Wanda died this morning.

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For visitors from the AR2008 Links page, I met Wanda when we car-pooled & split a room at AR2002. She was involved with Animals & Society (formerly PSYETA), and a member of the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals & the Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare. She joined me in 2003 in Minneapolis, where we had a booth at our Church’s General Convention for 10 days, the year they passed Resolution D016. And on this page is a good blurb about her long-time involvement with Animal Law. She was an abolitionist at heart, and always an encouragement to me.

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Here’s her obituary….

Wanda A. Nash

Wanda A. Nash Marshall Wanda A. Nash, 65, of Marshall, passed away Thursday, May 8, 2008 at her home. She was born in Kalamazoo on March 1, 1943 to Frank and Wanda (Ziolkowski) Mendocha. She graduated from Nazareth Academy High School in Kalamazoo, received her BA in pre-law from Western Michigan University, and a Juris Doctorate degree from Cooley Law School in 1986. She was the first female bailiff to serve in Kalamazoo County, worked for the Kalamazoo Community Action Agency, was a welfare worker for the Department of Social Services, a clerk and Assistant Prosecutor for the Calhoun County Prosecutor’s Office, served 5 years as Legislative Assistant to State Representative Bill Martin, taught some courses at Kellogg Community College, and was in private practice in family and animal law and mediation. She was active in animal welfare groups for 40 years including the Calhoun Area Humane Society, the Michigan Federation of Humane Societies, Committee to Amend the Dog Law, and many other organizations. She started a new organization in Michigan named Attorneys for Animals, and the Animal Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. She also served as the first chair and on the national board of the Animals and Society Institute. She published 3 books: the Michigan Animal Law Handbook, Animal Rescue Sourcebook, and the Field Guide to Animal Care and Control, and wrote a weekly column for the Marshall Chronicle. In 2006 the Animal Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan created the Wanda Nash Award in her honor. This award is given to a student in one of Michigan’s law schools each year for outstanding involvement in animal welfare and protection issues. Wanda was also active in Trinity Episcopal Church for 34 years, and at various times with the Battle Creek Boy Choir, RESOLVE of Calhoun County, Adoption Cradle, Guardian Inc., and the Marshall Exchange Club. Surviving her are her husband, James Nash of Marshall, whom she married in 1965; three children, Will “Dusty” Nash of Marshall, Wendy Nash of Marshall, and Aaron Nash of Phoenix, Arizona; 7 grandchildren; her mother, Wanda Mendocha of Vicksburg; sisters, Carol Pollari of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Sally Mendocha of Vicksburg; and brothers, Jack Mendocha of Battle Creek and James Mendocha of Fulton. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Marshall, Saturday, May 17th at 11:00 a.m. with Rector Leonard Brinkmoeller officiating. Visitation with the family will follow the service at the church until 2:30 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to Attorneys for Animals or the Animals and Society Institute through a member of the family. Condolences may be offered to the family at: www.pursefuneralhome.com

“Why Bother?” was one of two interesting articles sent out in an Episcopal Ecological Network e-newsletter a few days ago. (Both articles actually mentioned meat in a negative way, which was a first.) I wanted to post a link to the “Why Bother?” article, because, as I said to my listserv, “I enjoyed reading the first article by Michael Pollan, in general, but particularly because I’m doing what his article suggests, even for some of the same reasons. How timely. I also share his view on our dependence on ’specialists’ to do things for us, and on changing our light bulbs, and carbon offsets as Indulgences (my word, not his).”

One of the things he suggests, is that we grow our own food (as space permits). And that seems timely, especially with all the media coverage about skyrocketting food costs. Why not defray the cost? Why not grow something organic, so you can save some money? He mentioned that people with Victory Gardens during World War II raised 40% of the food grown in this country. If we did that again, it would take a chunk out of our grocery budget, and it would make us less dependent on imported food from China. Hey! In my part of the country, the planting season begins on May 15th! Wherever you live, you still have time to stop complaining, and “do something about high food prices”. This is exactly the time to “take action” — even if it’s in container garden on your balcony, or an herb garden in your kitchen window! Organize with friends & neighbors, to grow different things, and have a food exchange. (I couldn’t get more than one person at church interested in doing this, so I’m bringing my message to the world.) Beat the system. What you save on growing your own food can go toward filling up your gas tank. Or, are milk, eggs and meat getting too expensive? Soon it will be a bargain to switch to soy/rice/almond/oat milk, Egg Replacer for baking (or tofu for tofu scramble) and vegan meat substitutes. Go vegan, and save more than your money. Save lives! I can’t think of a better time to make the switch.

(The other article was very different. It was sort of pro-humanitarian, while being pro-chemical fertilizers — almost to the point that I wondered if the author holds stock in some fertilizer company. It exposed a huge Catch 22 in the way people live their lives. But interestingly, it “credits” chemical fertilizers for the rise in meat consumption in developing countries. Read it here: “Shortages Threaten Farmers’ Key Tool: Fertilizer”

My son made some website banners for ENAW, which he sent me today. These are all .gif files.

If you have a personal or a church website, and would like to link to ENAW’s site, drag the banner you like best to your desktop, and save it, add it as a picture on your site, then link to ENAW’s site with whatever code you use to add a link. (I can’t show what I type to do this, because the code won’t show up here. You’ll just see what you see below. So it’s up to webmasters to know the code to use for adding a link.)

The URL is http://www.enaw.org.

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(Today’s post bumped my Earth Hour afterthoughts, and some links/excerpts from Michael Bluejay’s website from the home page.)