Just say no

I did some math this morning. I've lived in four countries, and traveled to another sixteen in the course of touring to sing.

So I was surprised to recognize that I actually do have roots of a kind. New York State, the huge, varied, beautiful Empire State, has been my home on and off and on again, for more than two-thirds of my life (golly! fractions!). I've lived in the poorest county in the state, Bronx County, and in Westchester, the wealthiest. I've spent a dozen years in crowded Manhattan (New York County, so it's actually New York, New York, NY) and just as many up in the Adirondacks in Warren and  in Hamilton, the least populated county east of the Mississippi.

Europe is unmatched for beauty made by human hands. But the land here, with its rock-sinewed mountains and luxurious green hills, deep woods and bright beaches, the Hudson River that starts as a northern stream and flows south some three hundred miles to empty into a bay that is one of the great harbors of the world, is as beautiful as any place I have ever been. There is even a prairie growing in Brooklyn!

This is why I am against fracking. So much is at stake, and the only folks who are saying it is a safe practice are the ones who will, directly or indirectly, make a lot of money from it.

There are opinions on all sides of the issue, and you will have no difficulty finding things to read online. But if your mind and heart incline, as mine do, toward banning fracking in New York State, now is the  time to write to Governor Andrew Cuomo to tell him so.