal is to put some of the students to work painting their rain barrel water catchments with the pictorial history of the Doan. Working in consort with TIS art instructor Arenda Evens we plan to give each core group a task that will lead to completing these goals.

As the Director of the Global Rivers Art Exchange Project, I, Bernice Davidson, will facilitate this art project,  and will also bring art from 3 continents, about the rivers of the world, to display at the school during the residency..From  April to June 2011 The Global Rivers Art  will be on display at the Shaker Nature Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

Tapped

Flow

And a book for good measure: Bottlemania

I’m thinking some of these guys will want to be involved in Water Aid 2011.  Check out Rolling Stone article on The 15 Most Eco-Friendly Rockers!

Here is a link to the Food and Water Watch website. Please click here to view their stance on privatization of water.

Global Rivers Art movement is gaining momentum in Pulaski Co., Tennessee!  Bernice wrote a stirring letter to the editor of The Pulaski Citizen and the paper is running with it.  Just follow the link to read the article on the issue; and on the front page no less. 

The Tennessee Clean Water Network is also lending a helping hand in getting the word out to other towns and counties who are, or will soon face the same dilemma.  Tennessee is facing a real epidemic of water thievery, all over the state.  Please join us in bringing awareness to this issue by talking about it with friends, family, co-workers, whomever will listen:  Water belongs to the people, not corporations. 

In my own family, I’ve put my foot down about buying the tiny bottles of water, en masse from Costco.  Even buying the distilled water, rather than spring water, propagates the creation of more plastic bottles, which is a detrimental enterprise.

Listen, if it can happen in Tennessee, then it can happen to any of the rural farmlands in the country.  Raise awareness in your own community so that when the big bottling company comes to yourtown, the people will not be caught off-guard by big promises and small delivery.

After going to two meetings (one city council and one utilities meeting) about the selling of the water in Minor Hill TN, I didn’t feel much satisfaction.  So I wrote the following letter to the editor of the county news paper.. This is the first time in my life I’ve written a letter to the editor. It feels good. I feel like I’m going the distance to warn the people not to sell their water rights to a bottling company. Here’s the letter:

Hello, Friends –

As a resident of Lawrence County who has been working in Pulaski for 10 years, I have been studying the water situation in Giles county, and beyond, for a number of years. There is a disturbing new trend going on around the world — the waters of water-rich areas are being bought, bottled, transported and sold by corporate firms, draining local area aquifers for sale elsewhere. This privatization of natural resources can create disaster with the drinking water of local communities.

Only very recently, Campbellsville Spring was in danger of being sold to a company, but a few brave folks kept that from happening for the time being. Right now, the town of Minor Hill is close to making a deal to sell their underground waters to a bottling company contracting with local officials to drill a well, in order to address the local water supply problem. If water is found, the agreement will be a trade-off of residents’ water rights, in return for the same water to be sold back to Minor Hill’s citizens. The following are a few talking points concerning what has happened in other places, where the waters have been privatized:

Points for citizens of Minor Hill, TN, concerning the sale of water to Amnisos — a bottling company:

1. The water in the Giles County watershed is a natural resource in-place since the beginning of time. When large quantities of water are removed from an aquifer, it is not replenished by seasonal rains.
2. Most of the streams and creeks in Giles County are either polluted, or are on the Seriously Compromised list. If the “sweet water” from underground is removed, it leaves the toxins in the water above ground more concentrated.
3. Have local residents — the voting public — been made aware of both the pros and cons of this proposal?
4. Small towns with good water all over the world have been dealing with the issue of water privatization. Here are some of the problems that residents have to deal with, after their waters have been privatized:

• The Pacific island nation of Fiji sold its water to a bottling company of the same name. Now, after years of having their water transported far away, 51% of Fiji’s population does not have access to clean drinking water. Waterborne illnesses are now rampant on the island.

