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<u>great</u> story !<br><br>
At 08:44 AM 9/18/2008, Tom Stokely wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font face="Verdana" size=2>I am
also on the Board of Directors of the California Water Impact
Network. <br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>Tom Stokely<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>latimes.com <br>
<a href="??">
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-lopez17-2008sep17,0,3496650,full.column</a>
</font><br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>>From the Los Angeles Times<br>
Cancer can't dim passion for a cause<br>
The energy and focus that helped Dorothy Green, 79, found Heal the Bay
remain with her as her health fails.<br>
Steve Lopez<br><br>
September 17, 2008<br><br>
Dorothy Green was trying to be polite, but the founder of Heal the Bay
made it quite clear that she wasn't terribly interested in talking about
the things I had come to discuss in her Westwood home.<br><br>
Death?<br><br>
"It's part of living," she said, flicking away the
question.<br><br>
Her legacy?<br><br>
"I don't look back, only forward."<br><br>
Her deteriorating condition?<br><br>
"It's interesting that cancer is what you want to talk
about."<br><br>
Now 79, Green has beaten her grim prognosis by years. But the melanoma
first diagnosed 30 years ago metastasized to the brain six years ago, and
she's now been told there's no way to stop the rapid spread of the
disease. She's in hospice-care now, a bit wobbly on her feet and wearing
a smart-looking cap to keep warm.<br><br>
"I hope it happens sooner than later," she said of her demise.
"It's so hard getting one thought put with another
now."<br><br>
You're not afraid?<br><br>
"I'm scared for the whole world, for the Earth. Not for
me."<br><br>
To those who know her, this is classic Dorothy.<br><br>
"She tells me we have to keep talking about these issues because
it's what keeps her alive -- her passion to do what's right for
California," said Carolee Krieger.<br><br>
Krieger and Green co-founded the California Water Impact Network, a
nonprofit devoted to educating Californians about what they see as
environmentally destructive water mismanagement in California, with
public officials caving to the desires of big agriculture.<br><br>
Though Green is clearly addled by painkillers and exhausted by her fight
with cancer, so much so that she often pauses mid-sentence to steal the
strength to continue, she immediately interrupted me when I mentioned
California's water shortage.<br><br>
"There is no water shortage," she said sharply.<br><br>
Not that anyone should run out and plant a 40-acre lawn, she cautioned.
We waste far too much water as it is.<br><br>
But there's no water hog like agriculture, she said.<br><br>
"Big agriculture uses 80% of the developed water in the state,"
she said, calling their conservation measures abysmal. "And almost
half the agriculture in the state is for low-value, water-intensive crops
like cotton, rice, alfalfa."<br><br>
The siphoning of such huge amounts of water for agriculture is destroying
the ecosystem in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, she argues. And
the boondoggle is made possible by the lackeys on the state Water
Resources Control Board.<br><br>
She gave the Gov. Schwarzenegger-appointed board members lousy grades for
their two main duties:<br><br>
Managing water supplies and managing water quality.<br><br>
But in Dorothy Green's book, they aren't the only culprits. More than
once during my visit, she blamed the media for not hammering away at the
story and helping light a fire under the aloof and detached general
public. As for the latter:<br><br>
"They turn on the tap and water comes out," she said, and
that's all the average Californian cares to know about water
issues.<br><br>
If she weren't still fighting the fight, Green told me, she doesn't know
what else she'd be doing.<br><br>
"This year, she had her spleen and kidney removed and showed up at
our board meeting five days later," said Mark Gold, executive
director of Heal the Bay. "She has been the most influential water
activist in California in the last 30 years."<br><br>
Green's life is a lesson in reinvention. All that activism lay dormant as
she raised a family with a husband who was in real estate.<br><br>
But after the kids were out of the house, she filled the void by
volunteering for one cause after another, beginning with programs related
to the needs of her own mentally challenged child.<br><br>
She later campaigned for Proposition 20, which led to the creation of the
California Coastal Commission. Her outrage over the lack of restrictions
on sewage treatment and discharge into the ocean led to community
organizing in her living room, followed by the creation of Heal the Bay
and the watershed councils for the San Gabriel and Los Angeles
rivers.<br><br>
I assumed a person of her background might choose to have her ashes
scattered over a bay she has helped heal. But Green shook her head,
calling herself more traditional than that.<br><br>
"Bury me in the soil," she said with a devil-may-care grin.
"Worms crawl in, worms crawl out."<br><br>
I asked Green if she thought it was easier to face death having made a
great contribution to society and knowing she's left a lasting
mark.<br><br>
That's not something she'd given much thought to, she said, as if such
rumination would be a waste of precious time.<br><br>
"It's been a good life. A very rewarding life," she
admitted.<br><br>
She regrets that she won't be around to see 3-year-old granddaughter Tara
grow up, and she regrets all the unfinished business. But she's not
finished just yet.<br><br>
She and Krieger were scheduled to meet today and strategize on
fundraising for California Water Impact Network. I promised Green I would
direct readers to the website, so they could educate themselves on the
issues she's so passionate about.<br><br>
So please, dear readers, take a look at
<a href="http://www.c-win.org/" eudora="autourl">www.C-Win.org</a>. Or
spend a few minutes at
<a href="http://www.healthebay.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.healthebay.org</a>.<br><br>
You might get angry; you might even get involved.<br><br>
And Dorothy Green's great legacy, in spite of her modesty, will only
grow.<br><br>
steve.lopez@latimes.com<br><br>
<br><br>
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives.<br>
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