Faith and Forests is a special monthly series by Joseph Frankovic. In the series, Joseph will explore how his deep connection to spirituality and faith intersects with our forests and the work of Dogwood Alliance. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by Dogwood Alliance.
As Earth’s surface and ocean depths warm, the potential risk of crossing a planetary threshold increases. That threshold, if crossed, could herald a new climate reality: self-reinforcing feedbacks causing warming within the Earth System—even while human greenhouse gas emissions taper off —according to the abstract of a recent study. To back the Earth System away from this threshold and to keep “it in a habitable interglacial-like state,” collective human action is singled out as the way forward.1
In the body of this scholarly article, which the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America published, 16 science experts identified several things that humans, acting collectively, need to pursue. One of those pursuits is to adopt new values. Take a look at what this data-sensitive team said about the human side of the risk equation:
“Widespread, rapid, and fundamental transformations will likely be required to reduce the risk of crossing the threshold . . . these include changes in behavior, technology and innovation, governance, and values.” “These international governance initiatives are matched by carbon reduction commitments . . . but as yet, these are not enough to meet the Paris target. Enhanced ambition will need new collectively shared values, principles, and frameworks as well as education to support such changes.” “The Stabilized Earth trajectory requires deliberate management of humanity’s relationship with the rest of the Earth System. . . . a deep transformation based on a fundamental reorientation of human values, equity, behavior, institutions, economies, and technologies is required”.2
In the Anthropocene—the name given to a proposed new geological epoch—the conclusions of climate researchers and a core concern of religion and classical philosophy are converging. To embrace life and escape the death trajectory, these researchers have informed us that humans must fundamentally reorient their values.3
A new set of collectively shared values—where shall we look; whose values shall we adopt? This may sound bold, but I can give a reliable answer. As part of our search, we should look back in time and give careful consideration to the lives and achievements of notable figures who flourished in antiquity or who lived in the modern era, but whose minds were suffused with premodern values and modes of thought. In the ancient group, I would include Socrates the Athenian and Jesus of Galilee, as well as others.4 In the modern group, these names come to mind: the leader of India’s independence movement Mohandas K. Gandhi, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and the American physician Charles A. Eastman, who is also known by his Sioux name Ohiyesa. Of course, I personalized the two lists according to my interests and current purpose.
As part of my contribution to find new collectively shared values, I will use the remaining content of this month’s blog post to place the accent on Jesus, on the movement that he organized, and on the values associated with that movement. While studying as a graduate student, I benefitted from a few outstanding teachers who generously shared their knowledge and helped me appreciate aspects of the life and teachings of Jesus. I hope to reflect some of that knowledge by sketching a big picture with broad strokes, minimal detail, and without citing too many sources. Readers who desire more detail may leave a comment, and I will provide additional citations or a short explanation.
Jesus was a sage, and like other Jewish sages who flourished in the first century, he came from Galilee equipped with a traditional education.5 By paying close attention to his adept handling of Scripture, we can grasp the depth of this education. Within Judaism, although he was aware of the achievements of the Dead Sea Sect (i.e., the Essenes), Jesus demonstrated a closeness in habits and ideology to a group known as the חסידים ואנשי מעשה (“pious ones and men of action”). Listen to what former Professor Shmuel Safrai of the Hebrew University wrote about them:
“Many traditions testify to hasidim [pietists] who were engaged in attending to public needs and [who] moved among the public, such as the story of the hasid who used to dig pits, holes and caves for wayfarers, or the collection of anecdotes concerning captive women who were followed by two hasidim bent on redeeming them. There are many similar stories.6“
These pious men of action were busy, attending to the public good. They were neither policymakers nor theorists, but doers who constructed shelters for travelers and accepted risk to help women in a dire situation. These men of action were also associated with rainmaking and healing, two highly prized public services.7
Like activists and organizers of our day, Jesus attended to public needs, spoke truth to power, discouraged dedicating one’s life to wealth accumulation, and proclaimed the advent of a new movement. When speaking of this movement, he referred to it as the kingdom of heaven (i.e., the kingdom of God) and sometimes used his special term in the phrase to enter the kingdom of heaven. He also spoke of inheriting eternal life (i.e., going to heaven after death). In rabbinic literature, the early rabbis spoke of receiving the kingdom of heaven. The three verbs are worth noting.
In the Christian theological tradition, a tendency to conflate the kingdom of heaven and eternal life started very early. The two concepts comingled with each other, and the two phrases—to enter the kingdom of heaven and to inherit eternal life—became more or less synonymous in sermons and teachings. This tendency started so early that it left discernable traces in the New Testament. The kingdom of heaven and eternal life, however, were originally two independent concepts that shared some overlap.8
According to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven in two ways. First, he used it to describe God intervening in earthly affairs:
Εἰ δὲ ἐν δακτύλῳ θεοῦ ἐγὼ ἐκβάλλω τὰ δαιμόνια, ἄρα ἔφθασεν ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ. If I expel demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.9
The way that Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God (i.e., kingdom of heaven) in this verse reminds one of part of a prayer that is repeated in synagogues around the world every Friday evening. The prayer celebrates God’s intervention on behalf of the Israelites when they were pinned between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s war chariots. The important line reads as follows:
מלכותך ראו בניך בוקע ים לפני משה זה אלי ענו Your children saw your kingdom [when you] split the sea before Moses. They exclaimed, This is my God!10
In rabbinic texts, the demonstrative pronoun zeh (i.e., this) can be a pointing word.11 Here it may have suggested to early Jewish commentators that the people pointed at their God as he parted the waters.
