Sustainable Health and Well-Being
  • About SHWB
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Resources
  • Contact

Speak Truth To Power

8/25/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
R.A.M.P.S. Activists - post release from jail
The election is only a couple of months away. These are ugly, ugly times. Grown-ups who should know better are saying ugly, hurtful, stupid things. People with power talk about ways to use that power to take even more from others, from more vulnerable people. I  am not looking forward to the next few weeks of rancor and spite. Of seeing evidence of misuse and abuse of power.

I remember thinking and talking about power in high school, reading All the King's Men. Hearing for the first time -- "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Really? Does power always corrupt? I hope not - but sometimes it does. Are we helpless in the face of power that has gone bad, rotten, and rancid? I don't believe that we are. 
 
Speak truth to power. In the 1950's, Quakers spoke these words as they advocated for international peace and alternatives to violence. Speak truth to power. That is what black people and their allies did in the Civil Rights Movement - this is wrong; we will not do this anymore; we will not tolerate this. We see it today in the actions of Pussy Riot in Russia and in the Occupy Movement across the world. We see it in all efforts to defend basic human rights to safety, security, freedom, health.

Speak truth to power. I heard these words many times this summer as I listened to young and not-so-young people put their freedom on the line to resist mountain top removal, most recently in the R.A.M.P.S. direct action at the Hobet Mine in West Virginia. Speaking truth to power requires us to search for and wield courage, to be willing to take risks.

In the last couple of weeks, here in Pittsburgh, I met with people who are trying to speak truth to power. Last week, I met Gretchen Alfonso who is trying to establish a Pittsburgh branch office for Moms Clean Air Force, a national movement lobbying for better government regulation of air quality to protect their children's rights to clean air, for the sake of their healthy development.  

Picture
A couple of weeks ago, I heard some folks speak truth to power at an ALCOSAN community forum, where ALCOSAN presented its plans to deal with Pittsburgh's "wet weather" problem - when it rains or when snow melts, excess water can overload the sewer system resulting in sewage overflows into area creeks, streams and rivers, also carrying pollutants, grit, and debris with it. Community members spoke loudly and clearly about the need to include green infrastructure - green roofs, trees, rain barrels and rain gardens, permeable pavements - in the long-range plans, both to reduce costs of the projects and to find solutions that will add to environmental health.
Picture
These are courageous people working for the health and well-being of all of us. But speaking truth to power doesn't always involve being out in public, being part of large movements or organizations, risking arrest. In quiet ways, firm and committed ways, each of us can do our part to resist what is hurtful... by, in Albert Einstein's words, not participating in anything you believe is evil. 

And in quiet, firm, and committed ways, we can counter power gone bad by building, growing, nourishing what we know to be good. Rachel Anne Parsons, a young woman from West Virginia who is the first to say that she doesn't like going out on the front lines in crowds, uses words to foster good and courage and to fight mountain top removal - beautiful words that inspire hope.  

Others literally grow power. A couple of days ago, I re-visited the Hazelwood Food Forest and found a lush forest that is the fruit of careful planning and hard labor by the Pittsburgh Permaculture group - Juliet and Michele - and many volunteers - there are asian pears, apples, berries, peaches, herbs. I hadn't been there in over a year. On this visit, I got to help Bret and Don seal a bench made of cob, a mixture of straw, soil, sand, and water. Reclaiming abandoned lots in impoverished areas and growing food -- Chris Condello has also done this, done "guerilla gardening," passing along valuable life skills to children who may not even realize that food grows from the earth, is not made in a factory. Empowering ourselves and others to learn how to take care of ourselves and one another. My brother Ray does this in Louisville, KY, sharing his wisdom about farming and permaculture with his community, growing raised beds at nursing homes so that older people can continue to garden. 