•  Atlanta, GA sold the water rights to Lake Lanier to the Coca-Cola Company. During the last three- year drought, when Atlanta residents were on very strict water rations, Coca-Cola Co. refused to stop taking water in abundance. Everyone reading this knows someone who has had to truck their water during a recent drought. Dry wells were a fact all over Giles County. Once we start removing large volumes of water from underground, expect dry wells to become more of a problem.

• Towns that were promised local jobs from water companies in the past, have found that the bottling plants are highly automated, and do not provide the many job opportunities that were promised.

• Please protect future generations from want, and keep local waters in the hands of the local people. The water is part of our commonwealth, not to be sold to private companies for their enrichment.

• Many small towns have traded water rights for well-digging, and have then found that the bottling companies wind up selling the water for a high price, while paying relatively little for it.

• Even with a contract clause stating that the city of Minor Hill is to have first rights to buy the well, should the company decide to sell, Minor Hill may not have time to raise enough funds, and the water rights will be out of local control forever.

• This is not just an issue for residents of Minor Hill alone, it is a problem that could eventually affect us all. We must find alternative solutions.

 
*** An Idea ***

There is so much musical talent in this area that I often wonder if it’s due to something in the water. Why not have a few fundraising concerts/festivals, invite some noted musicians and songwriters to perform, and call it WATER AID? This could be a source of funds to purchase the much-needed well for the city of Minor Hill, keeping the local waters in the hands of the community.
Sincerely,

Bernice Davidson

Bernice discovered a resource in Keepers of The Waters; an organization dedicated to the preservation of water through community-based, art driven projects.  Betsy Damon founded Keepers in 1991, with the assistance of the Hubert Humphrey Institute in Minnesota and has since done numerous art installations and performances around the globe.  She was also awarded the Top Honor Award from the Waterfront Center in Washington, D.C in 1998.

The website can be viewed at Keepers of The Water.

Dear Readers of Global Rivers Blog,

I wanted to just introduce myself in a short message. My name is Dharmaja and I will be doing some research and writing for the blog. I am very happy to be able to help and honored to have been asked.

Please look out for an upcoming post on Keepers of the Waters, sharing the amazing work of Betsy Damon to heal the waters of the world!!!

If you haven’t already, please sign up for the RSS feed and receive a notification whenever a new post goes up!

Many Thanks, Dharmaja Maldonado

Talking Points for the City of Minor Hill, TN
Concerning the sale of water to Amnisos, a water bottling company.

1. The water in the Giles County watershed is a resource that has been in place since time immemorial. Large quantities of water removed from the aquifer are not replenished by seasonal rains!

2. Many of the streams and creeks in Giles County are either polluted or are on the seriously compromised list. If the underground “sweet water” is removed, more concentrated toxins remain in the water above ground.

3. Has the public been made aware of both the pros and cons of this proposal?

4. All over the world, small towns with good water have been dealing with this new issue of water privatization. Here are some of the problems that the citizens have to deal with once the water has been bought up.

a)  The island of Fiji sold its water to a bottling company with the same name. Now, after years of having their water transported elsewhere, 51% of Fiji’s population does not have access to clean drinking water. Waterborne illnesses are now rampant on this island.

b)  The city of Atlanta sold the water rights of Lake Lanier to the Coca-Cola Company. During the latest three year drought, when every citizen was on very strict water rations, the Coca-Cola Company refused to stop taking water in abundance. I’m sure everyone in this room knows someone who has had to truck their water during the recent drought. We have dealt with dry wells all over the county. The underground water is all connected. Once we start removing large quantities of drinking water, expect dry wells to become more of a problem.

c)  Towns that have been promised jobs from water companies in the past have found that the bottling plants are highly automated and do not provide the many job opportunities they were promised.

5. Please protect future generations and keep the water in the hands of the people. The water is part of our “common wealth” and is not to be sold to private, outside companies.

