Monday, October 4, 2010

Monarchs for Carol Griffee in her time of illness

Please click on individual images to Enlarge and widen view.
I was excited to find that the first two monarchs from a group of eight in chrysalis form in our home had been "born" this morning before I opened my email and found the bad news of Carol Griffee's illness.
So these poor photos are to honor Carol for her lifetime of protecting nature and its wild things.
When she was writing news for the Gazette and I was writing about the outdoors for the Democrat in the 1980s, she invited me along on some of her most serious investigations. She personally visited many Vietnam veterans to document their stories of the effects of Agent Orange at a time when the government was denying all responsibility and even the existence of a problem. And former servicemen (who were aging far too fast and had been ignored and even intimidated by public officials who should have helped them) welcomed her to their homes to share their stories.


Ever after, I wished that every young journalist in Arkansas could be trained to investigate by Carol Griffee. When she entered a small-town courthouse, she got cooperation and information that no one else even knew should be gathered and shared.