My deepest sympathy to those who lost loved ones and homes during Sandy

I don't really know what to say. I guess we were lucky that Bobby and I planned a trip to the Bahamas the same time Sandy hit. Though the Bahamas were damaged..we were able to change our route and landed in the most beautiful place on earth. Little Dix bay in the British VIrgin Isles. We invited 3 other couples to join us and 2 had to cancel. The couple who came, ironically, I fixed up on a blind date last February and am happy to say they are engaged and getting married on January 12, 2013. The groom, we met on a cruise January 13, 2012. I could not be happier for so many reasons but mostly because he loves her the way Bobby loves me..and that is all I could ask for.

Only a few days ago...life as we knew it changed forever. Though I haven't been home, I have been on the phone and email constantly since SANDY hit NYC. Historically my sister Lisa, has lost power in CT in the most minor of storms, so I invited Lisa to stay in our apt "Just in case" since we were away for a few weeks and her son ( my nephew) is living with us. She thanked me for our generosity but said she wouldn't need to. She quickly changed her mind as SANDY became the " storm of the century" ad came to stay in our home with Jonathan. The next day more family came to stay and have not left. We are one of the few buildings in Manhattan to have NOT lost power and have ZERO water damage. We live on a hill and evidently a fortress. We will never sell it that is for sure.

We feel very guilty being in paradise but everyone keeps telling us to "STAY AWAY" for as long as we can. Lisa says no one can imagine the devastation to our CITY...my home. We will not abandon it..we will bunker down. It reminds us of post 9/11 and the strength our city has. In fact..the NYC Marathon is on and it will bring out the best of our city.

What we have done if we didn't have the internet and cell phones to stay in touch with loved ones. I have no idea how the world survived centuries of devastation over the years but we are a strong city and a strong nation and we will survive. We have to.

My sister Lisa, of the Lisa Wexler radio Show ( lisawexler.com) wrote an incredibly thoughtful piece on global warming to publish. I don't know if it has been posted yet but here it is...

BY LISA WEXLER
I'm a sucker for coincidences. Basically, I don't believe in them. I'm one of those people who likes to see the Big Picture, the Plan with a capital P. You can't tell me that this enormous storm aimed straight at Washington, D.C,, and including those pivotal swing states of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, is not a sign, coming as it is just days before Election Day. As the great P.G. Wodehouse would have phrased it, I am reminded of the following tale:

Pious Joe is stranded in the middle of the ocean in a leaking boat. A passerby throws him an oar to grab onto for safety. Pious Joe says, "No, thank you. I believe in God. I have faith that God will save me. Thank you anyway, but I'll be just fine." The boat continues to lose water. Eventually, a large ship comes nearby and throws Pious Joe a life preserver. But Pious Joe refuses to grab onto it. He shouts: "No need to worry about me, I'll be fine. My God will save me." The boat is now half full with water by the time a helicopter arrives. The copter throws down a tow rope to rescue Pious Joe. For the third time, Pious Joe refuses the help, exclaiming, "Thanks but no thanks. I know I will be fine. God will save me." Eventually, the boat sinks. Pious Joe drowns. When he reaches heaven, Pious Joe says to God ,"God, I believed in you. I put my trust in you. Why didn't you save me?". And God says, "What do you mean, why didn't I save you? I sent you an oar, I sent you a life preserver and I sent you a helicopter rope! What more do you expect me to do?"

Oh Yes, Frankenstorm is most definitely a sign. God or the Universe (take your pick) is trying to tell us something. Hurricane Irene didn't seem to do it. Record droughts in Texas and the Midwest have not grabbed our attention. Heat waves, catastrophic flooding, crop losses, livestock deaths -- the list of environmental disasters to afflict our country this year alone is biblical in scope, reminiscent of the Ten Plagues.

Mitt Romney sent chills up my spine when he joked about oceans rising and offered to give away public lands to oil companies. President Obama and the Democrats have been so cowed by rich Republican intimidators that they have abandoned the fight, joining in a chorus of "Let's Frack" and fighting over who can exploit pristine habitats first.

In just over a week, we will elect the next leader of the free world. Once in four years, millions of people wake up and pay attention. Conventional wisdom, perpetrated by the media ad nauseum, tells us that the only thing we really care about is our pocketbook. Forget the planet, clean air, clean water, rising sea levels, dying crops, migration changes, bee devastation, species extinctions, severe droughts and the increase of freakishly damaging storms. The Republicans have done something really special -- they have relegated the most common value we share -- the health of our planet -- to environmental wacko status. And the Democrats have let them get away with it. Not once did the issue of climate change come up in this year's debates -- not even once! No wonder God is pissed off.

If you were God or Mother Nature, and you were fed up with being ignored, wouldn't you choose this week to remind your people that money isn't everything? If we don't start adapting to Climate Change, which is likely irreversible at this point, all the other platitudes and plans won't mean a thing. Climate Change is the single biggest challenge of our time, calling on our intellectual prowess, scientific knowhow and political will. Yet each candidate has conveniently ignored dealing with it, sidestepping the big picture to focus on energy independence, as if that would actually bring down oil prices. (it wouldn't, at least not by all that much). Twenty years from now, the next generation will be stunned at our negligence, our callous indifference to this most obvious public health crisis. They will look back in anger at our unwillingness to collaborate for the common good, our petty infighting over so many small things while ignoring the obvious big one.

The winds are howling. Outside my 30th story window, I see the lights of New York City, still twinkling as the full force of Frankenstorm has yet to descend. Many of us will be in darkness before this storm ends, disconnected from each other and forced to exist without the convenience of electricity, heat or even working toilets. Pious Joe relied on faith alone to save him, but he drowned anyway. How many more signs do we need before we figure out that we are all in the same lifeboat together, before all of us drown?

What do you think? Who do you think has addressed GLobal Warming better? Share your thoughts..

Love,
Jill