I recently took a vacation from the climate movement to do some personal visioning and exploring in South America. If you haven’t taken your head out of CEJAPAs and Cap and Trade in a while, maybe that brain break is right on the horizon. Upon returning last week, I attended a government job fair in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I like to see myself as a qualified applicant for any given job. After all I have been an organizer and we all know the gamut of situations we find ourselves in every day. I was ready to pitch employers when I show up to find a line of 7,000 people waiting just to get in the building. Everyone there was dressed to the nines in power suits and equipped with polished resumes. Senator Warner of Virginia worked the lines while his staff offered to hold resumes for people who needed to leave for their first, second or third job. Ironically, Senator Warner’s net worth (fifth highest in Congress) could provide everyone there a stimulus package, ringing in at over 72 million. An additional 1,000 people were still in line when the job fair drew to a close at 4:00 p.m, four hours later than originally scheduled. I walked away without even making it to the door after three hours. This was a jaw dropping experience to say the least. I couldn’t help but recognize this event and try to find meaning for our movement from this experience.
- America needs to be put back to work in the clean energy economy. We’re not just talking about a just transition for miners and manufacturing workers, but people with associates and bachelor’s degrees who are overqualified and underemployed in our current economy.
- We need to focus on opportunity. As Van Jones has mentioned, you can’t offer people with crisis more crisis. They can’t internalize that narrative. Americans lost a lot during the economic crisis, including some retirees who lost half of their golden year’s savings. Half of these people were over the age of 50 and appeared to be entering the workforce again. What solutions are we offering these people?
- We need to keep our eye on corporate influences as much as political influences. With potential half legislative measures on climate and health care in the pipeline, our organizations are going to be ripe for disillusion. The question will arise, “Is the age of sweeping reform over and we need to settle for incremental victories?” Or are votes 51-60 in the Senate costing us any chance at lasting victories? Without campaign finance reform and a united front, or at least a united defense against corporate lobbyists, we are left isolated as movements.
I like the comment on talking about opportunities, and not able to internalize a crisis when you are already experiencing one. There is a story of an evangelist going to Africa and trying to preach the Good News, who was talking to an old woman about Jesus, and at some point she told him, “I’m sorry sir, I don’t understand a word you’re saying, I’m so hungry and my stomach is growling so loud”. Same applies here… and there are so many polls out there talking about the fact that a positive message wins every time, that we have to talk about what we can gain if we tackle the climate challenge in certain ways, and take action now… Here are a couple of useful links: a poll from the Env Defense Fund webise (http://www.edf.org/documents/10738_Language-of-a-Clean-Energy-Economy.pdf?redirect=language) and a recent Dpt of Homeland Security report that warns that the current economic crisis has left many people unemployed (and many of them men), that the election of the country’s first black president and the disillusionment of many veterans or soldiers with the current wars are fueling the resurgence of rightwing extremism in this country. (http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf ) Hopefully the youth climate movement can offer real solutions and be able to provide a positive alternative to extremism.