Anne Hedin reports:
On April 29, over 20 people in raincoats sorted themselves into carpools in the Marsh parking lot and headed up to Indianapolis for the People’s Climate March Indiana. This group included TTC members from Citizens Climate Lobby, CSL, SIREN and 350.org as well as the Sycamore Land Trust and other environmentalists. Others traveled separately from Congregation Beth Shalom and the IU campus, for a total of about 40 people from Bloomington.
Like raindrops flowing into a pond, the Bloomington groups joined with an estimated 450 other marchers gathering inside the Roberts Park United Methodist Church, which hosted the rally because of severe thunderstorms and flood watches.
Meanwhile, up to 375 sister marches were gathering in other cities and about 150,000 people were assembling in front of the White House, according to the People’s Climate movement.
The scene inside the church was colorful and full of good humor. Signs surrounded the altar; banners lined the steps to the balcony. The crowd and the speakers had great and vocal rapport. A toddler with a pacifier in his mouth rocked out by the altar as Che Jim, Executive Director of Healing Arrows Indigenous Social Justice and Wellness Network, and a fellow Navajo drummer opened the program with a prayer chant. The energy continued to build over the next hours.
The media took pictures of the event pageantry but for coverage of the speeches, you will have to keep reading or turn to the live stream posted by Amanda Shepherd of the Hoosier Environment Council (HEC) on the FB event page.
The keynote speaker was Janet McCabe, who was Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, EPA for seven years under Obama. She helped create and roll out the Clean Power Plan. McCabe said that those years proved that we can grow the economy while reducing greenhouse gases and cleaning the air. Some states are already meeting 2022 target levels. (ICYMI, Indiana is one of the states that joined the lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan led by current EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt.)
McCabe called on the audience to “support our EPA,” pointing out that its first (and fifth) head administrator was a Hoosier, Bill Ruckelshaus. McCabe said, “While I was at the EPA,” McCabe said, “there were thousands of people working there and we all knew you had our backs. We need to educate people, hold the current administration’s EPA officials accountable, and we need to practice what we preach every day.”
She was followed to the stage by Paul Nappier who organizes janitors and security officers with the SEIU (Service Employee International Union) Local 1. In a rousing speech, he made the case that climate change is a labor justice issue, a class issue. “Carrier was actually a big success story for Energize Indiana until the utilities crushed the program and 500 workers lost their jobs, leaving houses shuttered on west side of Indy,” he said. That is the part that doesn’t get into Trump’s story about Carrier. Nappier urged everyone present to protect good solar jobs by signing a solar panel that HEC had brought for that purpose and calling on Gov. Holcomb to veto SB 309. (Sigh.)
Jesse Kharbanda, Executive Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, spoke to the PCM Indy theme. Indiana is the #CrossroadsOfClimate; it has “epic centrality. The US is one of the world’s largest polluters, the Midwest region is the largest polluter in the US, and Indiana is the largest polluter in the Midwest,” Kharbanda said. He called on Indiana to turn that around by taking a central place in the transition to renewable energy and claiming the good jobs that go with it.
Faryal Kharti, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) reminded us that every religious tradition teaches us to steward the resources of earth and take no more than our fair share. Amy Harwell told how an EPA Environmental Justice grant to the Martindale-Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative identified the parties responsible for lead pollution made sure it was remediated in her largely African American neighborhood.
A vegan activist, Kurt Schroeder, pointed out that we get to “choose our food and thereby choose our impact on the earth.” The agricultural sector has a huge impact on climate change. A plant-based diet is better for us and for the planet.
Our own Stanley Njuguna (that’s his image on our home page) closed the program with a great burst of energy. Wrapping up the themes of the day, Njuguna said, “The true power of this movement is a paradigm shift in values. We must make everyday choices in line with our values. We must be relentless in demanding change. Grassroots organizations are the most powerful tools we still have” in resisting destructive policies and supporting each other.
With that, we left the church and marched along the parade route behind banners brought by our newest member, the Bloomington chapter of 350.org. Some bystanders joined our parade. Amazingly, the sun came out while we marched.
Wes Cammenga adds:
On April 29th Reinvest IU marched in solidarity with climate activists around the world — including 200,000 people who showed up at the march in D.C. — at the People’s Climate March in Indianapolis. The day began with a rally in the Robert’s Park Church (this part of the event was moved indoors due to rain) that featured several speakers, including prolific IU student activist Stanley Njuguna. The rally then lead into a march down Meridian St and through Monument Circle.
Time to Choose Coalition 