A note from the webmaster: One of the SSC's own, Eric, posted in our closed Facebook group after attending a public meeting with several other members. While his post and further comments were only meant for the SSC to see, I was moved by his insightfulness. I share with you his poignantly written perspective, which touches on divestment's unique position as a fulcrum for environmental and social justice issues. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
[Posted December 16, 2016]
"Even though we went to that meeting intending to speak about divestment alone, I think we all may have learned a bit of a valuable lesson. There's obviously a lot that goes on on this campus. We, as environmentalists, cannot be insular and only talk about green, green, green stuff.
We need to be at the very least involved with other student groups, especially ones that don't look and sound exactly like us. Because at the end of the day, the tough, heavy fights, of which divestment is certainly one, can't be won by a dozen or so students. We need student voices, and we need a lot of them. And we need students to tell each other, outside of our individual area of influence.
Intersectionality is a big part of environmentalism these days, and for very good reason. There's obviously way more to life and sustainability than recycling, reusable water bottles, and Earth Day. When it comes down to it a lot of the disconnect some people have with the environmental movement has to do with the fact that they have more pressing, immediate concerns. When we become allies in those struggles, we will find allies ourselves.
It wasn't really a meeting today. We all went to the USM Board of Regents public meeting to try to bend someone's ear about divestment and drop off our petitions. But it turns out we sat and watched the Byrd Stadium thing play out, complete with passionate testimonial, Loh, Kirwan, the Senate, et al having changed their mind, etc. It was powerful and I definitely think that until our group is known to be at least involved with work like that we'll be too separate from other campus groups. Social justice and environmental justice are hand in hand! Something we can really focus on next semester and thereafter."