As someone who's suffered from allergies all my life (I also had what they call "cough variant asthma"), I sometimes have to struggle to breathe -- not as much as I used to, but it's still there. And one of my kids suffered from childhood asthma, although he's since outgrown it.

Gasping for breath scares the hell out of me, so to me, clean air is a very serious issue. And that's why I was hoping, when NJ Gov. Chris Christie was taken to the hospital last week with an asthma attack, that he would rethink refusing to sign onto the regional emissions control pact with other area states. (Since I live a stone's throw across the river from New Jersey and all.)

I see that Environment New Jersey also took note of Christie's hospitalization, and of the League of Women Voters' campaign against air pollution. Doug O’Malley, their field director, released this statement:

We offer our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Governor Christie. An asthma attack can be a life-threatening event and that is a fact of life for over 163,000 New Jersey children who live with this chronic disease. We hope that the Governor will be sympathetic to the concerns of those children when it comes to measures to protect our kids from dangerous air pollution.

We encourage Governor Christie to support the Clean Air Promise launched by the League of Women Voters this week and to promise that he will protect our kids from dangerous air pollution. The new LWV campaign ad and Promise can be found at http://www.peoplenotpolluters.org/

Everybody knows at least one person who has trouble breathing in polluted air. For them and everybody else, go sign that petition!