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Thursday November 15, 2007

A wish list for Thanksgiving

After a wayward tanker rammed the Bay Bridge last week, dumping 58,000 gallons of toxic bunker oil into the bay, we watched helplessly as a slow-motion environmental disaster unfolded.

The sights — oil-drenched birds dying on the shores and hazmat teams mopping up Stinson, Ocean and Rodeo beaches — sicken all of us who love the Bay Area.

This is our home, a home we share with the region’s teeming wildlife. To see our pristine waters befouled breaks our collective hearts.

The oil spill pointedly reminds us of the fragility of life. Our industrial society attempts accommodation with the natural world around us. Most of the time, the truce appears to hold.

Occasionally, as with the accident here or with the even more catastrophic oil spill in the Black Sea last week, things fall apart.

Jewish tradition has long acknowledged humanity’s responsibility to the natural world. In Deuteronomy, our Torah spells out the concept of ba’al tashchit –– “do not destroy” –– as a guiding principle for when it comes to caring for the environment.

As Thanksgiving approaches, our thoughts instinctively turn to family, to tradition, to the joys of life. This week’s cover story is all about connecting with one’s Jewish roots. Nobody wants to dwell on calamity and sorrow with such a happy holiday around the corner.

Yet as we gather to celebrate, how can we not ponder the significance of this tragedy?

In the case of the spill, there is little most of us can do now. Few of us have the skills to rescue and clean the poisoned birds. Who can save the countless doomed fish or salvage the Dungeness crab season? Who can turn back time and set the tanker on the proper course?

But we can lobby harder for stricter regulations that protect our environment. We can contribute more to those organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish, working to repair the world.

That world remains a scary place. In some ways, it’s scarier than ever. But as our cover story shows, some things are bigger than our tragedies, bigger than our fears.

Here is a wish list for our readers on this Thanksgiving: Hold your friends and family a little closer. Express your love and gratitude for the blessings you do enjoy. After all, that’s what the holiday is all about.

And let us pray for the bay, pray for the Jewish people, pray for peace.

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