It was the President himself who reminded us what our children and their children will ask: “Did we do all that we could when we had the chance to deal with this problem [the climate crisis]?” Imagine yourself asking  a “social psychiatrist” to diagnose these symptoms: 1. We now know that the burning of oil in stupendous amounts is heating the earth. 2. This heating has created a number of catastrophes, including unheard-of droughts, monsoon rains, super-typhoons and hurricanes –- and the melting of huge areas of Arctic ice. 3. As the Arctic ice melts, seacoast cities like New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, New Orleans, Tel Aviv  are threatened by rising sea levels that turn normal storms into floods, like Superstorm Sandy. 4. With the ice melted, large areas of the Arctic are now bare ground, and some say there may be oil deposits underneath. 5. We have a choice: We can say, “Bad mistake to heat our earth and melt that ice! Let’s follow a new path to supply the need for energy!” OR We can say, “New land is now available where that ice was. Let’s drill for still more oil to burn to heat our planet even more!” 6. Shell Oil has chosen the second response: using disaster to repeat and worsen the very practice that led to the disaster. 7. To me, this seems like suicidal insanity. For the “corporate body” that is Shell, it means more profits and more political power to keep anyone from lessening its profits by protecting Mother Earth and all her human children. For the human beings who make up Shell and for all the rest of us, it means worse disasters. 8. In the United States, when suicidal insanity not of individuals but of our society as a whole roars aloud its dangers, our President is delegated to be the “Social Psychiatrist in Chief.” 9. In fact, by law the President can decide whether Shell’s desire to make more profits by burning the planet is a worthy path, or sheer insanity. 10. President Obama can reject Shell’s final permit to drill in the Arctic and keep dangerous fossil fuels in the ground where they belong. Doing so would help secure his legacy as a climate leader and get the world one step closer to stopping runaway climate chaos. Presidents can make the decision – but their choices depend on what We the People do. We can insist that he refuse the permit. The time is short!  To make a difference, we urge you to take the following steps:  Call the White House public-opinion telephone line, 202-456-1111,  between 9 am and 5 pm today and leave a Message: “Mr. President, I am _____. I live in [New York, Ohio, Florida -- your own state].  I admire your efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and heal our Earth from climate chaos.  I strongly urge you to reinforce your climate leadership by rejecting any permit to drill for oil in the Arctic –-  including Shell Oil’s application that is on your desk right now. “ Once you have done that, please write a similar message, with any additional thoughts you want to share, to: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments And then  --  please make it possible for us to keep doing this work by clicking on the “Donate” button just below. Thanks, on behalf of human communities around the world, Mother Earth herself, and the Holy ONE Who is the Breath of Life: YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh