Pat's birthday

Pat joined us in her wheelchair for our walk thru Omaha today - probably about 5 miles of it. We were delighted to sing our special Happy Birthday song to her.

End of March look

Lee - in the end of the March for the day pose. Zonked!

Warren Buffet's office

A security guard was all the attention we could get.

Crutches & roller skates

Moshe, our new Marcher & a Rabbinical student, hurt his foot walking in camp in the dark. But here he is anyway walking thru Omaha.

Dana Greenhouse Gashes McGuire is mother of the two little girls from Missouri that have been with us for a week or so. Sadly, they are heading home soon, but daddy Gavin and his vegetable oil fueled truck are staying. Dana participates competitively in the roller derby, and skated across Omaha with is today.

Maureen & grand kids

Maureen McCue of Oxford, and activist with Physicians for Social Responsibility joined us for 2 days in Omaha. We enjoy the boost we get from new Marchers, even for a few hours or days.
Thanks Maureen!

Dawn at Pawnee Lake

Time to prep breakfast (5am) and pack up to march to Lincoln

Sunken Garden - Lincoln, NE

Sunken Garden - Lincoln

Sightseeing for a few hours waiting for rally at 4pm at Capitol.

Nebraska

We are camped in Seward, NE tonight at a lovely park on the edge of town. Two days from now we'll be in Lincoln and stay in people's homes to shower, do laundry, and take care of personal biz as well as attend a rally at the Capitol and other events. Always so much to be done. I need to replace my (new at the start of the March) tent because the zippers are giving out. Today is day 145 of the March, I think. That's a lot of wear and tear on me and my tent!

Other notable Nebraska challenges:
- Poison ivy (two really bad cases)
- Chiggers
- Mosquitoes, biting flies, ticks, etc
- heat and humidity which really zap us walking 15 - 20 miles per day
- storms, hail, and threats of tornadoes
- endless miles of corn and soybeans - totally monoculture and GMO agriculture, although an organic farmer marched with us for a few days
- CAFO's (confined animal feeding operations) which are Inhumane and unhealthy for animals and consumers and stink like crazy.

On the bright side, Nebraskans have been very welcoming and hospitable. We have received and will receive 300 pies as we cross the state!

Our financial situation remains very tight, but we are still making our way. I have walked here every step from the Port of LA, and am in good shape. Have had a couple of days of extreme exhaustion due to heat, but have made it ok. We look after one another beautifully.

Looking forward to crossing into Iowa across the Missouri River at Council Bluffs on 7/31. Expect to be in Iowa City on 8/20.

Sent from my iPhone

Zero carbon footprint

Our young folks are acquiring these carts to push their gear as they walk each day. Their goal is to get rid of our support vehicles (especially our gear truck) and have us all push a cart on order to model what we preach. My position is to support their efforts, but I came because I wouldn't have to haul my own gear which is 2 large, heavy bags. The split between young and older on this issue continues, but it is respectful and manageable. We will no doubt live with it all the way.

Arriving at Energy Barn

Our focus in Nebraska has been on the transport of fossil fuels by train and pipeline. This is a Px of our marchers with about 40 local folks who marched with us in rural Bradshaw, NE, to Bold Nebraska's energy barn which I helped build last year in the path of the proposed KXL pipeline. It was great to revisit the barn and bear witness to the strong movement that has grown around it. Please lend your voices to stop this pipeline which has become the climate change poster child for halting the huge push by fossil fuel corporations to get as much dirty tar sands muck shipped from Canada across the US to refineries on the TX coast to ship overseas. Generations of family farms are being grabbed by "eminent domain" by a foreign country in the name of corporate profits, threatening the Ogalalla aquifer and risking dirty oil spills that the oil companies have no clue how to clean up. NO KXL in Nebraska! And now another pipeline is being proposed through Iowa. Please join the fight to keep this dirty oil in the ground to avert additional carbon pollution (ie: global warming) and risks to our land and water.

Poppy and Tilly

Our youngest marcher is now Tilly, age 3. Her sister,Poppy, is 8, and both are delightful! Their dad, Gavin, brought his veggie oil fueled truck to pull our break truck. Mom/wife Dana, will join us soon. YAY!

Vegetable oil burning truck

Our latest "green" technology: a family from Missouri joined us with their vegetable oil fueled truck to pull our Eco-commodes (also known as "poopmobile"). We sent the previous pickup truck home to KY. On this amazing journey, things are always changing!

Shave the Planet fundraiser

Our dear Mary from Tucson is under Marie's razor, the 5th person to shave their heads as part of our fundraiser. She says it's "freeing." My offer to shave mine is out there if someone donates $10,000. I figure I'm safe, but who knows!

Shave the planet

Marchers have signed up to shave their heads when certain fundraising goals are met. Here's my good buddy Jane from NYC who had hers shaved this morning. (I haven't signed up, but if someone donates $10,000, I will do it!)

