7 - Activists carving out a place in the public sphere for discussion

Summary

Part 1: “Is this a tangent?”: activists in meetings

We're good at having discussions but bad at deciding anything. We'll have a meeting and someone'll ask us what we decided and we'll say, “We don't know but we had a great discussion!” That's why we're having a strategy meeting with a regional organizer.

Neil, an activist in CESE (Communities for Environmental Safety Everywhere), sounding guilty but a little pleased

I have a little sermon I wanted to give – it's short, but I just want to say a little something about what I was thinking after I met with Wilma Balinsky's campaign for governor. She asked to talk to us, and see the incinerator site, and she wanted to know that we're not just alone, that we're not just babes in the woods or flaky liberals. I think we really convinced her, but we'll see. But it really made me think: we're getting somewhere! What we're doing here matters!

We're not in this for a big splash – we're in this to protect our future. If you care about the future, or even if you've ever had a child, or even if you haven't, you know that you're not in this just to make a scene or get attention. We're not doing this for ourselves, or because we want to make a fuss just for the purpose of making a fuss – we're in this to protect everyone's future. […]