Stetson has a wonderful little community of students now calling this home. We get together less often than we should, but with Matt and Darash's very short sojourn we collected ourselves for a wonderful dinner. I was envious when I heard Matt and Darash visited you in DeLand and I missed them, but I got my chance eventually.
I've been working with the Amazon Alliance, an NGO which supports the ecological and cultural vitality of Amazonia by making sure the indigenous peoples and their organizations have a voice and power in decisions and provisions which affect their land, communities and way of life. I spend a lot of my time researching and learning about the threats and challenges facing the Amazonian inhabitants. In November, I get to return to the Amazon, this time to Ecuador. There I will meet with indigenous organizations and get to do some sightseeing, including snorkeling in the Galápagos. Working with this organization, my love of the rainforest has once again be re-ignited. When I was in 2nd grade, my sister, a 5th grader, came home with stories of deforestation and habitat destruction. We both were very struck and began making posters and t-shirts warning Americans of the problems in the Amazon. But the fervor died down, and Americans even thought that the problem was solved. This is not the case.
I have been learning about activism: There is a village on a river. One day, babies started floating down the river, crying and struggling against the current. Some villagers jumped in, and rescued the babies. The town organized and some people agreed to care for them, while others did the rescuing. The babies didn't stop coming. One day, two townspeople stopped their work in the river and offer to go up river to stop the people who must be throwing the babies in the water. The other villagers didn't understand and didn't all agree. They needed those two people to help pull babies from the water. There are two types of activists in this story, those that prefer to help on a one-by-one basis and those that go "up river" to the source of the problem. It was interesting to debate in class why people choose one type over the other. The motivations for the individual approach include instant gratification, the feeling of having a purpose, to alleviate the feeling of guilt, to act on human instinct to help and to build community around a common project. Why wouldn't the villagers want to go up river? There is fear surrounding the unknown, if you achieve the goal of stopping the babies then what do you have to live for, trying to fix the real problem make take precious time for serving individuals and you may run into conflict. These are just some ideas. What type of activist are you? Both are important, but take some time to think about your motivations and what goals you hope to accomplish.
I look forward to meeting you in January. Keep up the good work. Every week I meet people who make your hobby their life's work. Some days, it's an inspiration and other days, disquieting; but those are the ups and downs of service. I do hope all is well in your lives.
Gentry
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