Days of doubts and fears
Hope is not to be be found in the science, or the polls, or in Copenhagen; there is none there. Hope is created by the love and courage of Laura, Jess, the CJF Six, and all of the others the world over wrestling with their doubts and fears, rising above them and taking meaningful action for climate justice. That is where Hope is. That is how Hope comes to be.
Student Life goes On
A phone call jarred me suddenly from my intense concentration, and, shaking film analysis from my head, I glanced from my laptop screen to the raucous cell phone on my desk. An unknown, local number appeared. I grabbed the phone and rushed out my room to the staircase in hopes of getting semi-decent reception.
“Hello?”I answered.
“Hello, is this Mikayla?” an adult woman’s voice asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“Hi, this is Nancy Thompson, the Dean of Students.” Surprised that the Dean of Students was calling my cell phone, I listened carefully. “I am calling about your hunger strike and was wondering if we could meet sometime this afternoon to talk about it? There are some things I feel that, as the dean, I should know and talk to you about.”
The Human Feedback
Upon reading Clive Hamilton's 'Is It Too Late to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change', a stark and frankly depressing review of recent scientific appraisals of humanity’s ability to avoid catastrophic climate change, I was immediately struck by one thought: ‘something is missing here’.
The most climate-vulnerable nations are our moral leaders
The Climate Vulnerable Forum started a few days ago in the Maldives, with heads of state from all the most climate-vulnerable nations in the world, whether low-lying islands; drought-stricken African nations; glacial nations like Nepal, Peru and others; or countries with flooding deltas like Bangladesh.
President Nasheed of the host-nation the Maldives made an inspiring speech outlining his strategy for these most vulnerable nations to take to the Copenhagen summit, and to make their nations carbon-neutral by 2020. It will be difficult, but it can be done!
Climate Justice Fast stands in solidarity with these inspirational leaders and their vulnerable nations.
Climate Justice Fast, ripples and waves
A drop of water blood
Mother
Are you crying?
Forgive us our sins
For we know not what we have done
Forgive me
So I can give the last drop to my brother
Horizontal
Because he is your son
And I am not your daughter.
Maybe I forgot
Your daughters feed the world.
They say I am
Mother, how did it happen
Your wounds?
Martha, participant
CJF Solidarity Rolling Fast
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Trombone and Contemplation
Trombone-less, I dropped to the floor outside the dressing room where I take my trombone lessons. John, my lesson teacher, had taken the news of my hunger strike very well and decided we should work on the mental aspects of musicianship for our last three lessons of the semester. God bless his soul. Shooting lungfuls of air through yards of metal tubing and yanking a slide back and forth can be tiring.
Greetings
While I'm not fasting due to the energetic demands of my personal commitments, I wholly and enthusiastically support CJF, and will be in Copenhagen helping field media requests, supporting the long-term fasters, and performing my solo show "The Boycott" at Klimaforum09.
True Insanity
Today, day four of the fast, I received this message from a friend of mine, who I know through my non-climate activities.
“I just saw the climate fast web site, wow. Take care.
Don't know who is more crazy, you for doing it or me (and the rest of the world) for not.”
I think he got it just right – a few people have said that this is a 'crazy' action, that we would 'be mad' to do anything that risks our health, but then still others I've spoken to have said that this was their initial reaction, but on thinking more deeply about it, they realised the truth.
