March 21st, 1998
SO ONLY AMERICANS DESERVE THE EARTH?
By Jackie Giuliano
Witches Hanging (from the cover of "Witchcraze" by Anne Llewellyn Barstow)
I have come to terms with the future.
From this day onward I will walk
easy on the earth. Plant trees. Kill
no living things. Live in harmony with
all creatures. I will restore the earth
where I am. Use no more of its resources
than I need. And listen, listen to what
it is telling me.
-- M.J. Slim Hooey
I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or
her who shall be complete,
The earth remains jagged and broken only to him
or her who remains jagged and broken.
-- Walt Whitman
A dark underground world exists in our midst, a world that privileged folk never see - a
world filled with despair, fear, hopelessness, and confusion. You may think I am speaking
of the world of drug use, prostitution, or other crime, but this world is less dramatic. I
am speaking of a world populated by hard working people, people struggling to find their
way in a world that is designed by the wealthy to benefit the affluent.
I spent the morning with my friend Wendell at an attorney’s office in Los Angeles who
gives free legal advice to people in trouble with the system. The waiting room was filled
with a cross-section of the diverse population of Los Angeles - all except the affluent.
All were people of one color or another, speaking many languages, and of all ages. An old
woman came in with a walker with problems with her landlord. Another Hispanic gentleman
was also trying to stay in his home without being evicted.
These people are not villains, not the dregs of society trying to take advantage of the
system. They are all clean and polite and respectful. And they are scared. They are scared
because although they support the affluent culture by doing most of the menial labor, they
are considered the scapegoats for its problems.
The class structure of L.A. is filled with contradictions and inequities. Of L.A.
County’s more than 9 million people, 3.4 million are Latino, nearly a million are
African American, another million are Asian or Pacific Islander, and nearly 4 million are
Anglo. For some time, the majority of "Angelenos" have been people of color, yet
a small, wealthy elite group manages the largest industrial center in the United States.
The vast array of oil refineries and aerospace companies still provide relatively
high-paying, skilled jobs for the mostly white, white-collar workers. But most of the
workforce of the area work in the hotel, restaurant, garment, chemical, solvent
processing, and electronic industries. These industries have workforces that are built on
low-paid, usually non-union, mostly non-white workers. Seventy-five percent of these
low-wage workers are people of color.
It will come as no surprise to learn that most of these low-paid workers are the ones most
likely to be exposed to toxics from the metal plating, janitorial, garment, and
electronics industries. These are the people who have little recourse when a legal problem
arises in their lives.
Many people of color in these industries are women, many of whom have suffered the worst
management as well as environmental abuses. Yet on the foundation of toxic exposure,
poverty, and sweat that these people of color provide, a world-class, white elite
dominates the Los Angeles scene.
To quote a document put out by L.A.’s own Air Quality Management agency (AQMD) called
"L.A.’s Lethal Air," L.A. is the dominant financial center on the West
Coast, producing a "goldmine for corporate executives, film entrepreneurs, lawyers,
accountants, real estate agents, stockbrokers, and owners of luxury shops, pricey
restaurants, and car dealerships." Of California’s 5,462 millionaires (1991
figures), more than half live in Los Angeles.
Yet a small, vocal minority of the leadership of the Sierra Club has decided that they
cannot have any effect on the affluent and their resource use. They have decided that
their only solution is to close the doors of the U.S. to immigrants. They have joined the
bandwagon of immigrant bashing that has swept the country’s right wing political
leaders and their supporters.
My wife, Dr. Bonnie Wolkenstein, came across an article on this phenomenon the other day
and was disturbed by its implications. She wrote the following commentary about it, and I
would like to offer it to you. Bonnie becomes Healing Our World’s first guest
columnist.
Bonnie is a psychologist on the faculty of Antioch University Los Angeles and the director
of the Antioch University Counseling Center. She is responsible for running this low-cost,
community based mental health clinic that serves the community and trains the therapists
of tomorrow. She is an expert not only in mental health issues, but is a recognized
authority on the issues of older adults - the field of gerontology. I find her comments
particularly insightful, since her background is not in the environmental fields.
IMMIGRANTS: THE NEXT ENDANGERED SPECIES?
by Bonnie Wolkenstein, Ph.D.
Pretty wildlife cards. Lovely calendars. Nature hikes. Raising money to save the
environment. I used to think of the Sierra Club as a nice organization, one of the good
guys out there trying to raise consciousness and money to do the right thing.
Now, of course, that bastion of comfort is gone. The Sierra Club ballot initiative -
already mailed out to the 550,000 members who have until April 19 to vote - to end U.S.
population growth by reducing immigration is seemingly real, seemingly gaining momentum.