Secondly, Jesus referred to those who had responded to his new initiative as constituting the kingdom of heaven.
Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is [composed] of them.12
In other words, people who enter the kingdom of heaven are poor in spirit. They depend on God for everything. This dependency is a requirement for a simple reason: Those who enter the kingdom of heaven usually find themselves serving the public in circumstances of extreme hardship and at great risk.
Although I may be a candidate for inheriting eternal life because of my lightly packed knapsack of good works and God’s densely stocked warehouse of grace, I do not regard myself as having entered the kingdom of heaven. Allow me to step aside and recommend medical director Thomas Catena of Mother of Mercy Hospital, which is located in the Nuba mountains of Sudan, and his coworkers as examples of people who may have entered the kingdom of heaven.13
Dr Thomas Catena – click photo for short video Photo Credit: Paul Jeffrey
Without a doubt, some readers of this blog post can identify others whose superlative lives merit the same recommendation.
If I were to compose a motto for the kingdom of heaven, I would propose: The obedience of the few profits the many. Four hundred years before Jesus, the classical Greek philosopher Socrates conducted his life in a manner that foreshadowed this characterization. Always obedient to the Voice who whispered restraint, Socrates described himself as the “benefactor” of the “men of Athens”––one poor man whom God had given to the city, in the role of a “gadfly,” to arouse, persuade, and reproach its citizens through public instruction and without remuneration.14
God underwrites the kingdom of heaven’s capital-less economy, and the poor in spirit flourish within it. Dogmas and doctrines cannot clarify its mysteries; walls of institutions can neither stop its penetration nor contain its expansive, centrifugal dynamic.15 Accordingly, the kingdom of heaven may start up anywhere––within any institution, within any organization, and within any creed.16
My characterization of the kingdom of heaven has been influenced by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who said: “There is only one God and He is God to all . . . everyone is seen as equal before God. . . . we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic.”17 A radical and ultimate conclusion of seeking to become a better who-you-are could draw a person toward the kingdom of heaven.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Let us evenly apply the brakes and slow down, put on the turn signal, and look at this subject from another angle. Former Professor David Flusser of the Hebrew University described one of Jesus’s objectives as a “transvaluation of all values.”18 That transvaluation has attracted the attention of others and won their approval in some cases. When Dr. Charles Eastman was working as an organizer for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), he met with groups from the Cheyenne, Cree, Ojibway, Sioux, and other indigenous nations. In these meetings, Eastman presented “in simple language the life and character of the Man Jesus.” On one occasion, after hearing the Anglo-Sioux doctor speak, an old warrior stood up and said:
“We have followed this law you speak of for untold ages! We owned nothing, because everything is from Him. Food was free, land free as sunshine and rain. Who has changed all this?”19
This elderly gentleman heartily endorsed Jesus’s approach to economics. In his words, I hear echoes of Mt 5:45 and 6:25–34. These 11 verses from Matthew’s Gospel belong to a special part of the Synoptic tradition (i.e., the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke). That special part is called the Sermon on the Mount. His comment also highlighted a conflict between Jesus’s agenda and the values held by Americans whose gene pool of European origins had been absorbing the ideology of free-market capitalism, in both the Old and New World, for a century or more. Remember that capital-less economy underwritten by whom?
Eastman himself gave a more precise insight that is worth noting for our purpose:
“The Christ ideal might be radical, visionary, even impractical, as judged in the light of my later experiences; it still seemed to me logical, and in line with most of my Indian training.”20
The clear-eyed doctor saw the yawning divide between American society and its values, on the one hand, and the kingdom of heaven and its values––which he called the Christ ideal––on the other. Moreover, Eastman described most of his Indian training as being in alignment with the values of the Christ ideal. He also recognized that the philosophy of the education that he had received as a child and the values of the kingdom of heaven (i.e., the Christ ideal)––although lacking pragmatism, perhaps relevance, as well, in the modern world of the early 20th century––were radical and visionary.
Dr Charles Eastman
Another beneficiary of Jesus’s transvaluation of all values was Mohandas Gandhi, who, incidentally, thought that politics was a very good place for religion: “Those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.”21Chicago Tribune reporter William L. Shirer covered the independence movement in India. During that time, he became a personal friend of Gandhi. They had regular opportunities to converse, and Shirer heard him explain his opinion on many topics.
In his memoir, the newspaperman recorded Gandhi’s feelings toward Christianity:
“Though Gandhi got his principal religious inspiration from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, on whose poetic teachings, he said, he tried to base the conduct of his life, he was strongly attracted to Christianity.”