This is also speaking truth to power - to our own power - "I can do this. We can together do this" - and to that other power that is not always used in the interests of the common good - "We are not helpless - we are strong and will speak up to you from all fronts, with our words, our hammers and rakes and hoes, our votes, and our seeds."
Speak truth to power. Dig down deep inside and find your own power - look at it, bring it out into the light, share it - even when faced with those who don't share. Use that beautiful power for yourself and for the people around you. Use that power of heart and intellect when you vote - but take it further into the world of those who are falsely judged not to have power. You - and they - have power beyond your imagining. You have powerful powerful gifts that can build community, plant seeds of love, heal what is hurt. 
1 Comment

Mountain Justice Part 2 - Creature Comforts and Contradictions

5/26/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
This is for Sophie, Julia, Carol Judy, Matt and Billy P., Wendy, Rachel, Dave, Lou, Patty, Joe, Matt Landon, Stacey, Larry, Jason, Gabby, Junior, Sid, and Dana, and many many others. Thank you for sharing your ideas hearts and minds with me and so many others over the last week.

Creature Comforts - oh so important 
  • Accomplishment - I pitched my tent in 20 minutes! It was tight and tidy. Slept great the first night. Second day, around noon, I headed back into the tent to grab my notebook, and found a carpet of ants - crunchy icky wiggly ants - under my sleeping bag. See, we had been warned not to have food in our tents (because of bears - ants were not mentioned) but I decided to sneak in a Pop-Tart before snuggling into my sleeping bag. I thought I had put the wrapper in a zip-loc bag, but had accidentally left a tiny one inch square piece of foil that the ants just could not resist. Plus, I had pitched the tent right on top of a giant ant hill. So... swept it out and moved it to a new location. Got to sleep a couple of nights later through a great thunderstorm but stayed dry. 
  • Porta-potties are not too bad, as long as they are emptied and cleaned regularly. And as long as you can figure out the whole latch system - had one brief period where I was locked in and couldn't figure out how to release the door. Whew. Or pee-yew.
  • GREAT food - Lots of tofu and tempeh - and eggs and apples and bread and also fresh veggies from the farm nearby. Much more food than I needed. 
  • MUSIC! Monday night we were gifted with the music of The Missing Parsons Report - headed by brothers Matt and Billy - mandolin, guitar, banjo, fiddle - old old old folk songs. The highlight - Matt singing Dark as the Dungeon  mining dirge, a cappella. 
  • The best part of it all - the people - hugging, serving food, washing dishes side by side, sharing ideas frustrations and plans, singing.
  • True confession - headed to the Pipestem State Park Lodge after the fourth night in the tent where I had a ceramic toilet, shower, and, more importantly, a little space on my own just to think.
Contradictions - stretched my mind...
  • Tuesday morning we spent several hours digging into anti-oppression talk. We began with what initially seemed to be a pretty simple small group exercise with two questions - When have you felt excluded? When have you excluded others? Okay. Not so simple, it turns out. There was lots of pain evident as folks recalled times when they had very actively and blatantly or even subtly been excluded - as young children, in high school of course (lots and lots of those stories), as adults. More surprising - many people talked about how they isolated or "excluded" themselves from groups or activities, often from fear of being rejected or misunderstood. And there was pain in the memories of times when we had not been so kind - either deliberately or unintentionally - and in our efforts to understand why this had happened. 
  • Oppression? Related to physical, mental, intellectual abilities. To race, class, ethnicity. To sexual orientation or gender identity. To religious beliefs and practices. To military status. To educational status or work life.... too many ways that we sort people out and put them into categories, weighing their value in such odd and unimportant ways, resulting in so much damage.
  • Talking about this stuff was important as we moved into talking about how we can work with others in respectful ways in our efforts to stop mountain top removal - members of the mountain communities, politicians, miners, other activists who think or act differently. We put mega-buckets of energy and effort into talking and thinking about this. It was hard but necessary - and uncovered parts of my mind and heart that had not seen light for awhile.
  • Early afternoon on Tuesday, I took a ride into town, needing a little time by myself to process all that we had talked about. I turned on the radio, by happenstance tuning into an American Family Radio station. Within ten minutes, I heard two brief stories that kind of blew my mind. One, a talk show guest, who represented himself as a Christian attorney, took a call from a pastor who described a troublesome situation at his church - a man had recently started attending the church, sometimes accompanied by a service dog and sometimes alone but using a cane to help him navigate. The caller's question - was the church legally obligated to allow the man to attend with the service animal? The parishioners found the man "odd" and thought it was "strange" that he sometimes had the dog, and sometimes didn't. The attorney assured the caller that the church was within its legal rights not to allow the service dog in the church, in effect leading to the exclusion of the new church-goer. Well. Second, two talk show hosts voiced anger and disgust that a Macy's employee had been disciplined for not allowing a transgendered individual to use the women's restroom - "I would have said, 'Dude, use the dude's bathroom.' HE's the sick one - HE is the one who should be in trouble." This conversation was presented in sarcastic, snarky tones.
The world is full of contradictions, isn't it? Hurtful contradictions - hard to fathom - divisive - counter-productive - hateful - ignorant. But it is so so so very important to face these contradictions and to dig down deep for the courage both to unearth our own cruelties and to  speak up - respectfully and firmly - when we observe the cruelties of others... to speak up about the value of every human being, about their rights to live in a home, a natural environment that is protected from the life-killing toxins related to particular industry practices.

