By Suzanne Maxx
“To the hard working men and women of the EPA it is a new day, it’s a new day,” proclaimed Michelle Obama. “The Obama EPA is on the job. It’s a new day!” she exclaimed, “and the truth is we can’t wait one more minute with the recently signed Recovery Package”, and she continued to inspire with her speech. The First Lady describes her first most important job as being a “Mom”. I asked my Mom to watch this as she had worked at the EPA for many years and had left the federal government during another adminstration:
Video of Michelle Obama to EPA
She was moved to tears, and regained hope… It is a relief to know that energy and the environment are being championed with bold new policies and decisions, and for the affirmation that science will be at the heart of environmental policy.
Michelle’s prioritization about the importance of the environment for this administration, left few dry eyes in the audience, now coming out from the dark into a bright light, and very eager to see. It is comforting to actually hear, “You have partners in the White House who believe and support you,” those words are powerful, coming from the First Lady and a Mom.
As a child growing up our normal dinner table conversations about PCB’s, super fund clean up sites, hazardous wastes, water contamination, aquifers, floods, hurriacanes, and other natural and man-made disasters were the side effects of two parents passionate about their work in public service for the then fledgling US Federal Government Agencies: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They both met working together at the Army Corps of Engineers. My Mom remained at EPA working as an environmental scientist for Region 2 in water supply for almost two decades.
Tom Maynard, my Step- Father worked at HUD as an urban planner, and the start-up, FEMA. His presence is deeply missed now since is passing. Tom served as a board member for World Team Now, our non-profit then named, Team World Corps. His respected skills as an urban planner and in his later years as a private consultant, allowed him to win many government grants, and he had planned to attain grants for us. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado chapter of the American Planning Association posthumously. With all the opportunities, and challenges World Team faces with our green building projects now, Tom is deeply missed.
This is the foundation our non-profit organization World Team Now is founded on, and I’m thankful for these two parents who I admire and respect for their choices respectively to serve the public, and my chance to grow up, and be exposed to this environment.
http://www.epa.gov/