As a starting point, Shirer’s remark about Gandhi’s attraction to Christianity is interesting, but too general. Fortunately, he provided more detail in the next paragraph:
“The New Testament he loved. ‘Especially the Sermon on the Mount,‘ he would say. ‘It goes straight to my heart. Like the Gita!‘ And he would sing out the words ‘. . . whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ ‘That’s what I’ve been trying to do, and to induce others to do, all my life,’ he would say. ‘It is the basis of my creed of non-violence.'” 22
I italicized Sermon on the Mount because we already encountered this special part of the Synoptic Gospels. Gandhi approved highly of the values contained in the sermon. He even credited Mt 5:39 for serving as the basis of his nonviolent approach to effect independence from the British empire through civil disobedience. He took the sermon’s teaching at face value; he accepted its plain meaning. At this point, the reader should not be surprised to learn that the values of the kingdom of heaven are concentrated in the Sermon on the Mount. I cannot think of a more value-laden part of the Synoptic Gospels than this sermon.
To derive greater benefit from the values associated with the kingdom of heaven––in terms of their relevance in this precarious moment; their application to the struggle for economic and social justice, for defending the environment, and for scaling back on military spending and interventions––we need to examine the relationship between entering the kingdom of heaven and inheriting eternal life. The question should be asked: Are these two achievements identical?23 When they are disentangled from each other, a conservative Jesus with some stunningly progressive values steps forward from a morass of tradition, theology, and scholarly opinion. These same values, Eastman described as radical and visionary.
The scientific community has issued a call to action. That call, we can ignore only at great peril to ourselves and to the other creatures with whom we share planet Earth. We must make a choice: reorient our values or take a risky gamble, using our biosphere as the poker chip. I find the stakes far too high for gambling and, therefore, recommend that we start the search for new collectively shared values, immediately.
Endnotes
http://climatecouncil.wpengine.com/author/will-steffen/
The use of the word “habitable” in the phrase “habitable interglacial-like state” caught the attention of this writer.
“I no longer divide politics into left and right. . . . Today politics is divided between the politics of life and the politics of death. Climate change worldwide separates us into two major sides. . . . [On the side of life], you have those of us who want to respond and adapt as quickly as possible.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/10/meet_gustavo_petro_colombian_former_guerilla
https://www.ted.com/talks/brett_hennig_what_if_we_replaced_politicians_with_randomly_selected_peoplehttps://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/437438-aristotle-democracies-australia-innovation/
In his book Political Illiberalism: A Defense of Freedom (republished 2018), Professor of Philosophy Peter L. Simpson clobbered the ideology of Neoliberalism in a way that only a classicist could do. I can recommend the chapter “Anti-Federalists and Federalists on the US Articles of Confederation” as an enlightening treatment of an early patch of American history with which too few Americans are familiar. Simpson is known for his academic work on Aristotle and relies on the ancient philosopher in his critique of Neoliberalism.
https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/422264-professor-democracy-political-liberalism/
“When Jesus’ sayings are examined against the background of contemporaneous Jewish learning, however, it is easy to observe that Jesus was far from uneducated. He was perfectly at home both in holy scripture and in oral tradition, and he knew how to apply this scholarly heritage. Moreover, Jesus’ Jewish education was incomparably superior to that of St. Paul.”
David Flusser, Jesus, 2d corrected and augmented ed. (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University) 1998, pp. 29-30.
http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/25/local/me-26396
For a study centering on Jesus and his relationship to hasidut, see Shmuel Safrai’s
״ישׁו והתנועה החסידית״ in the Proceedings of the World Union of Jewish Studies, div. B, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1990), 1-7. In this article, which was written in modern Hebrew, Safrai noted that this stream of hasidut began in the first century B.C.E. and faded from rabbinic Judaism in the beginning of the third century C.E.
“Jesus preached the same Kingdom of God (Matthew has preserved in ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ the rabbinical expression ‘Malkut Shamayim‘) . . . .When, however, the trend of events led early Christianity to make a decided disavowal of all political expectations antagonistic to Rome, the conception of the Kingdom of God was made an entirely spiritual one, and was identified with the ‘olam ha-ba‘ (= ‘the world to come’), the spiritual life.”
The Hebrew phrase “olam ha-ba” may be translated literally as “the world to come” or dynamically as “eternal life.”
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9328-kingdom-of-god
Another standard reference work also has an article on the kingdom of God.
“In Christ’s teaching the kingdom of God is also declared to be actually present as He spoke and its coming is represented as a present . . . reality. . . . It is possible that this conception of the Kingdom as a present reality may have occupied a considerably more prominent place in the Lord’s teaching than it fills in the Gospels and elsewhere in the NT, where its centrality may have been displaced. . . .”
I added the italicized font. One of the purposes of this piece was to direct thoughtful consideration to this possibility. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2d ed., sub verbo “KINGDOM OF GOD, The.”