Our natural world breathes - miraculously alive, ever-growing and changing.
2 Comments

Mountain Justice, Part 1

5/24/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
What a week. I am not sure where to start - or even if I should start. My week at the Mountain Justice Summer Camp has been - inspiring, confusing, disturbing, mind-stretching, soul-feeding, humbling.

I have been trying to figure out how I ended up at the camp, what led me to sign up for this week in Pipestem, WV. The best that I can recall - about a year ago, I read the Post-Gazette reports about the investigation into the Upper Big Branch mining disaster, and it made me ill - the callous disregard of coal mine owners, particularly Don Blankenship, for the health and well-being of the miners and the mining communities and the "look the other way" practices of publicly funded regulatory bodies made me ill. Shortly thereafter I decided to participate in the March on Blair Mountain, wanting to understand the issues better, wondering if and how they might connect to Western Pennsylvania's own fracking controversies. So I went to Blair Mountain, and then continued to read and listen, and somehow ended up at the Mountain Justice camp in the heart of the Appalachians.

My parents grew up in Harlan County, KY, in the small US Steel-owned coal-mining town of Lynch. They shopped at the company store, and lived in company-owned homes on the clearly socially-stratified main street of town (an old story - it was a little scandalous that my mother, who lived in the No. 6 block, married my father, whose family lived in No. 5). As a child, we visited Lynch often - the smell of the mountains this week took me back immediately to Lynch. 

None of my grandparents or uncles worked in the mines, but my dad's cousins and uncles did. I remember stories about black lung disease, and mine injuries. I also remember what I heard a lot about this week - the boom and bust cycle of being a miner. Boys I knew became miners as early as possible - this was in the boom years - and had big cars and married young. A few years later, they were poor. Back and forth, up and down.

My parents lived in Lynch for awhile after they married, then left when my dad decided to go to the University of KY to study engineering. But to my mom, Lynch was "home." So learning - or re-learning - about mountains and mining has pulled at me over the last year in ways that I can't quite understand or explain.

The camp took place at the Appalachian South Folk Life Center - a pastoral setting looking out on breathtakingly beautiful mountains. Each morning, I sat at the top of a hill looking out over the misted mountains, listening to the birds. And all day into the evening I attended workshops about mountain top removal from all angles - Appalachian culture and history, rural vs urban activism, facilitation practices, solidarity economics, non-hierarchical organizing. I was one of only a few folks older than 40 (okay, I was probably the oldest person there), and I had the privilege of learning from much younger people who were either born in some part of Appalachia or have chosen to live and work there, all serving as social justice activists. I don't know what I expected - I don't know that I had any particular expectations - but what I experienced was unexpected. 

The people in Mountain Justice, and related groups such as Radical Action for Mountain Peoples' Survival, Coal River Mountain Watch, Larry Gibson's Mountain Keepers, and others, work with community members to understand, monitor, plan, and act to stop the practice of mountain top removal. The movement to stop MTR is based upon the devastating destruction to the ecosystem of the mountains and related long-lasting harm to the physical, communal, social, and emotional lives of community members. There is a substantial body of research documenting the damage done to water systems, wildlife, human health, economic stability, community life.