Did you ever feel this? You get called to a meeting by a small group of elders. People whom, if you could pick a person in your life that exhibits profound generousity, good sense, talent and other virtures, these three people would be it. So they call you to a small meeting and they tell you about the bottling company that lies in wait to buy, for nearly nothing, the water rights of a lively and free water spring feed about 30 miles from your home. I gulped and said yes, knowing that there would probably come a time when I’d have to speak amongst strangers about their water system. This deal was aborted, but the same agent shows up in a neighboring town, which is now in the final stages of signing the water rights away… You are asked to take action…

These three elders supported me by helping to get in touch with people who could help me get up to speak about about the water issues in my area. Renee Hoyes from The TN Clean Water Network was invaluable in helping me craft The Talking Points which we presented at the Minor Hill City Council last night. (The talking points will be in a following blog.)

It had been weeks of studying the fact that Minor Hill needs jobs and that the people of Minor Hill have been promised a re-opening of their factory and a six person work force. The Mayor himself told me a well and water treatment plant would cost two million dollars. He asked me how I would solve the problem? It took me a good week to come up with the solution: Art saving the day.

Why don’t we find a celebrity who would come out for the water and we could put on a Water Aid type event taking a cue off of a hero to the farmers, Wilie Nelson. Who, incidentally, will be the first person I ask to sing for the water.

If you are a talented singer song writer or know of one that would come out and do a benefit to keep the water rights in the hands of the people, send in your message to us here.

I want to thank my students who came out with courage and pluck to have my back while I spoke for the water. Thanks Guys I love ya.

Have you seen the movie “Tapped”, or read the book, Bottlemania? More and more disturbing information has been coming out about a megatrend occuring all over the world. Because of our penchant for carrying a plastic bottle of water around, Coke, Nestle, Pepsi and some other big companies are buying-up public water and shipping it out of the local communities.
In Atlanta, even during times of extreme drought, Coke continued to suck water out of Lake Lanier, while the community was heavily rationed. Let’s stop buying bottled water! I have a Brita water filter for my tap water, and use a stainless steel water bottle that works great. Join me in saying “No!” to bottled water. Let’s keep water in the hands of the community.

Thank Heavens for young people who are uninhibited enough to dress up in funny costumes dance for the river. Here are some pictures of that momentous occasion. A big thank you to the Wood and Strings Puppet theater for the River Guardian Puppets.

Tomorrow Oct 29th at 5:00 on green  at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski TN The Global Rivers Art Exchange and the Martin Art Team will launch the first of many Water  Appreciation Parades.   The Wood and Strings Puppet theater will join us too as we create the largest waltz for the water ever staged. More later… Here’s a sneak peak at two of our many  parade hats.

Cover shows a a giant water drop hitting a puddle text reads: LIQUID ASSET Big Business and the Race to Control the World’s Water, on page 42, it is chilling.. The arcticle, written by Jeneen Interlandi, talks about Sita Alaska home of the worlds most spectacular lakes and trillions of gallons of pure water.. In a few months if all goes according to plan 80 million gallons of Blue Lake water will be siphoned into the kind of tankers usually reserved for oil and shipped to Mumbai India.  From there it goes into bottles and shipped to the Middle East. This article is well worth the read. I actually had a hard time reading this, as it scares me to think we are on the brink of watching corporations take the right of clean water away from humanity. As far as i can see the fad of bottled water could be the last straw in a precarious situation. We are dealing with a similar concern as a few bottling companies vie for an outstanding freshwater spring called Campbellsville Spring in our area (see earlier blog)… Also, I’m  opened for all kinds of sollutions to this problem. Feel free to comment … next blog is an expose on a few of your everyday water bottle companies. Prepare to get frustrated and scandalized…

Clean Flow International: a US company wins The Innovation in Technology Award, sponsored by the Wistex Foundation last March for its successful restoration of ten freshwater lakes in India that were heavily polluted by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The foundation is located in India and promotes technology that solves problems in India. see http://www.clean-flo.com/articles/india-cleans/ This company uses a combination of an oxygenation system and nitrogen and phosphorus-feeding bacteria to clean the waters with this type of pollutant. . Evidently it has worked quite well. So here we have a solution… On this site you’ll find both solutions and problems. hang on to your hats… here comes the shoe dropping…. The next blog is going to be about the cover of News Week magazine, October 18th 2010.. Stay tuned

The clean up of the River Thames
www.telegraph.co.uk
Fifty years after being declared biologically dead, the Thames has been hailed as an environmental success story. But how has the iconic river been transformed? Check out this inspiring story.