I offer William W. Tomes, Jr., of Chicago as another recommendation for somebody who may have entered the kingdom of heaven. Tomes helped gang members in Chicago housing projects on the city’s Near North Side.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,138995,00.htmlhttps://www.npr.org/books/titles/138252921/the-people-are-the-news-grant-picks-chicago-stories
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/apology.html
Regarding the Voice, Mohandas Gandhi also relied on a voice at key moments in the struggle for India’s independence for knowing what to do next and when to do it. William L. Shirer, Gandhi: A Memoir (New York: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1982), pp. 87, 216.
https://dianerehm.org/shows/2016-12-27/albert-race-hoss-sample-rebroadcast
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111102319
“Two or three times he had touched briefly on what he called the value of comparative religion, suggesting that I give it some thought. Perhaps he had sensed my skepticism about my own Christian religion, which he himself said had so inspired him. Though a devout Hindu, he had explained that his religion was really a compound of the best in his own and other religions: in Buddhism, with its wisdom about man’s lot on this earth; in Mohammedanism, which he liked for its appeal for brotherhood; and above all in Christianity, as revealed in the New Testament.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, September 24, 12:01 am
Limiting Industrial Logging Must be Prioritized Along with Reducing Fossil Fuels, Explains New Report
(September 24, 2018) — In the wake of Hurricane Florence and wildfires that have swept the country, today over 200 organizations, scientists and elected officials released the #Stand4Forests platform demanding the protection of U.S. forests as a vital climate solution. “Climate science shows that we cannot stop a climate catastrophe without scaling up the protection of forests around the world, including in the United States. Therefore, the US must be a global leader in not only committing to phase out fossil fuel use but also in protecting our forests,” says the platform, which was released in between California’s Global Climate Action Summit and New York’s Climate Week. Signatories include 40 mayors from coast to coast; organizations such as Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, NRDC and Sierra Club; and leading climate scientists and advocates including Bill McKibben and Michael Mann (see the full list of signatories here).“Hurricane Florence and the devastation it left in its wake has brought climate change to the forefront of public awareness yet again,” said Danna Smith, Executive Director of Dogwood Alliance, a North Carolina-based forest protection organization and principal organizer of the Platform. “Living forests are our best hope for removing carbon from the atmosphere; and yet the rate of forest destruction from logging in this country is among the highest on Earth. To avoid climate catastrophe, we must take immediate steps to protect our forests.” Along with the platform, a new report was also released today summarizing the latest peer-reviewed science underscoring that industrial logging is a major source of carbon emissions in the US; and why we need older trees in tact to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. “Seeing the Forest: Nature’s Solution to Climate Change” reminds us that burning wood for electricity actually releases up to 50 percent more carbon dioxide than burning coal per unit of electricity.This year the recorded amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 411 parts per million (ppm) – well beyond the 350 ppm that climate scientists deemed safe for humans. Nevertheless, the U.S. forest industry is rapidly replacing most of our nation’s natural forests with younger forests and commercial tree plantations. Logging rates in the Southeast alone are estimated to be four times that of South American rainforests. These degraded forests are not only far less effective at storing carbon than trees that are 100 years-old or older; but they are also more vulnerable to forest fires and not nearly as helpful in preventing flooding, as we saw with the dire impacts of Hurricane Florence.“Industrial logging accelerates climate change and exacerbates rural poverty and inequity,” said Reverend Leo Woodberry, pastor of Kingdom Living Temple in Florence, S.C. and nationally recognized environmental justice leader. “We saw with Hurricane Florence and the subsequent flooding how important it is to protect our forests.These beautiful, rural areas need economies that work in harmony with nature.”The Stand4Forests platform states (in part):Standing forests in the US provide our communities with clean air, fresh water, carbon storage, home to thousands of unique species of plants and animals, and protection from flooding and drought, making forest protection a national and global priority.The United States is the world’s largest producer and consumer of wood products, which continues to drive massive extraction and degradation of forests at one of the fastest rates in the world.Communities living at the frontlines of forest destruction are often the same ones who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and face oppressive, polluting, and extractive industries. Communities of color, indigenous communities, low-income, and/or rural populations disproportionately bear the impacts of climate change as well as the health, economic, and social costs associated with industrial practices.That is why we must:
Other quotes from national Stand4Forests spokespeople: “We cannot solve the climate crisis without a massive scale-up in the protection of forests. That includes right here in our own backyard.”
“Forests are most valuable left standing, as they provide clean water, medicines, food, recreation, scenery, pollination and regulation of floods, fires, insects and disease. But tragically, short-sighted corporations have stripped the land bare. Humanity needs us to reverse this trend. The Stand4Forests platform provides a common basis for action to do just that.”
“The science is clear that increasing forest protection while moving beyond fossil fuel consumption ensures effective climate change mitigation—but it requires both,” said Dr. Chad Hanson, a research Ecologist with the John Muir Project. “We need to end the logging program on our National Forests and stop subsidizing logging on private lands,” he added.
“Legislators across the country are stepping up to champion policies that protect our environment, health, communities, and economy. Protecting forests is good policy – whether they’re protecting communities from storms like Florence, mitigating the threat of climate change, or providing clean jobs in restoration and recreation.”
# # #
We just had our 3rd annual Woods & Wilds, celebrating 22 years of forest defense, and every moment was woven into the magical fabric that carried us through the night! Picture this: as soon as you enter The Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC, you’re in awe of the ten-foot high Justice First artwork created by Celeste Byers,Amplifier, and Dogwood Alliance.
Rounding the corner, the serenely glowing lanterns from Flora escort you into the main hall, which gradually fills like an hourglass. Upon entering this hall, you come across our Story Corner, where many people are sharing their own stories of the forests.