And yes, the opponents of MTR are allies with others involved in fighting extractive industries, those involved with extracting coal, gas, and oil - with a particular focus on opposing the manner in which the industries operate, again with little regard for the immediate and long-term damage to human life and the ecosystem. So yes, this movement to end MTR is related closely to the efforts in Western PA and elsewhere to stop hydraulic fracturing for natural gas - better known as fracking.

What else did I learn? I got to spend time with people who defined themselves variously as radicals, activists, and anarchists, who question and are committed to swimming upstream against mainstream ideology and against business as usual, when this business hurts people. Today, two groups of campers participated in direct actions - one involving five people who chained themselves to a coal-carrying barge in Charleston, WV (yes, they were arrested) and another involving dozens of people who blocked a road leading up to an MTR site, making it impossible for the trucks that transport coal and other materials to pass through. 

And I also learned that I have a whole lot more to think about. Not sure where I fit into this whole scenario, or where I go with what I learned. More later... about people, and food, and music, and stories...

0 Comments

happy birthday! one year of writing...

3/30/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
One year ago today I wrote my first blog entry! I have been wondering for awhile how I would celebrate this first year of writing -- and am still not sure what is going to follow -- let's just see what happens.

What a year! There have been so many wonderful events in the last year -- Michael and Leah's wedding, visits with Julie and Greg and the dogs, meeting Greg's family, Michael's graduation, spending time with Steve and his family, and with my sisters and brothers and parents, and catching up with old friends. At work -- got my contract renewal for three more years, got the first cohort of doctoral students heading to internship, had an article published, kept the budget balanced, and hired a couple of new folks. I got to teach two new classes -- psychology, sustainability, and the environment, and spirituality and religion and counseling -- both near and dear to my heart. And the students. Oh the students - they make it so worth while.

I have learned so much this year since I set out to write about "sustainable health and well-being." I started out exploring some local groups - Pittsburgh Permaculture and their food forest in Hazelwood, Nine Mile Run Watershed Association who helped me get my rain barrels set up, Chris Condello and his efforts to engage kids in his Wilkinsburg neighborhood in community gardening, F.U.S.E. with Michele and Chris who work with urban youth after school, and POWER that serves women in recovery, ... and I went to the March for Blair Mountain to learn about mountain top removal. I started learning more about about other systems of life and living, learning a bit, for example, about how green infrastructure can be used to  manage waste water, and about how fixing our decaying roads and bridges could provide meaningful work for many people who need jobs, and about how people from ALL faiths can work together to address such community problems as cuts in transportation, poor educational systems, and guns in the hands of angry people.  

Check out the picture above. That is what I learned -- what got reinforced for me -- that we are all connected, all of us people, with the birds and beasts, the trees and rivers, the soil and air, and other people from everywhere. We have been doing it WRONG for far too long. We have been acting as though humans (specifically, humans with privilege) are all that matter -- that getting our "needs" met, with little regard for how the methods of meeting our needs affect other people or the world around us, is the highest priority, the ultimate entitlement. We lose so much when we do this -- not only is the earth, our support system without which we would not exist, threatened, but the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren (if we all survive into the future) is threatened. And we miss out on the greatest gifts in life -- the gifts of community, generosity, sharing, and creating.

What, if anything, do we owe those children and grandchildren of our future? My new friend, Cynthia Magistro, who recently joined our faculty, just finished writing a beautiful piece about this very topic -- she speaks about our accepted sense of obligation, as parents, toward our own children. At the family level, we understand that we need to care for these tiny vulnerable beings until they can care for themselves -- and often beyond. This requires sacrifice on our part, giving things up, waiting, in order to insure that the young ones' needs are met, that they are safe and healthy. Cynthia extends this thinking to the much larger world, asking questions about what our generation, globally speaking, owes the world's children of the future. What is fair and just? What is morally and ethically correct? What does it say about our generation if we are not attempting to live lives that are sustainable and balanced, if we are misusing and overusing our limited resources? I am not doing Cynthia's ideas justice here, but wanted to share some of her basic questions with you anyway.

