On a Campus Not Known for Activism, a Quatrain of Students Tries to Shake Things Up

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Allison Barker '04

Hometown: Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec and Baltimore, Md.
Major: Environmental Studies-Geography major, Spanish minor.
Activities: Co-president (with Naomi Andrews '03) of the Middlebury Progressives, and a student recycling center worker.

My Beliefs: In a "globalizing" world I believe it is necessary to put social and environmental responsibility at the forefront of our thinking, rather than letting economics become the overwhelmingly dominant force. As a nation which acts as a global leader, I believe that it is our responsibility to ensure that our relations with other countries focus on equal positive opportunities for everyone; thus we should move away from our old imperialistic practices and begin to look at north-south relationships on more equal grounds.
I am also a strong believer in grassroots action, and thus I would suggest that not only do changes need to be made in terms of our interactions on a global level, but I would also suggest that changes need to come from a local level. We need to revise our currently unsustainable consumption patterns. Our modern system of food production is environmentally unsound, and I would advocate local changes to move consumers towards bioregional food production, where food is locally grown and eaten. Furthermore I would say that consumption clearly extends past food; our clothing, for example, is for the most part manufactured by large corporations in sweatshops in the Third World where labor, human rights and environmental abuses run rampant. So what I strive for is not that we all run off and become hippies and live in the woods eating berries, but I am asking for an American cultural revolution.
However, despite how we sometimes act, the United States is not the whole world. In order for environmental and social changes to occur in the global south they need to be initiated by movements of people on a local level. The only way for us as a developed nation to aid this process is by dropping Third World debt and giving the global south the technology to empower [its people] to act environmentally responsibly in their own development process. These are my goals, my dream, my mission, and I understand this to be fully idealistic; however I am not a woman bent around words. I am also a realist and that is why I am an activist not a writer.

How I Got Involved: I got involved in activism after my freshman year of high school, when I spent a summer in rural Bolivia working in a museum. Bolivia has the highest poverty rate in South America, and after learning what real poverty is I began working for a group called Student Sharing for the Homeless in Baltimore. The summer before my senior year of high school some friends and I started an anti-sweatshop activist and education group. We went around to local high schools and colleges doing in classroom programs about labor rights abuses. That was my basic springboard into learning about the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA).
Is Middlebury adequately activist? There are only a handful of politically active people in the Middlebury community. However, there are many people who are politically oriented; these are people who are attuned to the issues, are capable of serious discussion and can occasionally be coaxed away from their busy lives to make a statement every now and then. I definitely do not think there are enough activists at Middlebury, I don't think that the College really teaches students the idea of civic responsibility, however, I think education and political orientation is a good first step.

Gabe Epperson '03

Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah.
Major: Environmental Studies-Human Ecology
Activities: Executive Board of The New Left

My Beliefs: 1. Sustainability: Americans consume a disproportionate amount of the world's resources and we're encouraging other countries to develop by adopting our lifestyle. The math's pretty simple. We're already putting too much strain on the world's resources; once you factor in population growth and global warming you have total ecological collapse — it's already happening. I'm not advocating lowering our living standards; instead, I advocate quality over quantity. Who needs to eat lots of junk food and have 10 pairs of jeans? We can consume new goods and materials, but they should be recycled. How much junk is already circulating, not being used or sitting in a landfill? We can produce everything we need without extracting any more raw materials. I advocate efficiency and long-term resource management for the good of the environment and the human species.
2. Progressive planning: This is a simple concept: plan with foresight as opposed to hindsight. For every one dollar put into education, $100 are saved on law enforcement and welfare. We're just putting Band-Aids on our societal problems. I would say the same thing when it comes to terrorism. Terrorism is a symptom of gross international inequalities. If people have access to resources, jobs and politics (via democratic governments) they will not resort to terrorism. The war on terrorism is a sham — we're attacking the cancer of our world by hacking it off instead of trying to find a cure.

How I Got Involved: I took Professor of Geography Tamar Mayer's "Geography of Development" and "Human Impact on the Global Environment." Also, I spent some time abroad; it gives you a different perspective on the United States and the world.
Is Middlebury adequately activist? Politically active means that you're not living in a bubble. You're aware of your responsibilities and how your daily decision-making affects people in other parts of the world. If you're living in the Middlebury Bubble, you're not adequately active in determining your future. You may be preparing yourself for a successful career, but what happens when your life's work becomes obsolete? It will happen if people continue to be oblivious. Imagine Sept. 11 on a large scale — what good will the stock market be then? I don't think that everyone needs to be in a political organization or attend rallies, but we should all be educated about important political issues so we can make voting and purchasing decisions that are informed.