Just down from that is Sumo Morgan and Alysha Clark’s powerful art installation “Phantom,” depicting the depth of forest destruction often overlooked in a clearcut.
Sumo Morgan and Alysha Clark artwork “Phantom”
The lights dim and the storytelling begins. From wizards to comics, agony to joy, calming to shocking, we hear it all from these seven amazing storytellers. Though each story embraces a unique style and evokes different emotions, every story teaches us something.
Allison Fields, Asheville’s first Moth GrandSLAM winner, sets the tone right:
“All my favorite stories happen in the forest.”
Woods & Wilds Storyteller Alison Fields
Robert Zachary, a facilitator and activist for transformative change through poetry, storytelling, and song, teaches us about the powerful role the forest had in overcoming Jim Crow segregation in his hometown.
Woods & Wilds Storyteller Robert “Zack” Zachary
Author, hiker, and podcast host Gary Sizer shares his story of lying still in the forest for hours as he and his fellow marines waited for another squadron, only to find that they’d gotten lost and were not coming after all those hours. Through that experience, he had an epiphany about life when he heard the spirit of the woods.
Woods & Wilds Storyteller Gary Sizer
Playing sounds of nature into the microphone, Nicole Townsend, an organizer with Southerners On New Ground (SONG), challenges us to remember ourselves as children.
“I swear as a kid those trees touched heaven.”
Woods & Wilds Storyteller Nicole Townsend
Through a series of shorter stories, DeWayne Barton, the founder and CEO of Hood Huggers International and co-founder of Burton Street Community Peace Gardens and Green Opportunities, shows us that the woods can be a frightening place.
Woods & Wilds Storyteller DeWayne Barton
The always powerful Danna Smith, Executive Director of Dogwood Alliance, shares how she found solace in the forest when faced with the seemingly impossible task of uniting movements around the country to Stand4Forests.
“It’s gonna get harder, but we can always take to the woods and to the wilds for our inspiration.”
Woods & Wilds Storyteller Danna Smith
To close out our storytellers, Sizwe Herring of EarthMatters Tennessee shares his wisdom about how real change happens.
“What does it really take to make change? One leaf at a time.”
Woods & Wilds Storyteller Sizwe Herring
And to tie it all together, we receive a surprise from Dogwood’s own Sasha Mitchell, who also runs the website The Color of Asheville. Sasha comes up on stage to share how deeply she is moved. She shares that no matter our skin color, our stories are the same and our mission to save the planet is the same. She tells us that only through dialogue and stories can we overcome history and unite to save the forest.
Surprise Woods & Wilds speaker Sasha Mitchell
Through it all, we have two rockstar MC’s leading the way – Ali McGhee of AVLToday and Elizabeth Garland of Slay the Mic.
Woods & Wilds MCs Elizabeth Garland & Ali McGhee
Closing out this magical night with a magical set is the one and only EarthCry with fellow Papadosio bandmate Mike Healy on drums.
Woods & Wilds band EarthCry with Mike Healy
We leave with warmed hearts and feeling very much like trees in a forest – though we are all individuals, together we become something special.
Faith and Forests is a special monthly series by Joseph Frankovic. In the series, Joseph will explore how his deep connection to spirituality and faith intersects with our forests and the work of Dogwood Alliance. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by Dogwood Alliance.
Dogwood Alliance works with diverse communities and partner organizations. As the alliance part of its name implies, the organization seeks allies to accelerate the formation of a movement to halt commercial logging of intact forests and to shield vulnerable communities from harmful development and resource extraction. The formation of such a movement requires cohesion and mutuality of responsibility to pursue justice —what a Parisian or a Haitian might call fraternité and solidarité.
American reform movements comprising diverse groups that are committed to progressive change have a checkered record of remaining united. In 1868, an early and particularly painful example to recall occurred: ratification of the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, which was Congress’s response to emancipation and the issue of Black suffrage. Section 2 of that amendment lowered representation in the US Congress in proportion to the number of male citizens whom a State denied the right to vote. Like a bolt of lightning and rolling thunder, the inclusion of the word male shattered the longstanding alliance between abolitionists and feminists. The damage included the splintering of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony’s joint-efforts as social reformers. A decade later, Southern Black people would face the era of Jim Crow. The civil rights of Black people would be stripped away while independent feminists focused on their fight for women’s suffrage.1
For an alliance working to effect progressive change, maintaining unity is a serious matter because people power can offset shortages of money and lack of political influence—if people stick together and hold firm. Moreover, bobbing beneath a raft of our Nation’s economic, environmental, political, and social problems is untethered capitalism, which is concentrating wealth and consolidating power in the hands of a small number of beneficiaries with unnerving efficiency.
Capitalism is a system that separates working people from the means of their work and that gives to the owners of those means the power to organize the economy. Thoughtful advocates for progressive policies generally know that capitalism defends itself by dividing people. Consider the comment of Professor Emeritus Michael A. Lebowitz, who retired from Simon Fraser University, on capital and the efforts of labor to organize:
“Capital certainly uses racism, patriarchy, national, and ethnic differences to divide the working class, to weaken it and to direct its struggles away from capital. But, it can find many [additional] ways to divide and weaken workers.” 2
I speculate that capital also has specialized ways of weakening and distracting diverse communities and partner organizations when they scale up an alliance.
