63\u00a0 bar steep rise 29.90 0mph NNE dew-point 40\u00a0 Beltane, sunny<\/p>\n
Up at 6AM.\u00a0 It’s light!\u00a0 Out the door at 6:30 AM.\u00a0 Drive fast to Hwy. 252.\u00a0 Stop, edge forward.\u00a0 Repeat.\u00a0 Repeat. Repeat.\u00a0 All this fossil fuel going up in exhausts of vehicles barely accomplishing anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It took me an\u00a0 hour, as I thought it would, to get to the Sierra Club office on Franklin Avenue for a meeting with Cathy Duvall, the national Sierra Club’s director of political activity.\u00a0 It was worth it.\u00a0 Cathy is a political insider, in this case, too, a Beltway insider.\u00a0 That means she takes politics for what it is, not for what it could be in the best of all possible worlds, but as a place where competing forces drive against each other for power and resources.<\/p>\n
The non-profit world, including the church, often works much like the traffic jam going into the city this morning.\u00a0 Every body gets revved up, drives fast, then gets stuck in the resolutionary lane, confusing action with intention.\u00a0 And a lot of political energy goes up in the exhaust, barely accomplishing anything.<\/p>\n
Not for Cathy and the Sierra Club.\u00a0 She understands the numbers, the people, the zeitgeist and still believes this could be a transformative year for the environmental agenda.\u00a0 Could be.\u00a0 Could be if we put the effort into a ground level campaign to educate the public.\u00a0 Could be if we identify voters sensitive to our issues and see they could get to the polls.\u00a0 Could be if we identify those races where a bit of extra oomph, in allies or dollars or both, could make a difference and deploy our resources wisely.\u00a0 Could be.<\/p>\n
I got jazzed up by the meeting, ready to rock.\u00a0 The political committee, it turns out, has not yet formed and I may have a chance of getting involved.\u00a0 This kind of energy is so different from the MIA, fiction creating and scholarly work.\u00a0 It’s also different from, but closely related to the gardening energy.\u00a0 This energy has an edge, a buzz.\u00a0 It makes my finger tips tingle.\u00a0 Old neuronal paths, long abandoned, have begun to fire.\u00a0 We’ll see where it goes, if anywhere.<\/p>\n
That said, there’s still plants to get in the\u00a0ground, weeds to kill and dig up and trees to cut down, land to level.\u00a0\u00a0 All things in their time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
63\u00a0 bar steep rise 29.90 0mph NNE dew-point 40\u00a0 Beltane, sunny Up at 6AM.\u00a0 It’s light!\u00a0 Out the door at 6:30 AM.\u00a0 Drive fast to Hwy. 252.\u00a0 Stop, edge forward.\u00a0 Repeat.\u00a0 Repeat. Repeat.\u00a0 All this fossil fuel going up in exhausts of vehicles barely accomplishing anything.\u00a0 It took me an\u00a0 hour, as I thought it … Continue reading Jazzed Up and Ready to Rock<\/span>