My environmental message is simple: take responsibility. Every individual has an impact on the environment, and each of us needs to be responsible for our actions. The Tennessee River is the lifeblood of the Tennessee Valley. We have built cities beside it and transported goods upon it. We drink from it, eat its produce, water our crops with it, derive power from it, dump our waste in it, and play upon it. Each of us needs to realize that we are abusing this great and beautiful resource. We are taking too much from it and giving too little in return. I have swum the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia, and swum from Alcatraz through the San Francisco Bay to the mainland. Now I will swim our river for the entire length of its travel through the Tennessee Valley. My swim will be a pilgrimage. One of athletic endurance driven by my determination to preserve our beautiful river. Our river is at risk and in need of attention. I want my swim to generate interest among the people of the Tennessee Valley to take responsibility for improving the condition of the Tennessee River and its shoreline. I intend to write and speak of my experience with honesty, and with a sense of awe and wonder...for this is how I view the magnificent river of the Tennessee Valley.