I am reading a new report published by the National Wildlife Foundation that speaks to the mental health consequences of global climate change -- there is evidence that we are experiencing effects of global climate change in recent severe weather events (remember all the hurricanes and tornadoes and droughts and other strange weather in 2011?). There are predictions that this may worsen if our course is not corrected. When things get so topsy-turvy and scary around us like this, there are increases in anxiety and depression and even, in extreme situations, post-traumatic stress disorder. There are lots of folks who are also talking about threats to water supplies, and how conflicts in the future may be related not to oil but to fresh and clean water. This report reinforced my beliefs that psychologists and other health care professionals need to know about these issues, and to think about them when they work with their clients. Add to this the importance of learning about the health consequences of other human-caused environmental assaults, such as mountain top removal or toxin-emitting factories.

So I keep thinking about these things and I keep listening for my calling about what to do. For some reason, though I have been away from Kentucky for many many years (I have now lived over half my life in Pittsburgh), I feel pulled toward the mountains. So here is my next plan.... I think.... going to the Summer Action Camp sponsored by the Mountain Justice Organization, in Pipestem, West Virginia in May. I will admit that I am a little worried that I will be the oldest person there. I am a little worried that it is, like, a CAMP -- and I have to admit that I like beds. With mattresses and sheets. And I am fond of toilets. Ceramic ones that flush. And showers. But if those basics are assured, I may try this.

And long-term plans? I will be 60 next June (2013) -- am going to try to bike from Pittsburgh to Washington DC on the rails trail. Trying to build up "time in the saddle" now. Biking slows me down and helps me notice and appreciate the little things -- birds, wildflowers, little creeks and waterfalls, old abandoned buildings, colorful graffiti. 

Life is good. Very good. And how are you?

1 Comment

Pittsburgh is hoppin'

11/15/2011

0 Comments

 
Two events are happening this week in Pittsburgh that tap into important social justice issues. The first is at Chatham tomorrow afternoon. Two other professors and I will be sharing our stories of participation in the Blair Mountain March last May. Mountain Top Removal is a practice that is devastating to the natural environment as well as the physical, emotional, and communal well-being of the people in the area - and it is notable that the people most significantly affected are among the poorest in the nation. (Excuse the wonky graphics.... had a hard time getting these up!)
Then Thursday, late afternoon, we will be on Greenfield Bridge to advocate for jobs for people who want to work - and for the possibility of creating these jobs to repair the decaying infrastructure of the city - like the Greenfield Bridge. Meaningful work that contributes to the community as well as the family's financial health - sounds like a good idea!
On another note - I met a very cool gentleman at the Square today - the ecological artist Alan Kettler - who will be having an exhibit at the Square on December 3. Stay tuned for more information - I am predicting that you will LOVE his work. Even just viewing it online this morning helped me to start the day with a light and hopeful heart - hard to explain, but check it out.

Have a great week in this crazy weather!
0 Comments

    Author

    Mary Beth Mannarino is a licensed psychologist and   an environmental and climate educator and activist. Dr. Mannarino is professor emeritus at Chatham University where she continues to teach courses to students in health professions related to environment and well-being.

    Picture

    Follow MBMannarino on Twitter
    My Bloggy Rules...
    I write about my own experiences, opinions, dreams, and ideas. I invite you to share your ideas, and to be part of a dialogue. I will make mistakes! But it is great to take the risk to put this out there and, more importantly, to hear from you.

    Archives

    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    August 2013
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

    Categories

    All
    Air
    Art
    Biking
    Children
    Climate Change
    Coal
    Community
    Culture
    Economics
    Energy
    Environment
    Faith
    Families
    Family
    Food
    Forgiveness
    Immigration
    Jobs
    Leadership
    Love
    Mountains
    Mountain Top Removal
    Nature
    Occupy Movement
    Peace
    Politics
    Pollution
    Religion And Spirituality
    Social Action
    Social Justice
    Sustainability
    Transportation
    Water
    Well Being
    Well-being
    Work

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.