Planting Peace Tree

We participated in a Peace ceremony last night at the Lutheran church where we camped. The man in the middle, Brian, is a member of the congregation who used to be minister at another church till he was"defrocked" for being gay. This church is the only welcoming church in Grand Island, and were delighted to have us camp on their lawn and use their kitchen. I saw Brian earlier at a Democratic platform committee meeting a couple of us attended. I'm hoping we were influential in our promotion of a stronger environmental protection plank. We marched 22-1/2 miles today - longest day to date - and are camped at an "Art Farm" where people come from all over to do their art for the summer. Several of them joined us for dinner. Wish I'd had more time to look around at some of the art installations. A very neat place.
Very short day tomorrow (6 mi) as we march to Bradshaw to the Bold Nebraska energy barn for a series of events. We're very excited about this collaboration. NO KXL Pipeline!

Comments from section marcher

Kudos to the Great March for Climate Action!

These people are my friends, and my heroes. Great people doing a Great thing...a Great March...all the way across the United States...for Climate Action. Tough people, making a point.

I spent three weeks with the March recently. It was a profound time in my life. Relentlessly making our way across whatever terrain lay ahead. I was merely part of the support crew, helping these dedicated individuals make a point through the shear magnitude of their effort. Marching, waving, carrying signs, mile after mile, state after state. Participating. Doing something. Action!

Involved is how I felt. I felt involved in the Action. It was a good feeling and I still feel part of it. I recommend it! Get involved yourself and feel the feeling of being involved in Climate Action.

March, help the marchers, support the marchers and the Great March for Climate Action!

CB Genrich, Climate Marcher

TV spot in Grand Island

Date: July 16, 2014>
Subject: TV spot in Grand Island

http://bit.ly/NTV15July

High Road from Santa Fe to Taos

Just received this great Px from CB, a retired engineer who was with us for 3 weeks. I'm also going to post a message he sent us yesterday that he put on his blog.

Next Sat at Bold NE energy barn

We are excited to be participating in this event - 100Grannies, you also helped build it along with local CCL folks.

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Mark Hefflinger, Bold Nebraska" <mark@boldnebraska.org>
Date: July 13, 2014 at 7:31:20 AM CDT
To: "Miriam Kashia" <mkashia43@yahoo.com>
Subject: Next Saturday: March for Climate Action
Reply-To: "Mark Hefflinger, Bold Nebraska" <mark@boldnebraska.org>

Join the Great March for Climate Action on Saturday, July 19. 

Miriam --

On next Saturday, July 19, a determined group of concerned citizens in the midst of a 3,000-mile cross-country march to raise awareness about climate change will set off from an historic church in Marquette, Nebraska in the morning, and walk 10 miles through picturesque farmland to the renewable energy-powered barn near the town of Bradshaw that Bold Nebraska built last summer on land in the path of the Keystone XL pipeline. 

Sign up to join the marchers for a 10-mile (or 1-mile!) walk.

The marchers have met folks all across Nebraska, engaging in conversations about climate along the way. They stopped for a bite at the Haigler Country Cafe; marched in the Culbertson 4th of July parade; held a vigil in McCook for the 47 people who died last year in the oil train explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec; hosted a potluck dinner and community climate conversation in Holdrege; demonstrated their solar cooking ovens to a TV news crew in Axtell; and collected signatures in Kearney for a petition calling for public disclosure of dangers from oil trains and pipelines. 

Saturday, July 19: Climate March Visits the 'Build Our Energy' Barn

• 8:30 AM: Participants in 10-mile walk arrive at barn for shuttle to church
• 9:00 AM: 10-mile march from St. John's Church to the barn begins
• 12-1 PM: Participants in 1-mile walk arrive at the barn, walk to 1-mile marker
• 1:00 PM: Marchers set off on final 1-mile stretch of walk
• 1:30 PM: All marchers arrive at the barn 
• 2:00 PM: Activities at barn: painting #NoKXL billboards for landowners in the route
• 3:00 PM: Dedication of Nebraskans for Peace "Peace Park" at the barn
• 4:00 PM: Raising of "No Permit, No Pipeline" flag at the barn
• 5:00 PM: Community meal (food truck, veggie/vegan options available!)
• 6:00 PM: Speakers including Senate candidate Dave Domina, Bold Nebraska director Jane Kleeb, climate marchers
• SUNSET: Exclusive outdoor screening of Keystone XL documentary "Above All Else," featuring an introduction and Q&A with Texas landowner Julia Trigg Crawford, who appears in the film and fought eminent domain and KXL all the way to Texas Supreme Court

RSVP to attend the outdoor screening of KXL documentary "Above All Else."

Along with Julia Trigg Crawford, we are also excited to be joined at the barn next Saturday by U.S. Senate candidate Dave Domina, also the lead attorney representing landowners fighting Keystone XL at the Nebraska Supreme Court. 

The afternoon at the barn will include family-friendly fun activities, including the chance to help paint some new #NoKXL billboards that will be placed with landowners inside the pipeline route — and then photographed and turned into postcards to send to Pres. Obama and Sec. Kerry. 

