Rally Reflections

"Stop the pipeline, yes we can!"

"Hey Michelle, tell your man: stop the dirty pipeline plan!" 

"What do we want? CLEAN ENERGY! When do we want it? NOW!" 

These were but a few of the chants shouted by a crowd of 50,000 environmentalists-- old and young, black and white, northern and southern--at the "Forward With Climate Change" in Washington, D.C. this Presidents' Day weekend. I was excited to be one of them. 

Many of you reading this know that environmental justice has been close to my heart since I was a child. It wasn't until early in college that I realized the 8-year-old Eva who wrote letters to Jeb Bush about saving manatees from motor boats was still just as present as ever. I have my parents to thank for rearing me in a home where recycling was a given and my friends' incredulous stares at the compost bucket in our kitchen was a part of everyday life. Concern for creation and an increasing obligation to make environmentalism a priority in my life has remained a primary component of who I am, especially as I've learned that environmental justice issues are deeply linked to economic and social justice issues, and from a theological perspective are embedded in scripture. 

Protesting the pipeline is another chapter in this story. The Keystone XL, a proposed pipeline that would extract oil in ways exceptionally exploitative to the earth and to vulnerable communities along the location of the pipeline, would keep our nation addicted to oil, further line the pockets of profit-hungry multi-billion dollar fossil fuel companies, and (perhaps most critically of all) would add more CO2 to an atmosphere already producing harmful effects of climate change. 

Participating in the rally took me even further beyond the urgency of the points I just mentioned, and into the beauty and bravery of social movements. Though I was accompanied by no one I knew, I felt safe in a community of 50,000 men, women and children huddled together in the cold, crying forth dreams of justice and marching to defend the earth and its people. In the midst of the despair I often feel toward a nation characterized by political polarization, income disparity and institutionalized racism, the rally was a symbol--a powerful one--of the passion and commitment that dwells within each of us (something that I believe to be a gift from God), and the capability that we each have to confront even our darkest realities and move into the opportunity to change them for the better. It reminded me of the possibility of human beings to re-connect to the world we have been given which sustains us and to treat it and each other with compassion. 

What I loved most about the rally was the sheer joy I experienced in my fellow marchers. There were plenty of chances to complain: about the cold, the fact that Obama was on vacation (woops), thirst or hunger, even the crowd. But none of those details were what was most important during those few hours. These folks were beckoning to something--a Spirit, a movement, a cause--greater than themselves. I could feel it in our dancing, our shouting, our laughter, and in the periodic "Are you doing okay?" check-ins around me. A book I'm currently reading entitled The Beloved Community (Charles Marsh) describes effective spiritual and social movements, using the example of the Civil Rights Movement,  in this way: 

"...[we] must not only act in specific emancipatory ways, but even more must seek to live in the present time that kind of reality that [we hope] the movement [will] bring about later." 

I witnessed that reality this weekend. Despite the power of all of the players pushing for the Keystone XL to be built and the dire circumstances of climate change, the protesters chose to live into the hope that something can be done--and it has begun. This is only the beginning of the road toward our awakening to the work we must do, but it has been started with joy. 

I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to not only dream big, but to act big with 50,000 big-hearted, earth-loving strangers.