Terry Tempest Williams sends dispatches from an election-season tour 0

A Phase of Rebuilding

Wednesday, 13 Oct 2004

in the air

Out of my plane window, I see Mount St. Helens. She is fuming, a plume of steam is rising. Rainier, Adams, Baker, Hood -- all snow-capped mountains, volcanoes, that appear cold -- against her heat.

Today in The Oregonian: "After 2 1/2 weeks of rock-bending, steam-spitting exertion, magma finally punched through a bulge in the crater of Mount St. Helens, leaving a finlike protrusion of pink-gray lava more than 60 feet tall and up to 165 feet long. It marks the first time the volcano erupted lava in 18 years and is tangible evidence the mountain has entered a phase of rebuilding."

***

9:00 p.m. Mountain Time. Home.

Presidential debate. Not one word about the environment. Not one word from Kerry or Bush. What will it take for this conversation to enter our daily discourse?

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