You know, learning about the world’s rivers has been a real journey for me. I started out just looking at the facinating story of one river, the Cuyahoga. Now with the help of my artist friends and my dedicated students we share the stories of many rivers. Lately as a class we have been researching web sites that talk about the rivers that have been reclaimed. This has been so uplifting. It can be done, it is being done and it must be done! The Global Rivers Art Exchange is in search of cleaned rivers.. We will be posting our research on rivers that have been restored.

News flash!!!!! The Martin Methodist College ART TEAM has 50 people signed up this year! We have had our first meeting of the semester and agreed to make a big parade … A grand water appreciation parade, complete with a 15-person river costume, song , dance , and water headgear!!

Come join the wave!  Next meeting will be: 3:30, Oct 6, in Rroom 206, Gault Fine Art center. 

The two rivers we are studying for this parade are the Doan Brook  and the Cuyahoga River of Cleveland, Ohio. Our costumes will reflect the rich history and habitat of these two amazing waterways. The art club plans to take a van-full of participants to join the annual Parade the Circle, at the Cleveland Museum of Art, in June, 2011.

Here, at the  Global Rivers Headquarters, Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, TN, we are excited to be invited to study the Doan Brook — a small  intra-city river, rich in history, in Cleveland,Ohio.
The previous blog spells out our proposal to teach the story of the river at The Intergenerational School in Cleveland. That is residency is now slated for January , a better time for teachers to introduce new material. The Doan Brook Water shed has 32 schools in it’s region. We plan to introduce the curriculum to more middle schools in the area.

Currently we are working on two intercity rivers at the same time. The other river is the Magdalena of Mexico it is a fascinating river in it’s own right. Twenty Kilometers long it starts as a pristine and roaring mountain river in the Dynamo Mountains near Mexico City. Half way down she meets her fate, to end as a sewer. She is now gathering support as we met her heroes, caregivers, and engineers.  I spent 2 weeks in Mexico and had a chance to start a video project about the life, history, and challenges of the worlds rivers called Extreme River Makeover. The idea is to find rivers that have been . are now, or need to be made over and nudge the process along with coverage by video,  celebration, and education. I even found an amazing group called Eco Barrio who are teaching people ways to live in harmony with there water shed.

More on all this later.

