VANITY FAIR NOMINATES

Hall of Fame

Carol M. Browner

BECAUSE the Environmental Protection Agency's 41-year-old head has inspired a joke in Washington: "If a one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind, what is a woman with backbone in an administration of invertebrates?" BECAUSE after seven months of intense pressure to modify the E.P.A.'s proposals for stronger standards of air quality, she won't back down, BECAUSE through hours of hearings, interrogation, and testimony she has proved herself a nimble, resourceful, and humane expert. BECAUSE she remembers the orchids in the Everglades, where she grew up. BECAUSE she reminds us that children die from conditions linked directly to smog and soot pollution. BECAUSE she takes the subway, not a car, to work, buys food in bulk rather than in tiny containers from Georgetown delis, and recycles without the aid of domestic servants from underprivileged nations, BECAUSE her son, who is now nine, once said, "She saves things," when asked what his mother did at work, BECAUSE she is helping clean up San Francisco Bay and the Great Lakes, BECAUSE she has issued rulings which should reduce the amount of smog-producing chemicals by a million tons per year, BECAUSE, knowing she's around, we can all breathe a little easier.

ALEX SHOUMATOFF

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