Beyond these two pragmatic reasons—the superiority of people power and capital’s tendency to divide and deflect that power—people of faith place a special premium on unity and solidarity.
In an old collection of rabbinic comments, which are called aggadot in Hebrew, one can find an explanation of the prophet Jeremiah’s rhetorical question, “Is not Ephraim a precious son to me?”3
בזמן שהן נאגדין כאגודה אחת לעשות רצון אביהם שבשמים, הן חשובים כבן יחיד לפני אביו, ובזמן שהם ממוסמסין לכאן ולכאן, הן חשובין כבנים מרובין לפני האב, שאינה דומה אהבתו שליחיד לאהבתן שלרבים, שכל מי שיש לו בנים מרובין אהבתו מתחלקת על כולן, ואהבת יחיד לא כן
When they are united in tight union to do the will of their Father who is in heaven, they are regarded as a father’s only child. When they are separated in factions here and there, they are regarded as many children before their father, because [a father’s] love for a single child differs from his love for many children. For whoever has many children, his or her love is distributed among them, but the love for an only child is different.
This comment has been preserved in a manuscript fragment from the Cairo genizah, which means that it is old. Despite its age, the explanation, which links the adjective “precious” to the special status of an only child, can continue as a source of encouragement for us today. In a creative, playful way, this aggadic comment associates a rabbinic form of activism—the preoccupation with doing God’s will in concert with others—with an unexpected benefit. The writer describes an intensification of God’s love through concentration on a single focal point when the Jewish people unite to do his will.
Pause for a moment and consider this proposition: Saving Southern forests and shielding vulnerable communities from corporate predators and venal politicians are two priorities that align with God’s will. That assumption, I think, is a reasonable one to make. The challenge is to act and remain united—and then experience the love concentrate.
Another comment from an old rabbinic collection of interpretations on the biblical book of Exodus echoes a similar idea. In the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, Israel’s arrival at the base of Mount Sinai, it says:4
כל מקום שהוא אומר ויסעו ויחנו, נוסעים במחלוקת וחונים במחלוקת, אבל כאן השוו כולם לב אחד, לכך נאמ’ ויחן שם ישראל נגד ההר
Every place where Scripture says, “They traveled and encamped,” they traveled divided and encamped divided. Here, however, all of them were of one heart. Scripture, therefore, says, “Israel encamped there before the mountain.”
An odd feature of the narrative’s grammar, namely, inconsistent use of plural and singular forms of the verb “encamped,” inspired this interpretive approach. The writer makes a connection between the plural form and the presence of strife and altercations among the Israelites, whereas he treats the singular form as an indication of their singleness of heart.
What happened next? Moses ascended the mountain to receive the precious gift that God wanted to give—his Torah. The people’s oneness of heart had captured God’s attention and so moved him that he chose that moment for giving his Law to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as to others who were outside that bloodline and had joined them in the wilderness.
Social justice echoes as a clarion theme throughout the Law of Moses and throughout rabbinic commentaries on that Law. The Torah admonishes its hearers to aid and protect the vulnerable: the orphan, the widow, and the stranger, as well as others. In one of the more emphatic ways that the Hebrew language can convey urgency, the Torah makes the pursuit of justice a priority:5
צדק צדק תרדוף Justice, justice, you will pursue!
When the Israelites abandoned strife and factionalism, their unity and solidarity stimulated God’s love. Responding to that moment, he gave the people a timeless gift to support their pursuit of justice and enjoyment of peace through the ages.
I am so grateful to the ancient rabbis for helping us experience Scripture anew and for stimulating us to rethink the relevance of its message in the ongoing struggle against injustice.
In the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, an early piece of Christian literature, Saint Luke the Evangelist describes events in which the closest followers of Jesus and members of his family participated.6
οὗτοι πάντες ἦσαν προσκαρτεροῦντες ὁμοθυμαδον τῇ προσευχῇ All of these [followers] remained constant in prayer with one accord.
The unity and fervency of the group during the days leading up to the holiday of Shavuot, or Pentecost, had an effect. The time had come for God to respond by giving. On the day of Pentecost, the narrative describes the Holy Spirit visiting them like a rushing wind.7
These people had embraced Jesus’s teachings and joined a movement. Joining or entering the kingdom of heaven required doing the will of their heavenly Father and centered on doing good with an emphasis on healing. Acting in solidarity, doing God’s will in concert with others, attracted the Holy Spirit who then strengthened Jesus’s disciples in their efforts to ameliorate harmful effects of injustice.8
The narrative offers another glimpse of this nascent movement’s commitment to solidarity. In a short time span, Peter and John had enraged the chief priests who exercised power over the temple area and managed its services, including the exchanging of foreign currency and offering of sacrifices. The authorities already had summoned this pair of activists and threatened them. Despite growing persecution, Peter, John, and their allies remained together.9
Τοῦ δὲ πλήθους τῶν πιστευσάντων ἦν καρδία και ψυχὴ μία, Καὶ οὐδὲ εἳς τι τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐτῷ ἒλεγεν ἲδιον εἶναι ἀλλ᾽ ἦν αὐτοῖς ἃπαντα κοινα.
