Civic Engagement and Elections

Despite the fact that I knew, in real time, how many members of Congress were voting to wipe out protections for our water, supporting an agenda to walk back action on climate, and putting the short-term profits of campaign donors before the needs of the public, I was a little shocked at the terrible scores.

Tomorrow across Michigan, voters will be head to the polls to cast ballots for candidates that represent their values and priorities.

As a self-proclaimed “social justice warrior”, I am ashamed of how late I arrived to environmentalism.  Growing up in Baltimore, I focused on police brutality, homelessness, and a faulty public education system.  I remember walking down Preston street seeing my community members throwing corner store trash in the road. I saw cigarette butts and soda cans in the alleyways, but I still didn’t make the connection.  How could I not notice the lead poisoning epidemic? Why did I consider sewage overflows and the Chesapeake Bay pollution to be a less important issue?