Posted on behalf of Stephanie Black-Schaffer, Western Mass Team Leader, Mass Climate Summer (a project of Mass Power Shift)
Mass Climate Summer is over, and yet certain things will always stay with me. A new appreciation for the versatility of ketchup, a comprehensive familiarity with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, the imprint of a bike seat on my derriere, and a better understanding of the urgency for climate action. But if I didn’t understand the urgency from the beginning, why did I invest my whole summer in such an internship? I will—obnoxiously—answer this question by asking another.
Do you know who the hardest person to canvass is? Right now you’re thinking maybe it’s the misanthrope who takes vindictive pleasure cussing you out, or maybe the apathetic aristocrat who says ‘no’ before you open your mouth, or maybe the talkative old lady who keeps you on her porch for forty minutes. –Incidentally, we had all three–
But the hardest person to canvass isn’t any of these. It’s the person who is totally informed. Informed but jaded. It’s that individual who laughs when he hears your petition, tells you he’ll sign it because he thinks it’s a great idea, but that he’s been trying to change the world for decades and no one listens. That gets you wondering. If this active, experienced, informed person couldn’t get anything done, who are you—one college student—to try?
Now imagine living with such a person. My father had the highest National Merit score in the state of Ohio. One of the fifty greatest minds of his generation. He’s also extremely well-read. But though he’s certain climate change is occurring, he doesn’t believe we can do much about it. He gets me wondering. If my intelligent, informed father doesn’t think anything can be done, who am I—one little student—to presume?
But then it occurred to me: movements start with one or two little people. The Civil Rights movement started in the single digits. There were only nine Little Rock students, one Ruby Bridges, four sit-in demonstrators, one Rosa Parks, two black major league baseball players, one Martin Luther King Jr. If they could change the course of history, why couldn’t I?
–And by the way there were twenty of us, so this is practically in our pocket—
Though I may not have understood the urgency of our situation from the start of the internship, I honestly felt I could do something, and that this program was the place to start doing that something. Wait—so what did we do?
Well, boycotting climate change somehow doesn’t have the same umph as sitting on the wrong side of the bus. Go ahead. Yell out your window, ‘I’M TURNING OFF MY LIGHTS NOW, SO THERE!’ Stand on your roof and call down to Mr. Next Door, ‘CHECK OUT THESE SOLAR PANELS, PAL!’ Climb to the top of your compost heap and announce, ‘I’M GROWING MY OWN DAMN VEGETABLES NOW!’ I don’t honestly think your neighbors would care.
Which is why we didn’t just boycott, we also petitioned, held events, hosted workshops. We were a group of hopeful college students cycling across the state. And for every response that made us stop in our tracks and question our resolve, there was one that made us tuck our clipboard under our arm and—not kidding—skip to the next house.
Who is the best person to canvass? Right now you’re thinking maybe it’s the woman who invites us in to use her toilet or the old man who gives us three chocolate chip cookies. (Which is very nice.) But it gets better. The best person to canvass is the one who blinks like he can’t believe what he’s seeing and thanks us for being real, for working to save his planet.
Because that’s kind of what it’s come down to: saving the planet. And we haven’t got much time. Of course we haven’t saved the planet quite yet, but we did our part. This summer 19 of us took to our bikes to move that effort further down the field. We knocked on over 30,000 doors, collected over 4,500 petition signatures demanding 100% Clean Electricity in the next 10 years, were profiled in over 14 newspapers, got a piece on NPR, were picked up by two TV stations, visited 43 towns, facilitated 21 “Awakening the Dreamer” sustainability workshops, and biked hundreds of miles.
But there is still plenty of work to be done. After cycling for two months, you start thinking of everything in terms of bikes—you don’t feel sad, you feel ‘flat;’ you don’t feel happy, you feel ‘pumped.’ So I will explain our situation, right now, in terms of biking.
For every steep hill, there comes a point at which you can no longer shift gears; you must either stand on your bike pedals—painstakingly throw your whole weight behind each push—or teeter to a stop and topple over. I sure as heck hope we haven’t passed this point yet, because I hate climbing a hill in third gear.
This is a call to shift gears.
This is a call to change the course of history.
This is a call for 100% clean electricity in ten years.
We are so passed the single digits at this point.
I think if those who are “informed and resigned” would get up off our collective asses and at least cheer you on, remembering that in the 60′s we DID start changes, certainly as a woman in the days before the idea of sexual discrimination existed (help wanted: men help wanted: women), who was determined to become a CPA, I did help make changes, and I know many others who also did. It makes me proud of what I did, to see young women, strong and speaking out collectively, making a difference. Thank you for what you did, and will do in the future. Gosh, I actually feel re-inspired.