Ben Brouwer '04

Hometown: Lopez Island, Wash.
Major: Environmental Studies-Geography
Activities: Co-president (with Rachel Cotton '03.5) of Environmental Quality (EQ), Yellow Bike program coordinator

My Beliefs: My interests and concerns in the field of activism are admittedly broad. Generally I am concerned about the inequities and injustices in the world that contribute to or are a root cause of environmental degradation, violence, poverty, racism and discrimination of all forms. More specifically I am interested in discovering how we as individuals, as members of Middlebury College or as citizens of the United States perpetuate these broadly defined problems, and more importantly how we can limit our negative influence and work proactively for positive changes locally and abroad. The issues I have taken to heart include transportation reform as a way of reducing our contribution to global climate change and the range of problems associated with cars and SUVs, marching for peace as a means of voicing opposition to the looming war in Iraq and addressing the question of how investments of the Middlebury endowment can be changed to passively and proactively effect social and environmental change.

How I Got Involved: I first became involved with activism at Middlebury in my freshman year as a reaction to the material excess, sense of entitlement and apathy I initially noticed on this campus. Ben Gore '04 and I, as roommates spring of our freshman year, worked on the Ban SUV campaign (which, incidentally, was a huge political failure but was incredibly educational for us and at least a little provocative for t
he rest of the campus). I wasn't seriously involved in activism during my high school years but my relatively progressive family and hometown set me up for my current beliefs and involvement.
Is Middlebury adequately activist? I'm gradually becoming more excited about the activist nature of this campus and larger community. The fact that we had at least 1,000 people show up on a rainy Sunday night for a peace march is an impressive testament to the growing activist atmosphere of Middlebury. I think the opportunity exists for all of us to take our education, beliefs and inspiration provided by our faculty to a new level of personal involvement and direct action (driving less, buying less, making peace). Ultimately it's the coalition of active students, motivating faculty and staff and local community members that make the activist network broad and all-inclusive.

Joya Scott '03.5

Hometown: Northhampton, Mass.
Major: Theater major; French minor.
Activities: Co-president (with Elizabeth Brookbank '04) of Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM), co-founder of the new Unitarian-Universalist Society and one of the directors of the 2003 "Vagina Monologues"/V-Day event. Also was a primary organizer of October's "24 Hours for Peace."

My Beliefs: I think all the issues I get involved with share certain elements in common. Often, it comes down to human rights in one form or another. I'm interested in women's issues because I don't believe we've reached true equality. I'm interested in peace-building work because I think every person deserves to grow up in an environment free of violence.
I'm also enraged by our government right now; I think the Bush administration's agenda is utterly counterproductive in terms of both domestic and foreign policy. Bush stole the 2000 election with the help of the Republican officials in Florida and their deliberate disenfranchisement of thousands of eligible voters. This administration is not leading us towards a more sustainable, peaceful future; instead, they're doing the exact opposite. I am disgusted by the fact that big corporations are in bed with the administration and have stolen the power away from the people, where it belongs. I'm sick of being lied to; we need leaders we can at least trust to tell us in whose interest they are acting.
So these are the things that motivate me to action ... anything involving building democracy, human rights, and peace. And since my major, and my big interest, is theater, I am always looking for ways to combine politics and the arts — I think that's where the truly fascinating stuff is. Using art as a metaphor for real political situations, you can create some very powerful material that hopefully makes people question their preconceptions about society.

How I Got Involved: I think you get to a point where, if you're paying attention to world events and getting your information from good sources (not necessarily the corporate media), then you are just compelled to act. There is injustice out there (or right here!), and you have to do something. Where your conscience and your natural inclination to be interested in an issue intersect, you can't sit still — you have to help. Even if you can only do a little, every tiny action has an important influence on our world that we may never fully understand.
Also, I really do believe that the personal is political, cliché as it might be to say that. For instance, it's hard to talk about feminism without looking at personal relationships. Society is made up of individuals and individual relationships. It's all interwoven, and I think that we should examine these things to see how social systems impact us in our daily lives.
Is Middlebury adequately activist? I don't think that our community is adequately activist, but it is increasingly so. I've seen a lot of stuff recently that never would have happened here in the past. A lot of new activist groups have formed, like the Middlebury Initiative for Sustainable Development (MISD) and the New Left. These organizations and the 1,500 people that came out to protest Ari Fleischer '82 and the potential war in Iraq are proof of the fact that people do care. Even people who have never been involved in politics are getting active, and I hope it continues. It is easy to understand why students here can be somewhat apathetic — we're all so busy with schoolwork and other commitments, and the issues are so complicated that they often seem inaccessible. But it is changing, slowly but surely.