September 21, 2014 ~ People's Climate March, New York City

As a former member and president of the Juilliard Greens, and generally as a concerned citizen of New York and this planet, I consider it my interest and duty to have attended todays People's Climate March. The latest estimates have it that I was one of about 400 000 participants!

The theme of the individual and broader society was prevalent throughout the march. Is it possible to care only about oneself and nothing else? I strongly suspect that all of these 400 000 people would answer that question with, "No!" The question itself contains a conundrum: can one really be isolated from everything else? Even if it is out of blatant self-interest, taking care of one's surroundings is necessary, and so is extending some kind of kindness to others, or at least following the golden rule, if only for the sake of nurturing one's own need to empathize.

I had my heart set on joining the Canada Green party, which had the honour of being represented by the one and only Elizabeth May, party leader and Canadian environmental celebrity. Due to a glitch in the notification system, however, I didn't get the updates that they would start the march at 81st street, instead of at 59th as originally planned. As it turned out, this made for an exciting day.

Already on my way there, I felt something special in the air. The apprehension of the policepeople was tangible, but when I asked them for directions around the barricades, they answered kindly. Clearly, they hoped everyone would just behave themselves and that there would be no confrontations. I had to make a circuitous detour to 56th and 7th, the nearest place to join at the front end. And so I got to see the front of the march.

As it began, a cheer rose and the excitement lit the air. A field of sunflowers spilled down the street towards me. Have you ever been approached by scores of sunflowers? These were the signs leading the march, with waves of cheers accompanying them. Marches can be daunting things - you are very outnumbered - but when you see people promoting sunflowers, well ... you smile and relax. People who stand for lovely things like sunflowers are probably not all bad, and not out to get you. This is going to be a beautiful, fun, friendly march, and none the less meaningful for it. 

Next came an enormous quantity of life preservers. These signs were held by residents of communities affected by Hurricane Sandy, an omen of future climate-related superstorms in the making. I had had no idea just how many communities in addition to Red Hook and Staten Island were affected. It was moving to read their names.

Soon there was a colourful contingent from Peru. Then I remember a battalion of nurses, and pretty soon, with a fabulous jazz band and dancers on stilts, the musician's union, Local 802, led the way for union workers. I jumped in and joined them. I may be partial, but it was definitely some of the best music of the march! I think the guys playing had the most fun! I couldn't quite get into just walking along, and the guy lagging behind, banging a metal pot with metal sticks was really loud, too much for my left ear. So I eventually jumped back out and continued my quest to find the Greens.

Sometimes, in crowd situations, I have had the feeling of being trapped amongst the mythical suicide-lemmings: everyone seems to have been inflamed by the same insane thought and be motoring forward based on it, and I just don't get it. The power of peer pressure and peer suggestion is immense. Today, however, my instinct felt no such warnings or conflict. The spirit was one of celebration, kindness, and of expressing and acting upon that which we know to be true. I found many organizations I've cared about and whose work I've admired for years; among them: the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, 350.org, Natural Resource Defense Council, World Wildlife Fund, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Citizens' Climate Lobby. I didn't see Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Ban Ki-moon, Leonardo DiCaprio, or any of the other attending celebrities, but I understand they were there, however invisible their security outfits may have been. I did see some pretty out-there individual signs, such as one railing at my home province of Alberta over the tar sands, and others which one could easily imagine the ultra-right-wing mocking mercilessly - but really, there was nothing that didn't just take reality we face a few steps further than a general problem-identifying/solving individual might. The most contentious contingent might have been the self-titled socialists railing against capitalism; that said, it's pretty obvious that dog-eat-dog capitalism, a relativistic pyramid scheme that relies on people being at the bottom of a pyramid so others can be at the top, regardless of what standard of living any part of the pyramid actually entails, does not well serve a world in which anyone cares about anyone else. So, obviously, modifications to that extreme model are necessary - and of course are already built into our society to some degree, though one might wish for more. My favourite signs of the day were, "My house got flooded by Sandy, and all I got was this stupid pipeline," and "Save the dinosaurs! Stop burning fossil fuels!"

After running into some friends, by pure happenstance as is only possible in New York where anything is possible, I walked for a while with Toronto 350.org, which had sent some four hundred people here by bus. (Will the ultra-right-wing mock them for using fossil fuels to get here? I would hope the conversation might rather focus on making fossil-fuel-free travel available to everyone, and soon!) They, like many of the other groups were keeping the energy bright by chanting responsorially and repeatedly, "Whadda we want?" "Climate justice!" "When-d'-we wan-it?" "Now!" and also, "Hey, Barack, you've talked the talk now walk the walk; hey, Obama, we don't want yo' pipeline drama." Joining chants is a part of herd mentality I can't quite feel comfortable doing, maybe because I find myself thinking ill-fitting thoughts along the lines of, "What exactly is climate justice? What would that look like in the nitty-gritty?" So I didn't chant. But I do get that "climate justice" refers to, essentially, the idea that we should take care of the environment in a way that doesn't harm it, us, or our brethren. And that is easy and obvious to agree with, so it is easy to walk along in solidarity despite not voicing the called-for words. 

At last, I reached Elizabeth May and the Canadian Greens, and got my picture with the group. They were near the back of the line-up, and since the march was about four times more populous than expected, their experience had begun with two hours of standing-still (traffic-jam science hard at work, no doubt!) They had been there a few hours early too, Elizabeth May giving an interview to CBC television, and yet they were still in bright spirits, radiating the optimism and excitement that formed the core of this march.

Being in the midst of 400000 people, all going in the same direction, is quite amazing. Whatever differences we might have, we're still bound together by why we walk this walk. In any crowd, there might be a sense of loneliness - but some things can be taken for granted. We're on the same path.

In all it took more than five hours to reach the finish line at 34th & 11th (for a walk that would normally take a little over an hour). I was exhausted when we arrived, but watched some of the rest of the groups come in. Soon people would get back on buses back to all over North America; others would go to various events of their organizations, and New Yorkers would eventually go home. There was a beautiful sunset, and restaurants hopped with hungry dispersed participants.

It had been an interesting and worthwhile day, and, when I stepped off the subway on my way home, the world looked just a little different, somehow - more positive, I think!