Print this page
Email this pageKaren Monahan
Clean Air Is:
I'm here because:
Our health is not for sale. It is a human right that every child, parent, grandparent has the right to clean air, safe water, healthy food and an overall nurturing environment.
Clean Air Ambassador:
Karen Monahan
Minneapolis, Minnesota
My son and many of the local neighborhood kids have asthma and other health related issues due to the environment they have lived in.
I was never informed about the effects the environment could have on one's health. We lived in apartments, and my kid's playground was the parking lot where cars idled, which also happened to be right next to the highway. It wasn't that I didn't care about my kids. I just didn't know the effects it could have on them. I thought I was doing well by taking them outside, getting them away from the TV and exercising. I didn't have a car at that time and there was no public transit to commute to a nice park with lots of greenery. It was a Catch-22: keep them inside or pollute their lungs.
I was in school with the hopes and dreams of becoming a school teacher at some point. I wanted to teach in the inner-city and I wanted to learn about the community that I would be teaching in, so I took a class about development in the inner city. Congressman Keith Ellison, who was a state representative at the time, spoke to the class about environmental justice issues. He discussed lead, mercury and other contaminants I had never heard of. I asked how they affected kids and their learning. I wanted to know and understand more and that is when I began volunteering with a group called Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota.
I feel we leave so many folks out of the conversation because they just don't know how air pollution affects them. We speak in a language that is often technical and leaves folks feeling inadequate to be at the table. But folks can understand asthma, cancer, health care, education, etc.
To save lives, we must connect in an authentic way and meet folks where they are. Our health is not for sale. It is a human right that every child, parent, grandparent has the right to clean air, safe water, healthy food and an overall nurturing environment.
What would Dr. King say about the assault on our health by dirty polluters and bought- off lawmakers? I think he would be on the front lines with us singing "We shall overcome." Dr. King never said "I have a complaint." He said "I have a dream."
It is time for us to dream big! Together we can change the world.
Citizens, please join our efforts to get wood burning regulated in Minnesota, in all other states and in Canada.
To connect with others and/or sign up for the Wood Smoke Activist Network online newsletter, please contact us at:
info@takebacktheair.com
or
s.brandie@sympatico.ca
We're all smokers now. The pollution in our community is not just caused by autos and trucks and businesses. The amount of wood smoke I've noticed in our community in the last 5 years is alarming and is due to the recreational backyard fires that are allowed and the wood burning restaurants that are currently popular. But, "google" the dangers of wood smoke and you will learn of the dangers in the smoke you are breathing. Wood smoke contains legions of the same toxins as tobacco smoke, in addition to fine particulate matter, and stays in our bodies 40X longer than tobacco smoke. For your health and the health of your family, friends, and neighbors, please don't burn.
You are absolutely right! No amount of jobs, money, business, can replace what polluted air takes away - our health.
Good luck and more power to you!
Go, Karen! Kepp on kicking their butt!
Thanks or the efforts, Karen... every little bit we do helps! :)
We exercise in the city. Our grandchildren exercise in the cities. Thanks for your work.
It is time Minnesota!
I support you and Thank You for what you are doing for all of us.
Thank you so much for your efforts. I am so proud to have individuals like you as my fellow Minnesotans.
Tell them your story and let them know we are with you.
Let's keep our air clean! With all of available "Green" technologies, we can keep not only our air clean but our environment clean for generations to come.
Thank you so much for your efforts.
thank you!
Thank you for your courage and your determination.
I support your efforts as an advocate for a healthy environment.
Thank you!
I wish that I could go to Washington to let the legislators know how I feel about the government allowing polluters to keep doing the same thing but I cannot.
Thank you for representing me!
Thanks for being a leader
Thank you!
Right on, dream on, fight on. Thank you!
Thank you for working to benefit everyone. Your work for the greater good is much appreciated.
You are so right about the effect of pollution and the catch-22 of trying to get outside for exercise and then wind up dealing with horrible air. I just went on a long bike ride on a trail along the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers from South Minneapolis to and around St. Paul and I could not believe how putrid the air was! When I got home I was coughing and it felt like smoke in my lungs. Its an old, sad story but we are ruining our environment and causing massive health problems by allowing companies to pollute the way they do. Thank you so much for taking up this cause!
Thanks for representing us Karen! Please remind Amy Klobuchar that the Clean Air Act is a good thing. Safe travels!
Please keep up the fight to stop the assault on environmental regulation. Thanks
Thank you for your efforts, we need more people like you!
Thank you so much, I've worked with kids all my life and have known many with breathing problems, hopefully the work you do will help ease their problem, and the concerns of their families.
Thank you for fighting to keep our planet clean and safe. Too many times products are used that are later found to be unhealthy. I have a brother very sick from Agent Orange use in Viet Nam and a cousin already dead from it. Thats a big one, but there are so many every day hazards that we can do something about.
Thank your for your hard work
My kids and their future kids thank you.
Thank YOU so very much!
Thanks for all you do
Thanks for for fighting for our air. Your planet and people thank you.
Thank you!!
Keep up the good work! Thank you for fighting for clean air.
Great ! Keep up the fight. God bless you and your supporters. May God find a way to open the eyes of those who disagree.
Thank you for working to keep clean air and water, and healthy food at the forefront.
Hello there,
I wish you the best of luck on your work and the great cause that you are doing. Keep it up. Thank you.
Kepp working for our planet and the people!! THANK YOU!
I can't believe anyone would sell my right to breathe, drink water and live for a couple of extra dollars in their wallet.
Clean air, like clean water, is not debatable, not negotiable.
It's also good business.
Thanks, Karen, for defending our right to breathe clean air!
Post new comment