Nonviolent civil disobedience has historically shown to be an effective method of producing change at a faster rate and speed than less confrontational tactics.
The situation we face with global heating is an emergency, to say the least. It was back in 2017, and it still is today. We’re on the path towards the end of civilizations and the end of habitability of too much of the land. World hunger is already back on the rise again, after years of being on decline.
Nonviolent civil disobedience has historically shown to be an effective method of producing change at a faster rate and speed than less confrontational tactics. When people know that they cannot live with the situation as it stands, they step into these types of actions. The question is, can we live with what we know is happening to our world and the people who live on it? That question is resolved primarily not in what we write or say about it– those parts are to some extent necessary and useful, but on their own, they are insufficient to the task at hand. Our answer to that question is shown in what we do about it. It is shown to the extent that we are willing to sacrifice and disrupt in order to achieve a more just and safer world.
I did one big action in 2017, and then thought, ‘that was it. I did my one big thing. Time to encourage others to do theirs, now.’ My arrests in 2021 started as an accident– I was just there to film Nick who was risking arrest and wound up getting caught up in it. Since that first arrest, though, I figured, ‘well, somebody needs to film Nick doing what he’s doing, so it looks like I’ll wind up getting arrested a bunch of times in Florida.’ That grew into me becoming more hands-on with the actions– pouring fake blood and oil down the historic Florida capitol steps and blocking the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Manatee County. From there, I went to DC to build-up Declare Emergency. I want there to always be a place where people from around the country can come to engage in nonviolent civil resistance every few months or so together– to be a battering ram on the powers that be in a way that they, the media, and the public can understand and respond to. We have made successes so far, but we are far from over.
Sacrifice moves people and shows commitment. It also shows people the stakes– ‘are things really so bad that we have to resort to that?’ I hope that you understand that the answer is yes. Not everyone does, though, and that is why we need to communicate that through showing the way ourselves– through being the leaders that we can and must be at this time in history. Our careers and our virtue are more at stake from not engaging in nonviolent civil resistance than they are from doing so, this late in the game. I can’t be the only one doing this. No one else is coming to save us. We need your help.