This initiative was written by the sons and daughters of immigrants, since unless we are
Native American, all of us in the United States are here because of immigration. Each
generation of immigration poses new problems, highlights inequities in the status quo, yet
each generation came here from somewhere else. Some came willingly, some were enslaved to
come here, some came merely to escape unspeakable oppression. But we all came here as
immigrants. Our family trees have parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and
great-grandparents who spoke a variety of languages other than English. Our family history
is rich with tales of life in other countries, the hope that in America things would be
better, and the dream to come to America and try, no matter what the risk, to build a new
life.
Over time, world population has grown. More and more people require more and more
resources. Yet we have plenty of food to feed the hungry, plenty of space to build
shelter. But only if we choose to use our resources wisely. Greed is the only reason
Americans consume the lion’s share of the Earth’s resources.
The solution, according to the Sierra Club’s Alternative A, is to limit immigration
into the United States. Somehow, if people live elsewhere, the environment can be saved.
As if people living in Mexico and Chile and Russia and Iran and South Africa will take up
less of the environment’s precious resources if they simply stay home.
How does preserving the United States from people seen as - those foreigners - produce
more edible food, cleaner air and water, eliminate the toxins in the dirt, and lessen the
amount of materials that go into landfills? How does banning entry to this country affect
the ozone layer, global warming, the availability of environmentally conscious education?
Despite my limited knowledge of the issues affecting the environment, in my view reducing
or banning immigration doesn’t answer these questions. It does, however, answer some
age-old questions, such as - how should the white man maintain privilege and power? and
how quickly can people forget their roots?
If past efforts to eliminate or reduce immigration were passed, I would not be here to
write this article. Jackie wouldn’t be here, either, since he’d be somewhere
locked in Italy with his mother or in Russia with his father. My friend Anna would be with
her friends and family in Poland. My friend Kristin would be in Germany. My grandmother
may have never lived here at all, since how could a Romanian possibly get in? I’m not
sure about my friend Rebecca. Her Native American ancestors would still be here (as free
members of society or as a lower/working/slave class, it’s hard to tell), but they
would have never met up with the Mexican side of her family, so she simply wouldn’t
exist. My friend April may still have been here, since her ancestors came on slave ships.
Slavery might still be acceptable if we didn’t have immigrants available to work for
very little.
Yet Andrea, another friend who would never be here, is now working for an environmental
company, helping people research the important aspects of what has happened to various
pieces of land over the years.
And Jackie has devoted his life to helping people build their connections with the natural
world so that they would take better care of it.
How many people deeply invested in bettering our planet are the sons and daughters of
immigrants, or are immigrants themselves?
Slowing immigration will NOT slow environmental degradation. No amount of publicity, talk
shows, newspaper articles, and politicians blathering on and on can correlate the
connection between immigration and environmental issues.
Still, the Sierra Club has asserted there is a connection. And when the Sierra Club talks,
people listen. State legislatures and Congress listen when the Sierra Club raises an
environmental concern. The Sierra Club has made, up until now, the concept of
environmentalism a popular one. Save a few trees, help the beautiful animals with the sad
eyes - sure, people were willing to donate to the Sierra Club.
But now a new rash of people is willing to support the Sierra Club, people in
anti-immigrant groups, and white supremacists. Also supporting the anti-immigation line
taken by the Sierra Club is the Pioneer Fund, a trust founded in the 1930s by textile
baron Wycliffe P. Draper. He promoted sending blacks back to Africa and bankrolled
research in eugenics (selective breeding experiments used by the Nazis).
Other, seemingly good guys are also jumping on the bandwagon: Dorothy Green, founding
president of Heal the Bay in Santa Monica, California; Lester Brown, co-founder and
president of the Worldwatch Institute; Earth Day founder and former U.S. Senator Gaylord
Nelson (D-Wis.); Former interior secretary Stewart Udall.
Population Environment Balance and Zero Population Growth, two organizations who advocate
population control on environmental grounds, have encouraged Sierra Club members to
support the initiative. Population Environment Balance even sent flyers to its members
openly prodding them to join the Sierra Club, including its version of a Sierra Club
membership application.
So, what’s a person to do? Should I boycott Sierra Club cards and calendars? Should I
postpone sending in my membership fees? Should I write a letter to Adam Werbach, the
25-year-old president of the club who originally said he would resign if the measure
passed, but now says he won’t? Should I join the Club and vote against the
initiative? What effect could my actions have, anyway, on issues as large as immigration
and the environment?
No doubt, people in every country of the world must take seriously the notion of how
quickly the population is growing. People in every country must also look at the real
issues behind resource use and misuse. Each of us could personally limit the ridiculous
amounts of resources we use, under the false concept of - need. Each of us could look
behind the emotionally-charged concept of immigration as being the evil which will destroy
the good fortune of the United States to find the real side of immigration: the very
backbone of this country.
Not unless you are willing to say that you and your family should not have been allowed to
enter this country are you clear to support Sierra Club’s Alternative A. If you
cannot make this assertion, you cannot support this initiative.
