I must premise this entire rant by saying: I am not an organizer. I truly respect organizers. I respect fluid organization and selfless facilitation. I respect notions of “right” and “wrong.” I respect actors and activists and people who can effect change and provoke thought. I, on the other hand, get too frustrated to motivate others. I have a hard time settling on the “right path.” Rather, I consider myself a survivor and a thinker. 

Here’s what I think about Earth Day:

1. Earth Day

I love food and paint and clothes, but what’s the point? How should I as an individual and as a community member act towards my environment? 

2. Earth Big

Let’s think big. Let’s think really big. Earth Big. By the time our generation reproduces we may have 12 billion people on this earth. That’s big. That’s Earth Big. 

3. Babies

Femnet only offered information on DivaCups. Which produces more waste? A lifetime supply of tampons, or a child? On the other hand, which produces more ideas? A lifetime supply of tampons, or a child? Why don’t we ever talk about babies? 

4. Communities

On that note, let’s talk about human networks, let’s talk about communities. My parents would like to invest in geothermal heating to significantly cut down on their heating bill during the Vermont winter and to cool the house during the summer months, as we have no air conditioning. Unfortunately, they do not have the funds for the upfront cost. If their two neighbors also invested in the energy source, though, they would be able to dig the holes and share the system between all three houses. Unfortunately, my community’s model of nuclear families keeps us from springing for these types of investments. We are afraid of being cheated, of sharing resources, because the only societal ties that we trust and allow for are those created through sex and parental love.

5. Wesleyan Communities

At Wesleyan, we pay for community. We pay “Activity” fees and “Reslife” fees. We pay for a meal plan that comes with a whole student center, a student CENTER meant for the gathering of students. Yet, when I attempted to set up a community display of Recycled Art, there was hoop after hoop, person after person that I had to get clearance from. Which eventually I did, and they were very nice about it. But the point is, there is this huge Usdan bureaucracy that guards this so-called public space. If we can’t even form actual, trusting communities at Wesleyan, communities that share resources, food, and support, even when we pay U.S. dollars for such a thing, how can we hope to build a global community that trusts one another to wisely consume our finite resources?

6. Queer Communities

We need to reevaluate how we relate to people. Kathy Rudy, when writing about the divisive qualities of nuclear families in a religious context, finds a model of true community in the gay bathhouses of New York. Despite their sinfulness, the individuals are more committed to the community of gay men than they are to their individual partners, or so she argues. Unless we deregulate our family structure and create a language with which to speak about more complex relationships and communities, we will continue to flounder in our economically-based relations, and continue to consume without regard for others.

After this week of attempted organization and many thoughts, I have come to some conclusions. To form a healthy relationship with our environment, we must look first to each other and unite around physical places instead of ancestral bloodlines or sex drive.  We must use, not scorn, our creativity. We must actively fight against the old language surrounding environmentalism, a language which creates divisions between the “natural” world and humans, which divides humans by class, race, gender, occupation, sexuality… One shouldn’t have to be wealthy to buy healthy food. Turn off your lights, but don’t turn off your minds. Besides, the best thing to “Do in the Dark” is communicate, physically and verbally. Happy belated Earth Day.