ASB Reflections

1. When staying in a hostel over top a trendy brew pub featuring nightly live music, BRING EAR PLUGS!
2. The store, Ingles, is pronounced “IN-GULLS” not “EEN-GLACE,” and it is a general – not a latino – grocery store!
3. Baby wipes are an essential item to pack for any ASB trip – you never know when you’re going to be covered in mud or when you’re going to have to “go” along the side of a road!  HA!
4. If you find your canoe headed for a tree, a rock, or a stream bank, it is absolutely the sternman’s (i.e., person in the back of the boat) fault…it is also her responsibility to correct the course of the boat!
5. Although we traveled all the way to Asheville, NC to learn more about the environmental and human health impacts of coal ash, we discovered that Pennsylvania ranks #1 in the United States for coal ash generation and that there are 3 coal fired power plants with potentially dangerous coal ash disposal sites in Northampton County.
6. Environmental justice is a profoundly anthropocentric ethic, meaning that human beings are the central moral concern.  However, I believe that, although “justice” is a human creation, there is a way to extend the definition of environmental justice to include non-human beings.  Animals, plants, and even mountains have intrinsic value and are owed ethical obligations.
7. The most challenging aspect of any social or environmental movement is finding ways to drive the people of the community into a state of positive action – organizing the ambivalent majority into an engaged, committed, united and more forceful whole capable of making significant change.  As Sandra Diaz of Appalachian Voices put it, getting the community on board can be like trying to ignite a wet match – at times, success may seem hopeless but, with persistence and patience, you CAN make it happen.  This trip has shown me that, although mobilizing a community to achieve positive change is incredibly difficult, the most effective means of bringing people together are the simplest ones – community gatherings with food and fellowship (e.g., community gardens, picnics), communication through art (e.g., DeWayne’s Peace Garden, Jonathan Santos’ music), education (e.g., canvassing – examining public perception and providing accurate information about the issue), and providing green spaces and wildlife areas where members of the community can find peace, solitude, and their own personal relationship with nature (e.g., the campsite along the French Broad).
8. Although anger, fear, and sorrow are generally considered negative human emotions, these feelings – when properly channeled – can be the catalyst for positive change.  Like the story of how Green Opportunities began in DeWayne’s backyard, we often decide to make a change when we are at our most uncomfortable.  I like the way M. Scott Peck put it in his book The Road Less Traveled, “The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
9. The Gilded Age was a period in American History after the Civil War characterized by enormous industrial and economic growth.  The term was coined (in part) by writer Mark Twain in a novel he wrote that satirized greed, materialism, and political corruption in public life.  We learned about the Gilded Age during our cultural day, but came to discover the deeper relationship between consumerism and environmentalism in the Peace Garden.  Shakespeare said it best: “to gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw perfume on the violet…is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”  For me, DeWayne’s artificial flowers symbolize this concept.
10. The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “I slept and dreamt that life was joy./ I awoke and saw that life was service./ I acted and behold, service was joy.”  Like so many of us, I get caught up in my own life and driven to acquire more knowledge, more honors, more respect, more things.  Self, self, self.  We think these “things” will bring us happiness, but, like the effect of a McDonald’s Happy Meal, we are briefly satisfied but left wanting more.  Being of service through ASB is a wonderful reminder that service IS joy – generosity, love, and compassion are sustainable forms of nourishment for the soul.  We only have what we give.
11. I really appreciate all of the passionate people out there (especially my students) who are enthusiastic about environmental and social movements and motivated to change the world.  In an academic setting, we often have discussions about how the world could be a better place when communities, governments, and businesses change the way they do things.  However, the Peace Garden was a reminder that the first and most important step in creating positive change in the world is to take responsibility for and begin changing our own actions.  Jonathan Santos reminded us of this fact with his song, “Changing the World by Changing Me.”  DeWayne reminded us with all of the mirrors strategically placed throughout the garden, asking us to reflect on our own contribution to the changes we’d like to see, and the painted image of Mahatma Ghandi at the center of the garden reminded us that he said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Today was the final day of our stay in Asheville, NC, and our second day with the Western North Carolina Alliance (WNCA). The French Broad River is the body of water that is most affected by the coal ash pollution, and is also most cared about by the local community, as it is used for various aspects of recreation like swimming, fishing, boating and canoeing. Today we got to experience this by canoeing on the river. We set sail in the morning, headed towards the Little River Campsite, one of many campsites along the river. This ride was not just for our leisure, it was to carry a large amount of supplies over to the campsite which otherwise would have had to be carried there along a hike. These supplies were given to us by Hartwell Carson, the Riverkeeper from WNCA, and they included loppers, hoes, rakes and other tools that we used to remove Privet, an invasive plant species that had overgrown the campsite.

We spent a long afternoon ripping up these plants from the root in order to free the picnic table and other open spaces that make up this recreational area. This required a great deal of manpower (and in our team’s case, mostly womanpower), and being a large group, we were able to accomplish a lot during the time that we were there. These campsites are an important part of the community. The French Broad River is a greatly appreciated aspect of the community, and the campsites allow “Ashevillians” to use and develop a more intimate connection with the river.

This is why it is so important for coal ash pollution to be regulated better, so that these people do not lose this precious aspect of their lifestyle. This relates to us because the coal ash ponds existing in Northampton County affects us too, and this is a great way to learn about the issue and try to help others who  are more directly being affected by it.

Even just canoeing along the river for a short time today, I developed an appreciation for the river just because of it’s beauty as part of nature. It was saddening to think about the amount of toxic pollution that was seeping into and being discharged into it everyday, possibly destroying the ecosystem, as well as limiting its potential for recreational use. This was good inspiration for realizing that the cause we are fighting for with this movement beyond coal has a wide array of benefits concerning not only human health, but also conservation of natural areas.

After we finished our work at the campsite, we hopped back in the canoes and brought them further down the river where we could be picked up along the road by Hartwell. We ran into some difficulties removing the canoes from the river along the steep river banks, which forced us to use some physically intense teamwork that I believe ultimately brought the team closer, increasing our trust with each other.

Today was a definitely a fun way to finish up our service work in Asheville. I wish we had a few more days to stay, since we are coming closer as a group  and becoming more attached to the topic of our trip: environmental justice.