So long and thanks for nothing.

I was so very inspired yesterday as I arrived for work.  50-60 students amassed outside the AU boards breakfast meeting to no so gently remind them whom they represent. I watched over the course of the last few months, people committed to an idea, acting on behalf of something much bigger than themselves. I watched the nervous excitement of anticipated action in the face of power with real potential to endanger themselves. I’ve watched raw emotion pour into the conversations surrounding the issue of divestment and climate change. I have seen Native American people speak of how the fossil fuel industry is further endangering their way of life and spiritual connection to this one and only planet we share. I have also watched those very same Native American gentlemen confront the most powerful forces in this country by civilly disobeying an unjust system and in response were “escorted” to jail.  And in the course of all this, I have also see the expected responses from a society that has not quite evolved fully enough to comprehend the magnitude of the conversation that is taking place before their very eyes.

While cautiously observing and showing silent support for the movements rally on Monday, where a hundred committed warriors braved the arctic wind and rain to inspire involvement and reaffirm devotion to the cause of divestment, two less than subtle students watching the performance could be overheard snickering “this is so stupid.” American University is one of the most politically active campuses in the country and yet the majority of the student population has casually observed this movement on a broad spectrum from mild disinterest to outright hostility. People I know that are not your typical “head in the sand” types are too self involved or dispassionate to give a shit. Yesterday I watched the American University Board of Trustees, which membership reads like a Fortune 500 list, vote NOT to divest away from fossil fuels because they said that it would be too risky. Too RISKY.  The power of money, Wall St., invested interests has spoken from their Upper West Side apartments, from their Bethesda McMansions, and Brown Stone walk-ups. They have spoken for their Porsche Cayenne’s and Mercedes Benz S-Class sedans that inconspicuously dotted the campus yesterday. They have decided their brunches of exotic foods and imported wines far too tasty to be forgotten. They spoke wrapped in their designer clothes made from in factories by people presented with no other option for work.  They spoke from their electronic devices made of natural resources from someone else’s backyard, brought here to only be discarded in a few years time when a “new” toy can bring them a fleeting moment of happiness. It is too risky they say.

They’re right.

Everything they spoke for might disappear. That is risky. They can cloak it by claiming student services and tuition would be affected. The scare you argument. They can continue to fool themselves into thinking this is the only way and that these “kids” don’t know what they’re talking about. The you’re too naiveté argument. Or they can pull out some legal text and interpret it any way they see best’s suits their needs. The it’s the law argument. But let’s be clear about one thing. It’s all total bullshit. This group of individuals is heavily invested in a system of exploitation of the worlds poor and weak and they are using all these other arguments into justifying to themselves and each other that this is the best course of action. They probably honestly do feel like it will all just go away if we were to move away from fossil fuels.  Comments like “We’re not there yet” or the “World’s not ready” dominate this kind of thinking.  Statements like this are heard every time there is a systemic changing potential out there. Idiots. We’ve never gone away. In fact we’re stronger and better off for all the major changes that we as a country have made in the face of severe injustice; The Revolution, The Civil War, Women’s Suffrage, and Civil Rights.

So here is what I say to the Board.  You are wrong. You are on the wrong side of history. Most of you will hopefully come to recognize this in your lifetimes. There is a drum beating just below the surface. You may not recognize it now, but you have critically wounded more people than you think you have helped by this vote. You are all cowards.

To tie into this weeks readings… China wants everything the Board voted for this week.  And why shouldn’t they? They deserve it.  They have worked very hard for it.

But they can’t have it. At least not the way it is structured now. But neither can we.

I see China as this crazy not so microcosm of where the world is headed. Particularly in regards to population. They are showing no imagination in their pursuit of the almighty buffet of brunch possibilities. This is worrisome.