running the USA - Running The Country

Long past midnight, hanging out with Dad, I’m taking a few moments to reflect upon the summer. Kris, kids, and I were living on auto-pilot in July, when we got news that Dad was sick—life and death sick.

We flew to Utah to spend what we believed might be our final moments with Dad. Gratefully, he’s hanging on. It’s now mid-September. Dad’s still kicking, even if it’s not like he used to. Last fall, Dad dug 700 pounds of his own potatoes. Yesterday, hooked up to his portable oxygen tank, he dug three plants before falling on his butt.

Kids don’t want to see their parents slow down and move on. We certainly wouldn’t wish on anyone the suffering that Dad is experiencing. But Dad’s illness has drawn our family closer together—both physically and closer as a family. We now share the blessing of being with Mom and Dad virtually 24/7, seven days a week.

Being in Utah has added a new dimension to our training for our transcon run. David trained hard with Rob’s high school cross-country team before returning to Sitka. I enjoyed running some trails with Rob’s team, but lately, to save time, I’ve taken to pounding the pavement and the mosquitos near Rob and Stacy’s house. After running Sitka’s forest trails for the past decade, running on Utah’s straight roads, mile after mile, ain’t much fun by comparison. But my lungs are strong and I’m not falling on my butt, for which I am most grateful.

Yesterday afternoon, I grabbed hold of Rob’s bike and a few spare hours, and I pedaled out to Buffalo Point on Antelope Island. I loved pedaling to the Island with my brothers and friends as a kid, I loved pedaling there (or almost there) last week with Erika and Russell, and I love it still today. Like life, the Island is buggy, stinky, pristine, amazing, and wild.

All in all, life is short. But that’s all right. Today is the day I’m living. It’s all I’ve got. It’s all any of us have. Paraphrasing Ekhart Tolle: everything that has ever happened, happened in the Now. I’m grateful for today, grateful to be with Mom and Dad now, grateful for warm air in the day and cool air at night. Grateful for sunrises and sunsets, beginnings and ends. Grateful for endless fresh dug potatoes, corn, peaches, and endless tomatoes. Grateful to so many people who enrich my life.

Grateful for Kris and our kids.

It’s 2 am. Dad’s asleep again . . . for now. Not a bad idea. Good-night, all.

Thanks to Ed Ronco of KCAW for recording, editing, and playing the following Commentary on the radio.

I’m Brett Wilcox. My son, David, and I will run across America in 2014 to raise awareness of genetically modified organisms.

When I tell people about Monsanto and genetically modified foods or GMOs, the most common response I hear is, “What’s Monsanto?” and “What are genetically modified foods?”

These are good and important questions to which I’d like to add one more. “Do Monsanto and genetically modified foods matter to the city and the people of Sitka?

Monsanto is a multinational corporation based in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to the year 2000, Monsanto was best known for its production of PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange, products Monsanto declared safe long after their own employees’ ill health and premature deaths proved otherwise.

In an attempt to clean up their image, Monsanto now declares itself to be dedicated solely to agriculture. To you and me, agriculture means food. To Monsanto, agriculture means profit, profit Monsanto achieves through sales of pesticides and genetically engineered seeds.

Monsanto and other biotech companies make genetically modified seeds by forcing the genes of unrelated species—most often bacteria and food plants—together through crude and imprecise methods. U.S. law allows these unnatural creations to be patented.

Monsanto licenses its patented seeds to farmers the same way software companies license software to computer users. If farmers save and replant licensed seeds the way they’ve done for thousands of years with natural seeds, Monsanto sues these farmers and wins in court.

So what! Why should Sitkans care about farmers, lawsuits, pesticides and GMOs? Here are 5 good reasons.

1. GMOs have resulted in increased use of pesticides. Pesticides are poisons. Farmers wear hazmat suits when they spray the poisons on the plants you feed your kids. Pesticide poisoning results in serious medical issues including infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and various cancers.

2. The process of genetic modification produces massive collateral damage to the plant cells, which results in unpredictable and potentially lethal results. 1,500 people developed serious illnesses and 37 died in 1989 after ingesting the genetically modified food supplement, L-Tryptophan.

3. Key Monsanto and government personnel routinely swap offices passing through what is known as the revolving door. Naturally, this makes our government pro-biotech. A pro-biotech government is far more likely to approve genetically modified salmon than a pro-citizen government. Salmon is the first of many animal species the biotech industry plans to genetically modify.

4. Pesticides and GMOs kill bees. The EPA approves bee-killing pesticides banned in the EU. Einstein said, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”

5. Most of us eat GMOs and we don’t know it because our pro-biotech government refuses to label GMOs, even though GMOs are labeled or banned outright in over 60 countries, including China.

Monsanto and GMOs may be one of the most important concerns facing Sitka, the USA, and the entire world. Sitkans are meeting on May 17th and 24th at Centennial Hall at 7 pm, to learn more about Monsanto. And Sitkans will meet on Castle Hill, May 25th, at 2:00 pm to participate with over 300 other cities in a global March Against Monsanto.