The entire multitude who had become believers were of one heart and soul, And none referred to his or her possessions as personal property. Rather, all things were shared by them.
This group’s oneness influenced its choice of a community-wide economic policy that de-emphasized private property. I imagine that if these first followers of Jesus were still alive today, they would support restoring the commons, protecting ecosystems that provide critical ecosystem services, resisting the commodification of natural resources, and creating worker cooperatives as well as additional agendas that favor the public.
Unity and mutuality, fraternity and solidarity are essential for winning progressive struggles against social injustice. Money and political influence can cause a lot of harm by winning elections, buying appointments, and securing confirmations. By dividing and deflecting its opposition, capitalism effectively obstructs initiatives to regulate or replace it. Despite these advantages, it cannot repulse a nonviolent mass movement moving forward with shields locked, gaining and holding ground like a Greek phalanx, and propelling itself with peaceful and sustainable people power.
Yet beyond these basic reasons for prioritizing fraternity and solidarity, Jews, Christians, and other people of faith can offer additional ones. Within the interpretive world of midrash—the distinct type of exegesis used by ancient rabbis to interpret Scripture—the Israelites achieved unity and singleness of heart when they reached Mount Sinai. That achievement moved God, and he gave his Torah as a precious and eternal possession. This Torah commands its adherents to pursue justice. In that respect, God regards everybody who receives his gift as an activist. After the Roman prefect of Judea Pontius Pilate had ordered his soldiers to execute Jesus, those who adopted the Galilean’s teachings remained together and in solidarity. They devoted themselves to prayer, partook of their meals together, and opted out of owning private assets and personal wealth. According to Luke’s narrative, God responded with a mighty rush of the Holy Spirit to superactivate their activism, which they interpreted as good news and associated with the kingdom of heaven.
Endnotes
Listen also to the comments of David R. Roediger, Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Kansas, on race, class, and solidarity, when he was recently interviewed by Sasha Lilley as part of the radio and web media project Against the Grain.
https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-may-30-2018/http://foundation.ku.edu/roediger
https://monthlyreview.org/2004/06/01/what-keeps-capitalism-going/
https://www.sefaria.org/Mekhilta_d’Rabbi_Yishmael.19.2?vhe=Mekhilta_–_Wikisource&lang=he
My Judaica library is in storage. I did not have handy access to either the Lauterbach edition or the Horovitz-Rabin edition; therefore, I visited the website of the open source and nonprofit project Sefaria to access the Hebrew text of the Mekhilta. 5. Deuteronomy 16:20
Environmental campaigners applaud Government decision which effectively stops subsidies for burning imported wood in new power stationsGovernment urged to extend the same rule to biomass power stations already awarded subsidies31st August 2018 – Environmental campaigners welcome a Government decision, announced today, to rule out future subsidies for biomass power stations with greenhouse gas emissions above 29 g CO2 per megawatt hour, a dramatic 85% reduction from the current limit, which cannot be met by burning imported wood pellets. [1] However, they urge the government to review the subsidies already granted for burning millions of tonnes of pellets imported in UK power stations.
A coalition of UK and US NGOs had called for a tighter greenhouse gas limit in the consultation, and 1,500 individuals endorsed this call via an email alert by Biofuelwatch. The UK imports more wood pellets than any other country in the world and almost all of those are currently burned by Drax power station in Yorkshire. Two other large biomass power stations [2] are under development and have already been guaranteed subsidies, each of which will burn 1.5 million tonnes of imported pellets. Most of those pellets come from the southern US, where carbon-rich forests ecosystems in the heart of a global biodiversity hotspot are being clearcut, increasingly for making pellets which are then shipped to the UK. [3] Drax power station receives £2 million a day in subsidies for burning imported wood. [4]
Almuth Ernsting from Biofuelwatch [5] states: “We are relieved that the Government has at last closed the door on new subsidies for burning imported wood for electricity because of the climate impacts. This comes after years of warnings by scientists and environmental organisations alike that burning pellets sourced from logging forests in North America and elsewhere is no better for the climate than burning wood. However, the Government must now go further and redirect existing biomass subsidies to low-carbon wind, solar and tidal power.”
Rita Frost from Dogwood Alliance in North Carolina, US [6], adds: “Southern US forests, and the communities that depend on them, have suffered from the UK’s misguided policy to subsidise biomass power stations. For the health and safety of our planet and communities, it’s imperative that we stop the unchecked growth of this dirty industry. Today’s decision is a positive signal for Southern forests, communities, and the climate. Now, we need to see an end to Drax’s £2m daily handouts for their destructive burning of forests.”
Mary Booth from the Partnership for Policy Integrity in the US [7] says: “Although the Government continues to use a flawed, unscientific method for calculating carbon emissions from biomass, it at least now acknowledges that the fossil fuel emissions from turning wood into pellets and shipping them across the Atlantic or across Europe alone are so high that electricity generated from burning those pellets is not low carbon and does not merit subsidies. There is no excuse left for subsidising this destructive industry at all.”
