Things to Do: Walk the Talk and March

Sculpture on the grounds of Scaligero Castle, Malcesine, Lake Garda, Italy.

On March 1, 2014 a group of Climate Activists will leave Santa Monica, California and begin their trek to reach their destination, Washington D.C., nine months later. They are seeking volunteer marchers now for the full journey or part time at their website: The Great March for Climate Action.

This 3,000 mile trip will wind through Phoenix, Des Moines, Chicago and Pittsburgh with the intention to raise awareness of Climate Change.  Ed Fallon, a former Iowa politician, is leading the march and hopes to convince the politicians in Washington of the great need to take action now on this crisis.

Marching on Washington is not a new thing but it is a peculiarly American thing. If other countries gather groups of like-minded people and march and/or travel hundreds of miles in buses to stand together and speak loudly as one voice at the halls where laws are made, I am not aware of it. The demonstrations held in Egypt's Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring were directed at its country's leadership but the organized traveling over a long distance was missing. There was of course Gandhi's March to the Sea to make salt and it was quite well attended, gathering throngs of people as it moved through the countryside. But the Salt March involved a purposeful action taken together at the end of the march and held an indirect though very revolutionary message to the leadership.

Does a march to the capital have social value still? There are some who think it's a tiresome everyday thing now and nothing will match the significance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington so why do it? What purpose does it fulfill?

Why commit yourself to a cause? Why try to make a difference? Why hope that others will see what you see and work with you toward a better tomorrow for our kids and their kids? Why get up off the couch at all? It is so easy for a journalist to say that even the smallest march has little to no meaning if one is not involved in it. Marching, like all acts of commitment, enrich the marcher and enrich the viewer. The more miles a person commits to walk, the greater effect the act will have on them. The more press the march receives, the more people witnessing this action, the more people will talk about the topic of Climate Change and its possible solutions.

There is an audio of author Jean Shepherd and his story of the March on Washington. You can hear in this great storyteller's voice, from his retelling of it, what this march meant to him personally, what a profound effect it had on him. And he marvels that no journalist reported on the amazing tenor of the crowd, the kindness and support all exhibited toward each other - marchers, policemen, bystanders alike. And then he also notes that no journalists that he knew of or had read of had actually made the journey on a bus, that most had arrived the night before the marchers arrived on the buses so they missed out on this significant emotional undercurrent. It's a great and riveting listen if you have 20 minutes. This had to have changed his life and there is no way of measuring how that effect affected others. For all we know, the ripple he started in his own sphere of influence may still be going on.

The enormous historic impact of  King's I have a Dream speech at the March and Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha, could not have been fully anticipated at the time they were planned. I am sure both men were surprised and pleased that the reception of their actions brought meaning to so many people's lives. These actions still do. Their actions and those who followed them spoke of a very basic human truth. We all want to be free to live our lives in peace. It is that truth that makes these moments in time so very dear to us.

This Great March on Climate Action could be one of those moments in time. Climate Change is this generation's challenge and is the most difficult challenge that any generation has had to face.

People concerned about Climate Change are speaking out today  
despite the extreme social pressure to not talk of it,
despite the extremely negligent and misguided media that, for the most part, is denying that it is happening and despite the fact that it is a very sad thing to contemplate.

Much of what we love about our planet will be lost due to our refusal to act before today.
Much MORE will be lost if we continue this silence.

Please join in The Great March for Climate Action or if you can't walk, please donate to defray their expenses.