In life, we all have the power of choice. It's a gift of our humanness to use or abuse. Often one hears, "I had no choice". No choice can be better translated into difficult, scary, uncomfortable, dangerous, unpopular, expensive or inconvenient "choice". Although some choices might be limited we all have the ability to choose and the responsibility to live with what we choose. Daily choices made by many people are silence, apathy and ignorance (root word being ignore). When we choose to go about our business and be silent about things that matter, when we choose not to stand up or even educate ourselves, when we choose to be invisible, quiet and small who are we serving?
The status quo depends on silence and apathy and the cultivation of powerlessness. They fear those who deny their propaganda and choose to question their authority, agendas and integrity. They wage war on those who speak out by labeling them liberal, radical, terrorist or crazy. They instigate fear, doubt and hate against those who choose to stand up and oppose them. They assume that silence is ascent.
The future of the nation, the world and mankind can seem so bleak. Destiny is still in our hands. Margaret Mead once said to never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world, indeed it's the only thing that ever has.
Here at the MEC we are often asked some form of, "What can I do to make a difference?" So here's our answer, once and for all: You are already making a difference. It's up to you to decide whether or not you like the difference you are making.
Do the people have no choice but to breathe the foul smelling, illness inducing air belched by International Paper's Masonite Corporation? They can make the inconvenient choice to move away. The unpopular choice to continually call Air Quality and file complaints. The scary choice of publicly speaking out against Masonite. The difficult choice of organizing people against Masonite. Most make the easy choice to remain ignorant, trust Masonite and do and say nothing. Who is being served?
Do the owners of Mendocino Redwood Company, Hawthorne Timber, Pacific Lumber, Sierra Pacific and corporate timber by its many other names have no choice but to continue their rampant extraction of forest resources? Do we have no choice but to buy their lumber, or can we use alternatives?
The corporate providers of fossil fuels say that they have no choice but to continue extraction and use of their rotten dinosaur juice, implying that we have no choice but to continue consuming it. We can choose not to serve them by choosing renewable energy, alternative fuels, energy efficiency, public transportation, and biking, walking, ride sharingÉ
Do farmers have no choice but to use herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and organophosphates on their crops; no choice but to allow sprays to drift on neighbors, leach into streams, foul the air and become part of the food chain? Or is that the "right to farm"? Can we choose not to consume poisons and demand our right to pure food, air and water.
We can choose to be silent when nuclear waste is sent to the Indian nations for disposal, when depleted uranium is used against our enemies, when our government sells nuclear weapons to other countries but, who are we serving?
We can choose not to see poverty, prejudice, injustice, hate and bigotry or we can serve the greater good and speak up.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2000
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited