After long exposure to my numerous letters to the editor, Mike Masterson, who was editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times in 1998, asked me if I’d like to be a community columnist for a while. This month marks 15 years of my opining for “a while,” writing mostly on environmental issues, although I’ve also taken an occasional side trip to other topics. One such venture, for example, was a series I wrote about my mother.
After a couple of those columns had been printed, the editorial page boss at the time gently inquired how many more I had in mind.
Interestingly, I’ve had more positive comments over the years about those four installments than on any ofmy other articles.
In one way, it’s not hard to understand readers prefer personal stories to problems that can seem insurmountable or are depressing and frustrating.
On the other hand, without keeping close tabs on what is going on in the world that aftects us, oftentimes more directly than we realize, we most certainly will never address solutions to any of the problems, large or small. My opinion-writing mission has been to alert, or at least remind, readers of local, regional, national, or global environmental impacts in the hope that some stirring of activism will be forthcoming.
Activism is not a stereotypical deed but can take many forms. Writing letters to politicians orsigning petitions seems pretty wimpy compared to marching in the streets or chaining oneself to a bulldozer, the typical images some people associate with activism, but all are important actions.
What most people do not comprehend about changing anything is that it is a collective, more than an individual, process, and consequences are brought about from the pressure of enough numbers.
The old adage “you can’t fight city hall,” simply isn’t true if you understand that it takes enough bodies fi lling council chamber seats, or enough good facts and figures, or enough support from enough leaders seeing things your way to change the course of events. I think sometimes people fall back on phrases to justify apathy or to escape the work of activism. The catch, of course, is that when we begin, we never know themagic numbers we’ll need for change and have to just keep piling on until a tipping point is reached.
“Oh, you’re just a NIMBY,” is a phrase used to malign, intimidate and stymie people from being active in civic issues. Those words are spewed out by folks who do not want the challenge of passionate opponents.
Name-calling and labels are techniques used by bullies so I hope people remember there is no greater reason for action than defending one’s family or turf. So what if it takes going on the defensive with “Not In My Back Yard” to lift you from your couch?
I’ve known numerous people, who became very active in their town only after fi rst experiencing up close and personal involvement in a community conflict. Frankly, it’s my opinion that a prerequisite to running for public offce should be fi rsthand experience in the role of“citizen” from the citizen side of a public podium.
This has long been a mantra of mine, and I repeat it here again as a 15-year gift to myself.
As environmental threats mount and either overwhelm our governmental systems’ abilities to control them or those systems are compromised and corrupted by greed and graft, we will face more and more demands for activism to protect our habitat and to maintain a civil society. It is therefore heartwarming to me to learn an organization, In Our Backyards (ioby.
org), will be working with Arkansawyers on an in-depth investigation of the Exxon oil pipeline leak in Mayflower on March 29.
(Search “Mayfl ower oil spill” on their website.)
They say, “We have a mission to deepen civic engagement in cities by connecting individualsdirectly to communityled, neighbor-funded environmental projects in their neighborhoods. “
Activism is at its best when people depend on themselves to validate the cold hard facts in their issues. Then their next task is convincing the rest of us how big our communal backyard actually is. What happened to Mayfl ower has occurred in similar instances across the country. These spills are canaries-inthe-mine showing us a tiny preview of what a rupture of the huge Keystone pipeline will be like. Bravo and thanks to those activists putting themselves on the line to stop this monster.
Let’s help and all declare “Not In Our Backyards!” FRAN ALEXANDER IS A FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT WITH A LONGSTANDING INTEREST IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN OPINION ON ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.
Opinion, Pages 11 on 07/21/2013