But your responsibility does not end here. We have serious questions about the environment
and lengthy tasks ahead in order to protect and save the environment. If the environment
weren’t in such dire shape, perhaps some people wouldn’t have jumped to a racial
solution. When times are tough, so-called racial cleansing always seems to pop up as the
answer.
Your responsibility is to find the real answer. The answer that starts with what you can
do - and what you can refrain from doing.
PROPOSITION 187 STRUCK DOWN
Earth (NASA photo: taken by the Galileo spacecraft as it approaches Earth for a
gravity assist on its way to Jupiter at 6:10 a.m. PST on Dec. 11, 1990, when the
spacecraft was about 1.3 million miles from the Earth)
I agree with Bonnie’s assessment. I believe that most immigrants to the United
States, largely due to their lower incomes, live much more lightly than we privileged
Americans. I believe that they consume fewer resources. Stop the rampant resource use in
Beverly Hills and you will be making a significant contribution to increasing the health
of our planet.
The opinion of that vocal minority in the Sierra Club was served a blow on Wednesday,
March 18, 1998 when a federal judge in Los Angeles issued the final order declaring that
the core provisions of California Proposition 187 - the anti-immigration law - were
unconstitutional. Illegal immigrants cannot be denied health care, schools, and social
services.
The fear of enactment of this law has had a chilling effect on the immigrants of Los
Angeles. Many children, and adults, have died since that 1994 ballot initiative was
passed, even though there was a court injunction. Parents, even those who were legally in
this country, would not take their sick and injured children to the hospital for fear that
the law would deport them. This effect will probably continue for some time since the
complexities of our legal system do not translate well into non-English speaking
communities.
We cannot give up taking personal responsibility and search for scapegoats. We cannot shut
ourselves off from the rest of the world. We cannot pretend that everything will be OK if
we are just left alone.
Look at the Earth from space. There are no dotted lines separating the countries - in fact
there are no countries. There is only earth and air and water and those who live there.
There is only a living, breathing planet, crying in pain, desperate for her inhabitants to
stop pretending that we are not connected and to start taking care of each other.
As we experience the powerful time of year known as Ostara, the Spring Equinox, we have an
opportunity to invite life into our separate and isolated worlds. This is the time of year
when the ice melts, the ground softens, and new seeds grow. Welcome the sunlight into your
heart and allow new seeds to grow - seeds of acceptance, of responsibility, and of
compassion.
The forest may sometimes seem quiet,
dark
empty.
But that is only because we aren’t used to
listening
hearing
seeing
feeling.
With a little practice you can feel
the life all around you
struggling
hoping
working
dreaming
the same dreams as you.
With a little practice you can feel
the sameness of the life all around you
breathing
eating
moving
playing
loving
the same things as you.
With a little practice, you can let go of
the fear
the greed
the terrible confusion about our place in nature
and open to
the sounds of the Earth crying
the sounds of the babies crying
the sounds of people laughing
the sounds of our breath breathing.
Just listen.
-- Jackie Giuliano
RESOURCES
1. Read the Sierra Club’s member ballot initiative at http://www.sierraclub.org/sc_elections/1998/pop.htm
2. Send the Sierra Club your comments at information@sierraclub.org
3. Read a critical analysis of the Sierra Club ballot measure called “The Greening of
Hate” at http://www.nnirr.org/background/greening.html
4. Visit the Immigration Superhighway and learn how to help an immigrant get legal status
at http://www.immigration-usa.com/i_suphwy.html
5. Learn about the history of our immigration policy and see some rational choices for the
future at http://www.immigration-usa.com/debate.html
6. Read an interesting article about how our attention has turned to accumulating wealth
at http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_wealth2.html
7. Learn about alternatives to consumerism from Adbusters at http://www.adbusters.org./main.html
8. Become a more compassionate eater by exploring the non-animal food choices we have.
Visit Earthsave at http://www.earthsave.org/
9. Visit Changelinks for a comprehensive listing of activist happenings in Southern
California as well as links and articles at 10. Get help with the
complexities of life with thought provoking articles at the Context Institute. Visit them
at http://www.labridge.com/change-links/
11. Visit a comprehensive list of peace listings at http://www.nonviolence.org/links.htm
12. Learn about spring and the wheel of the year at http://www.pagespub.org/paganpages/Lena/spring.htm
13. The Antioch University Counseling Center serves adults and children in the Los Angeles
area through low-cost counseling, career testing and special services for those impacted
by adoption. Individual, couples, family, and group therapy is available, helping those in
the community without insurance or who cannot afford treatment elsewhere. They can be
contacted by phone at 310-319-2716.
{Jackie Giuliano can be found visualizing a better world for himself and Bonnie in Venice,
California. He is a Professor of Environmental Studies for Antioch University, Los
Angeles, and the University of Phoenix Southern California Campuses. He is also the
Educational Outreach Manager for the Outer Planets/Solar Probe Project, a NASA program at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to send space probes to Jupiter’s moon Europa, the
planet Pluto, and the Sun. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@deepteaching.com |
