Why Are We Doing This?

There has been much more attention this week to our project and thus, many more questions. Why are we going? Who is going? What do we hope to accomplish? Are we going to help with the cleanup? Exactly where in the Gulf are you going? Every one of these questions is relevant and important and I’ve been quietly pondering them for the past week. I’ll add a few others. Why am I doing this? Why are so many good and smart people dropping a lot to help? Why is there interest from the media? Why are we starting to raise significant amounts of money? Why are friends asking to help and making donations?

As much as anything else, I believe people are deeply saddened and overwhelmed by this crisis and truly want to help. I understand why this crisis brings people to tears and anger so quickly. I understand why parents of small children feel an added responsibility of how to explain this to them, the inheritors of this catastrophe. When we stop thinking too deeply about this, we realize that WE, every one of us, rich and poor, young and old, have a hand in this. The worst human caused environmental disaster in US history. We have soiled a region of the country, one of unique beauty and environmental bounty. We are watching it die and we know repair is not an achievable outcome. We know that though the Gulf Coast has fed us, provided us respite though its beauty and fueled our prosperity, we have neglected it. We know that even after one of the US’s greatest natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina, we were slow to help, our attention span was short, and overall we wished for resiliency in the Gulf but were not successful in contributing to it. We know that regardless of our ineffectiveness, the Gulf Coast was rising from its ashes and there was promise, just this summer, of a season that would pull it’s populace back into the realm of hope. We know we caused this disaster and another is imminent unless WE behave differently.

My friend and advisor to this project, Rabbi Ariel Stone had this to say:

“We are connected by the very same earthly umbilical cord, to every struggling Gulf Coast resident and every suffering bird, fish and plant in the swamps and streams and gulf. The spill destroys the environment we all share and depend upon for our very lives. There can be no relief that “this did not happen in my back yard”; the waters of our planet are interconnected, and we all inhabit the same back yard.”

And Sports Illustrated reporter, Gary Smith, in his recent article, “7 Days in the Life of a Catastrophe” captured this thought from Vietnamese Monk and Gulf Coast resident Wutthichai Phojhachai when he pondered, “What is needed now?”:

“If you stay still and take a breath you can begin to see everything moving around you. The answer will come if you just watch it. The problem has already occurred, so now is not the time for blame. That is wasted time. Involve yourself. Do what you can. So many families with four people — and four cars. Can you drop each other off on the way to work and school? Can you push for new forms of energy? You have to think of action and reaction. You have to see all the links in the chain.”

So we are going to witness this, accept responsibility for this disaster and work to create change when we return.

20 Portlanders with a wealth of compassion, community service experience and technical expertise, will show the nation what the Gulf Coast disaster looks like from inside the Gulf. We will shine a sustained light on what our neighbors need to survive and what the environment needs to recover. When we return we will create a book, a photo essay, a video and audio record of the experiences of our neighbors and what we have witnessed. We will begin a dialogue of personal responsibility and change.

Some have suggested that we have created an entourage of Yankee egos to go on a disaster vacation. I choose to believe we have selected a group of volunteers that is full of compassion, inquisitiveness, knowledge and expertise to make the bold statement above come true. We are a group that in our own circles speaks to many and are trusted. We are a group that will take our individual knowledge and passion and create a collective experience that will be compelling and truly greater than the sum of its parts.

Mike Rosen

[Image: gail des jardin]