Click here for directions to the barn, and sign up to join us next Saturday.

We're excited to welcome the climate marchers to the solar-powered barn for a fun-filled day that will see farmers and ranchers join climate change advocates, to highlight the science that tells us why President Obama must reject the Keystone XL pipeline.

Look forward to seeing you next Saturday!

Mark Hefflinger and the Bold Nebraska team

P.S. Chip in $10 now to support Bold Nebraska's work. 

---

@BoldNebraska on Twitter
Bold Nebraska on Facebook

Bold Nebraska
208 S. Burlington Ave. Ste. 103, Box 325
Hastings, NE 68901 US

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Nebraska farmer

This couple drove 160 miles to meet with us and tell us about the duplicitous practice of TransCanada who are trying to build the KXL Pipeline through their farm. Never before activists, these folks have joined with their neighbors to fight the takeover of their family farms by a foreign corp by eminent domain. They have been threatened with lawsuits if they don't sign the agreements. They are passionate and articulate fighters, and say they will help Iowans fight the new proposed pipeline across Iowa. Organize now, everybody, so people don't get sucked in by the lies or intimidated by the threats. We will be in Bradshaw,NE in a week to help bring more attention to the fight here. It will be a "homecoming" for me, as I helped build the 'energy barn' on the path of the pipeline last fall. This gentleman told us how very important it is that we are doing what we are doing.

Newest romance

Bereniece and Ben in Ben's sleeping hammock.

Contrasts

Interesting contrast: our high powered solar generator in front of old preserved log cabin in park where we stayed recently in SW Nebraska.
(You will notice that I suffer from "Marcher Mush Mind" - a severe malady that seems to infect all of us. It's very hard to keep track of places when we move every day!

Week of stopping oil by RR

We are helping to track these oil cars - how many and where - to help with transparency of RR and oil companies. These insignias with number 1276, indicate highly inflammable oil contents that are not being disclosed to the communities they are shipped through. Our recent "direct action" memorial in McCook, NE, was for 47 people killed in Quebec one year ago when a train carrying this fuel derailed and exploded. Fossil fuels need to be kept in the ground - before it is too late to turn our climate crisis around.

Ben

Our Ben can fall asleep in an instant - anytime and anywhere.

Solar pumps

We had a delightful break at a farm home the other day. The 16 yr old daughter and dad built these solar pumps - for pumping water. We continue to have good conversations and interactions all along our path.

Fwd: Sunrise Holbrook

It's amazing to see the sunrise and sunset every day. This greeted us at 6am on our way out of Holbrook,  NE

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: liz laffertty <lizzilaffnow@gmail.com>
Date: July 8, 2014 at 6:22:15 AM CDT
To: mkashia43@yahoo.com
Subject: Sunrise Holbrook

McCook Gazette: Local News: Climate marchers hold vigil at depot (07/07/14)

http://www.mccookgazette.com/story/2098399.html


I hope you can open this ok. It was a very moving memorial and a powerful action. Miri

Sent from my iPhone

Creekwater

Creekwater left us today after being part of this community for most of 3 months. A hard worker, he loved the March and community, but struggled with anger issues and alcohol. He got his nickname because he was a proponent of drinking out of running water (creeks) wherever he found it. A huge challenge to our community in many ways, he has endearing traits as well, and offered us many opportunities to observe our own buttons being pushed. Perhaps he will reappear in Sept in PA. He has walked across the US many times, and lives by his wits and dumpster diving.
Have a good road, Creekwater!

Memorial at RR station

Burlington Northern Santa Fe RR

Taken at the train station in McCook, NE as we participated in a direct action memorial for 47 people killed in Quebec a year ago today when the train derailed and the highly explosive oil exploded. We sat in the lobby and named those killed and rang a bell for each person - men, women, and children. Very powerful. I'll post the video when it's ready. We are participating in the "North American week to stop transport of oil by rail." Feels like things are heating up - literally and figuratively. Glad to be here at this momentous time in history.
For the Earth,
Miriam

Walked almost 20 mi today in temps up to 99 and very high humidity. Sleeping in a/c Barclay, NE Community
Center tonight. Over 100 tomorrow and another long march. Brutal!

Mayor of Culbertson NE

Ramona came to earn us of impending storm. Big scramble to protect vehicles from hail and move Marchers into church. Storm wasn't too bad, and Culbertson had their fireworks.

1941 John Deer tractor

My phone quit taking Px, but I did get this old tractor. Candy and water balloons flying around. Kids (old and young) loved it.

Parade - library float

4th of July Parade

Happy 4th! We are taking a stay day in Culbertson, NE, and participated in a great old-fashioned small town parade. Estimated 2,000 folks lining the streets with all kinds of floats and participants. A real hoot! Fireworks tonight and back on the March tomorrow. Staying at Methodist church, so I feel right at home. Time for a swim this afternoon. All good!

CO-NE border

Celebrating the border crossing and the 1/2 way point of the March. I have walked approx 3,500,000 steps!