Yours, in Search of River Solutions,

Bernice

Wear the River!
Proposal: An Artist-in-Residency Workshop, with Environmental Artist Bernice Davidson, at The Interg
enerational School, Cleveland, Ohio.
Overview
This Artist Residency instills all learners of all ages with a sense of ownership/stewardship of their neighborhood waterway — the Doan Brook — through the creation of wearable art. Our motto is: “Appreciate the Water thru C.E.I.L.” — Creativity, Exploration, and Intergenerational Learning. Participants of this project are students from K thru 8th grade, and their adult learner mentors, including younger adults and elders, who ”volunteer” at The Intergenerational School (TIS).
Background
The project builds on TIS’s longstanding relationships with community organizations such as: Judson Smart Living residential community, the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, and Case Western Reserve University. The school has won awards for its multimedia narrative projects to enhance learners’ connections to nature (EPA Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder contest, in 2009). Natural themes such as watershed appreciation are incorporated into the school’s science and health curricula.
Strategies
The project begins with a presentation for participants in the auditorium. Artist Bernice Davidson will introduce the Global Rivers Art Exchange paintings, on display at the school during September and October, 2010. These paintings have been gathered by the artist over a 14-year period, from accomplished adult and talented younger artists on 4 continents. Ms. Davidson will tell the stories of these paintings, and how each helps to give voice to the water.
All participants will then begin to learn about the Doan Brook — a beautiful, critically important, pedagogically valuable waterway in their own neighborhood. They will also learn, along with their mentors, how the Doan Brook was saved from destruction by some dedicated heroes in their community during the 1960s.
In their Art Class period, participants will adopt a fish, animal, plant or insect that makes its home in or around the Doan Brook. They will use these images to create masks, headdresses, and hats, etc., to wear later in the year at Parade the Circle – the annual public event sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Art, which takes place in the Doan Brook watershed. Students will also construct their own stories about the Doan Brook centered upon their projects and relationships to this watershed.
A core group will be chosen to create weather-resistant banners to hang in the neighborhood, showing appreciation for the Doan Brook and for the people who saved it. These banners will also be carried in Parade the Circle.

Classroom Activities
Participants will work with the marvelous material known as plaster gauze. This gauze is permeated with plaster that activates with warm water, and which can be molded and shaped into any configuration. Seniors will be given hat blanks to work with. Primary cluster students will create masks. Junior cluster students will create headdresses, and Senior cluster students will create staffs or capes. These parade costumes all have roots in African culture, which the Global Rivers team learned about when they went to Ghana, West Africa to collect paintings for the Global Rivers Art Exchange.
Objective
Art, creativity and storytelling are important catalysts in bonding both young and old to the care of their waterways. When the river becomes muse a special relationship is born, which can ensure the protection of the waterway for generations to come. Our rivers become and remain clean, due to the creativity and determination of diverse groups of concerned, local people!

www.tisonline.org

With the BP spill spewing mega amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico there are so many concerns that one becomes overwhelmed. One thing that we learned during our visit to Valdez Alaska was that the thousands of people who were cleaning up the mess of the Exxon spill were basically unprotected from the toxins used in the mop up operation. Many of these people came down with cancer years later. BP brags about the numbers of fisherman and oil workers they are employing yet they are not providing respirators or proper protection. What price are these workers paying?

I live in a rural area in Tennessee. We are blessed with an abundance of clear mineral springs. One issue that faces many small towns with few zoning rules, is that the water bottling companies come in and buy, or lease, local springs and carry the clean water far away. We are facing this problem now in Giles County. Here is a poem I wrote to shed light on this situation.

CAMPBELLSVILLE SPRING

A Dedicated Action

Who will speak for Campbellsville Spring?

Clean clear water, full of healing minerals

720 gallons every minute.

Who will speak for Campbellsville Spring?

Bottling company ready to pounce

The water, health of our children and their babies too

Life force itself.

Campbellsville Spring who will cry for you?

The vultures prey on what is dead,

The bottling company preys on what is alive.

Who will cry for Campbellsville Spring?

Throughout our solar system water seems rare

Yet our planet flows with abundant

Rivers, creeks, ocean, and fresh springs

From deep underground.

If we sell this jewel we sell our very health.

For the hard truth is this:

Every river and creek in our county is polluted.

Yet our spring is pure.

If it is sold, what will be left?

We shall speak for Campbellsville Spring!

Last week we opened our collection of 38 paintings in the new Barton Gallery in the Gault Fine Art Center here in Pulaski, TN. The paintings are beautifuly displayed and the over all effect of the show is strong. This group of artists has told the truth about the rivers they love. Many of the paintings are dark and tell a story of pollution and concern. I am struck by how many artists speak about rivers that were pristine in their lifetime but have just recently become polluted. One artist tells of the St. John’s river in Florida that used to be polluted but has recently been cleaned. This gives me hope for the future. If only more people will take the time to study , create, and educate the public about the rivers like these artists have done, our water would be protected.