When I began my protest on this overcast and windy day, I thought that it would be uneventful, but it wasn’t. I had this unexpectedly beautiful exchange with a young man.
“I agree with your signs,” the young man said to me as he approached the crosswalk.
“Great,” I replied. “Do you work at the shipyard?” I asked him looking at his civilian clothes.
“No, I work for the navy. I’m a leading seaman but not for long,” he answered. He explained that he has worked for the military for the past four years but that his contract is up in January 2014 and then he is leaving.
“Why?” I wondered.
“I have had a change of heart. I don’t agree with the social, political and environmental impacts of the navy any longer,” he explained.
“Really!” I said with astonishment not expecting that reply. “What caused you to think differently?”
“Just reading,” he answered.
He told me that he was very moved by a book he read a few years ago. He found the book Earth in Mind in a bin at a secondhand store and has reflected often on its message.
“Wow! The book by David Orr about environmental education. I have it,” I said to him. I was so amazed that he has read this book. He also told me that he has read “Walden” by Henry David Theroux many times.
We talked about our mutual interests in environmental education, renewable energy, permaculture, and green buildings. We agreed that people should be learning more about these things and that society should be moving in a more sustainable direction.
“Look at the potential for wind energy here,” he said as his jacket blew up and I struggled to hold up my signs because of the wind.
“Yes, I know how windy it is. I have been standing here every Wednesday since December. That’s why I have my signs about climate change and the environment. I really believe that the workers at the shipyard should be building renewable energy technologies instead of warships,” I said.
Then he told me how much he loves the ocean and diving. With the navy he has dived all over the world – off the coast of Somalia, Venezuela, Egypt, and Victoria. He plans to leave the navy and go diving in Thailand next year. He said he wants to get away from North America, because he doesn’t like the politics and the culture. He wants to follow his environmental passion and see where it leads him.
I mentioned to him that he might like the film Sharkwater by the Canadian filmmaker Rob Stewart. The filmmaker does a lot of diving in that film and the message about saving sharks and the ocean is so important. He said that he has already seen it and in fact just watched Stewart’s latest film Revolution at the theatre last weekend.
“Do you know Michael Reynolds and Earthships?” he asked me.
“No, I don’t, but I do know about Sunship Earth – the great environmental education program that is used at the Adventure Earth Centre in Halifax,” I offered and promised to look up Michael Reynolds and Earthships.
I told him how much I enjoyed our conversation. Then, I asked him,“Why don’t you wear a uniform like everyone else in the navy?”
“I wear it as little as possible,” he answered. He smiled and said he needed to meet his girlfriend at 1:00 p.m. and left.
That evening, my husband showed me this videoclip about this amazing green building in the U.S. and it made me think about my wonderful conversation with the young navy guy earlier in the day.
9 honks and saves of support and 5 head shakes and fingers of no support.
Dedication: To the great American environmental educators: Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, and David Orr. To the awesome homegrown Nova Scotian environmental educators like Ray Cote, Dr. Karen Beazley, Dr. Alan Warner, Janet Barlow and Rhea Mahar. These educators have inspired so many people, including me and this young seaman, to care more about the natural environment. We need more environmental educators and less military.
Epilogue: After my protest last week, I found out that there was a bomb threat supposedly called in to the Irving shipyard that is why the entrance was blocked and the police were there. In Boston last weekend, bombs went off tragically killing and injuring people at the marathon. There has been so much media attention focused on the Boston bombings, but so little media attention on the U.S./NATO bombs killing innocent Afghans and the U.S. drone strikes killing innocent people in Pakistan and Yemen. North American mainstream media rarely show the injuries and death caused by our western bombs overseas.
Earlier this month, Democracy Now had a special show about the legacy of the secret bombing by the U.S. of Laos in the 1960s and 70s – “40 Years After Secret U.S. War in Laos Ended, Millions of Unexploded Bomblets Keep Killing Laotians”. The U.S. never declared war on Laos but dropped over 2 million bombs on that country. Today, the people of Laos continue to be injured and killed by unexploded munitions that they stumble upon in fields and forests. Bombings have to stop at home and abroad.