The eco event was sweet and lively with nonprofits & businesses providing information and resources about rainwater collection, bees, native landscaping and other practical beautiful ways to help address the environmental crisis.
Notably absent were any of the people I perennially hear screaming on social media, “WHY isn’t ANYONE doing anything about the ENVIRONMENT?”
The peace demonstration was lively with beautiful flags, banners promoting love and unity; a core of people who have gotten very organized — and I was just meeting them all for the first time.
Notably absent were any of the people I hear perennially screaming on social media, “Where is the OUTRAGE [in regard to recent white supremacist demonstrations]? Why isn’t anyone SPEAKING UP?”
They are. We are. You can too.
Whatever issue is bothering you, there are most likely people already on it (usually because they or their communities are more immediately affected). They are not hard to find. Get involved.
P.S. And on that note … It’s VERY humbling to recognize that, long LONG before I myself arrived on the scene as an eco activist (“formally” speaking, I would say sometime in the early to mid 1990s), other people were very very busy doing the heavy lifting. Particularly, indigenous peoples who protect ecosystems and are defending their very lives and homelands.
Speaking of humbling, this morning I opened up a newspaper-style publication that had been sitting for a couple years on my bookshelves and then for a week or so in my Little Free Library. It was an edition of Planet Drum from 1999. You want humbling; check out Planet Drum Foundation. Their publication itself may not be available online but I got a couple of their print issues by writing or calling Planet Drum. They may or may not have any left.
As just one example of humbling, this newspaper-style publication from 1999 had an article about decolonizing the environmental movement. 1999! Do you know when I first started being aware of decolonization and talking about it publicly? I think it was sometime in … 2020!
Believe me, whatever issue(s) are keeping you awake at night, people ARE working on those issue(s), and whenever you or I arrived on the scene, people were organized and working long before you and I got here. This is not to shame you but to encourage and motivate you.
Further Exploration:
• Planet Drum Foundation: “Planet Drum Foundation was founded in San Francisco, CA in 1973. In association with community activists and ecologists, Planet Drum(*) developed the concept of a bioregion. Planet Drum works to research, promote and disseminate information about bioregionalism, a grassroots approach to ecology that emphasizes sustainability, community self-determination and regional self-reliance. Through its projects, publications, speakers, and workshops, Planet Drum helps start new bioregional groups and encourages local organizations and individuals to find sustainable ways to live within the natural confines of bioregions. We believe that people who know and care about the places where they live will work to maintain and restore them.”