I'm Coming to Your Door

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/20061/

 

 

 

I'm Coming to Your Door

By Christopher Childs, AlterNet

 

 

Posted on October 5, 2004, Printed on October 5, 2004

http://www.alternet.org/story/20061/

 

I'm used to speaking to groups of people – as a writer, a lecturer,

and a former actor, I've done a lot of that over the years – but when

it comes to introducing myself one-on-one to people, I can be very shy.

 

So you may well imagine that it takes something unusual to get me to

go door-to-door, in an unfamiliar neighborhood, handing out literature

and talking to people I've never met. But then, these are unusual times.

 

I've been a volunteer with my local chapter of the Sierra Club for

several years. A few weeks ago, I was asked to join the steering

committee for the chapter's Environmental Voter Education Campaign.

It's a campaign that identifies infrequent environmental voters,

contacts them more than once, and gives them comparative information

about the environmental records of George W. Bush and John Kerry. With

just the slightest qualm about all those doors, I said yes.

 

I'm selective about where I put my time and energy. But I've found

that what feels uncomfortable at first is often the most rewarding in

the long run. I've been involved for a couple of weeks now. That's

included meetings, some phoning, a press interview, and more to the

point, two afternoons of door-knocking. And you know, it hasn't been

so bad. In fact, the door-knocking has been kind of fun.

 

Almost everyone has appreciated the information I've given them, and

I've talked to everyone: from middle-aged ladies in bathrobes to a

room full of Native Americans to a visiting grandmother from Arizona

who practically sprinted over from the playground where she was

watching her grandson. Nobody – at least, once they found out I wasn't

asking for money – has complained about my interrupting their afternoon.

 

Before I was an activist – before I was a writer, or an actor for that

matter – I was a teacher. Thirty years after the fact, I find I still

like thinking of myself as an educator. In this case, happily, that

pretty much means letting the facts speak for themselves.

 

FACT: George W. Bush has tried to reconfigure the rules to let

coal-fired power plants emit up to three times more mercury than the

Clean Air Act, as written, would allow.

 

FACT: John Kerry co-sponsored the Clean Power Act of 2003, which would

have augmented the Clean Air Act and cut emissions of both mercury and

carbon dioxide; Kerry also backed the Edwards Amendment, which would

have delayed the Bush administration's efforts to let factories and

power plants make equipment changes without upgrading their pollution

controls.

 

FACT: Mr. Bush altered Clean Water Act rules to allow mining interests

to dump mountaintop removal wastes into mountain streams.

 

FACT: John Kerry voted to maintain the Clean Water Act prohibition

against the dumping of mountaintop removal and other wastes.

 

These few items are not even the tip of the iceberg.

 

It's my opinion that no aspect of the future of America is likely to

be unaffected by the results of the upcoming presidential election.

And for the environment, it's a watershed moment. What the people of

the United States decide on Nov. 2 will impact every environmental

issue – from global climate change, to air quality, to the water that

comes out of your kitchen tap.

 

We need people to go to the polls not merely with these thoughts in

mind, but with an education on both the positions and the track

records of the candidates.

 

So, I'm going to keep knocking on doors. You could say, without being

overly dramatic, that the times and the future demand it, but to me

it's equally important that the people I'm talking to just seem to

want to know the facts.

 

So please: get your bathrobes on, folks. I'm coming through again.

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/20061/