For the week of August 8 - 14, 2001

On political, social and environmental activism

Commentary by DICK DORWORTH

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What a radical concept—to say "Thank you, good job," every once in a while to those who make difficult decisions affecting our human communities and the larger surrounding communities of flora and fauna.

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A man I know who lives in a small western America mountain town is frustrated with the increasing sprawl, pollution and crowding of his environment. He and his wife moved there just a couple of years ago to escape the horrors of walled-in urban living and to experience a healthier, more natural, slower paced life. But growth, which like cancer feeds on the healthy and tangible and causes the demented to confuse it with progress, followed him into the mountains. Like every urban refugee, he even brought a bit of it with him. Still, he neither approves of nor sees the necessity for his laid-back rural community and its surrounding and essential (and essentially) untrammeled landscape becoming an upscale Mecca for stock portfolio supported, SUV driving, cell-phone talking, real estate developing sybarites in wonderland.

Many reading this will understand his frustration, though fewer are willing to follow him in taking the next logical step into political/environmental/social activism. It requires commitment to be an activist, and commitment entails risk and vulnerability, both of which are uncomfortable and scary. People do not become activists for fun, fame, fortune or because they have nothing better to do. They do it in response to a perceived (and usually real) danger to the community of life on earth that, for any number of reasons, is not being addressed by the systems in place. (Indeed, so in place that some systems---EPA, FDA, DOE, FBI, BLM, Idaho State Land Board and certain others, both national and local---seem encased in concrete.) This man decided to begin his career in local political/social/environmental activism in an unusual manner, one worth passing on to all activists, prospective and practicing. In his words: "I ask for two minutes to address the town council at a regular meeting. But I won’t tell the town manager or staff what I’m going to say. I go vague. So my turn comes and I tell them, ‘My wife and I moved here a couple of years ago because you guys had the balls to implement a building moratorium. I imagine sitting on a board like this is a pain because you only hear from people when they are angry. I imagine that nobody shows up for discussions and then when they want something they pack the room and get all sweaty. When you guys try to do what’s right for the town the developers hammer you. If you give an inch to them the citizens hammer you. It must be a nightmare. I’m here tonight because I know there have been many tough decisions made by all of you and you’ve taken the heat. And to get to the point, I want to say thank you very much from me and all of the people out there who don’t take the time to come here.’ Then I got up and left. Well they were dumb struck. I heard about it for a couple of days after. They were all pumped up. They’re just people (employees of the citizens, right?) So you have to go around and say, ‘Good job,’ at least once in a while."

What a radical concept—to say "Thank you, good job," every once in a while to those who make difficult decisions affecting our human communities and the larger surrounding communities of flora and fauna. It is a brilliant way to begin an activist career. Saying "thank you" when a thank you is due shows respect and appreciation, and it helps balance out those times when it is inappropriate to say "thank you" for decisions made by city councils, county commissioners, state boards and the like. Saying "thank you" for doing the right thing also helps keep the focus on the issues and not on the personalities involved. After all, in the world of the political/social/environmental activist in America, there are fewer opportunities to say "thank you" to those who at least in theory are employees of the citizens than to express a variety of other possible feelings and thoughts.

When developers (and the lawyers, engineers, architects, water and other kinds of experts and consultants who work for them) appear before government bodies on behalf of their particular project, they are professionals at work. They are seeking economic advantage (and survival) in the marketplace, and the cost of their services will be passed along to the buyers of their specific development. There is nothing inherently wrong with economic advantage or survival and much to recommend it, but the living arteries of the open spaces and small towns of western America are becoming clogged with the unhealthy fat of progress. The health of the landscape and all its inhabitants is being compromised. As with the human heart, when the arteries can’t work the system shuts down and the environment dies. It becomes another urban nightmare of traffic and pavement and the incessant noise and bustle that scares away the elk, moose, cougars, bears, wolves and other indigenous if less progressive members of the community.

A professional’s "thank you" to city councils and the like may or may not be sincere, but it is spoken from the heart of (and rooted in) a bank account. The speaker for more development speaks for more backyards, each tidily walled in, and for fewer bears to root around in them.

An activist saying "thank you" to a body of government employees of the citizens speaks for himself as well as for creatures who have no voice, no representation, no power to prevent the destruction of the environment on which their lives depend. In that sense, he or she speaks from the unclogged collective (and healthy) heart of ecological balance. The activist speaks for the community’s collective backyard and for all the bears rooting around in it.

We need more of both—bears and activists in the backyard.

Thanks to all who support them. Pass it on.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.