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Contacts:
Notes:
[1] The Government’s response to a consultation about Contracts for Difference (renewable electricity subsidies), issued today, can be found at assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/736640/Consultation_document.pdf . It states that such subsidies will in future only be awarded for burning biomass that does not result in more than 29kg CO2e/MWh greenhouse gas emissions – a reduction from the current 200.4 kg CO2/MWh. Although the Government’s methodology omits almost all of the emissions associated with logging as well as those from burning the wood, the fossil fuel emissions from processing and transporting wood pellets low distance alone are so high that no imported wood pellets have ever met this new limit.
[2] Those are MGT’s Teesside power station, currently under construction at Teesport, and the former Lynemouth coal power station, which is being converted to wood pellets.
[3] See dogwoodalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/NRDC_2014-2017Booklet_DigitalVersion-resize.pdf for evidence about pellet sourcing by Enviva, the largest pellet producer in the US. Enviva is Drax’s biggest external pellet supplier and has signed a supply contract for the MGT Teesside power station.
[4] The £2 million per day subsidy figure is calculated from the figures presented by Drax in its 2017 Annual Report (www.drax.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Drax-Group-plc-2017-annual-report.pdf ) and was confirmed by Drax in an email to Biofuelwatch.
[5] See www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
[6] See www.dogwoodalliance.org
[7] See www.pfpi.net
We’re tired of hearing folks in DC say, “Drain the swamps,” because swamps are actually really, really valuable.
While you can’t put a price tag on healthy families or the way you feel when you’re in a wetland forest, things like water filtration, tourism, protection from extreme weather events, timber, and food have a real dollar value, and people need to know that!
The logging industry wants us to believe that forests are only worth something when they’re cut down and turned into wood products, and that is a lie.
No matter what the logging industry says, the fact is that standing wetland forests keep jobs and wealth in their states and communities in a way that logging never will, and the world needs to know the truth.
If you want to get more involved:
Southern forests are a crucial component in protecting our communities from the worst impacts of climate change and ensuring a safer world for future generations. Our forests protect coastal communities from storm surges and rising sea levels; they limit the intensity of flooding and are the best way to store and sequester carbon, limiting the escalating global temperature increases.
Unfortunately, the forest products industry would have you believe that our forests are flourishing, but the facts paint a different picture. Our new white paper, “Industry Impacts on US Forests” based on the groundbreaking report, “The Great American Stand: US Forests and the Climate Emergency” by Dr. Bill Moomaw and Danna Smith, takes a closer look at the industry’s destructive climate legacy.
Our forests are supposed to store and take carbon out of the atmosphere, helping us in our fight against climate change. But our forests have released more carbon than they’ve stored in the last 400 years. Over the last century and at a continually accelerating pace, industrial logging is driving this decimation of our forests’ carbon stocks.
That’s more than five times the emissions from conversion, fire, wind, insects, and tree mortality combined. Over half of forests in the US South are less than 40 years old because the forest products industry encourages landowners to cut down their forests as soon as money can be made from them. Government does not regulate these practices nor do they invest in a just economic transition from an extractive model to a restorative one for our communities.
The forest products industry claims that their products are storing plenty of carbon. Paper, lumber, and other forest products are considered to be short term carbon stocks.
As long as we continue to incentivize forest destruction over forest conservation, we will not solve the climate crisis.
We invite you to join us and push back against this injustice to our forests, communities, and climate.
Enviva is the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturer and one of the leading industrial forest destroyers. Together we can expose the truth and end the senseless destruction of our precious forests.
I spent the first year of my Environmental Management Masters program at Duke University learning about the theories and practices of community-based environmental management. I discussed the benefits of asset mapping and potential problems with the word “empowerment.” I thought about how to most effectively work with and support communities and had some practice doing so. However, it was not until I began my summer at Dogwood Alliance that I was truly launched into grassroots, community-level work.
On my second day as the Campaign Intern, I found myself in the car traveling from North Carolina to a state forest just outside of DC. I had spent the day before figuring out where to park and how to log into my email account only to find myself transported, 24 hours later, to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the woods surrounded by advocates and influencers in the forest protection movement.
There, we spent two un-airconditioned days talking about and creating a national platform calling for expanded forest protection and an end to forest destruction and devastation. I listened as folks debated about the definition of a “forest” and lamented the injustices they’ve seen and experienced. However, I also took part in celebrations as people looked towards a just future where forests are respected for their intrinsic, not monetary, value.
From this summit, I learned a lot of new vocabulary and specifics about forest protection. But, more importantly, I witnessed passion being harnessed into something tangible — in this case, the Stand4Forests platform — and the power of working at the grassroots level.
It tooks months of collaboration, conference calls, and Google Doc drafts to create the platform, and the result was a platform that addressed the concerns of frontline communities, diverse organizations, scientists, and other leaders, while highlighting forests as a just solution to climate change.
Stepping outside of Stand4Forests, I saw this tenet apply to other aspects of my work, especially among Dogwood’s community members. Dogwood Alliance’s Grassroots Political Organizer Rachel Weber and I are based in the Triangle, and folks there are drawn to the Dogwood mission because they love forests.But they stay involved because of the relationship they develop with the organization, our staff, and the other folks they meet along the way.
Not only do they show up for our local events and meetings, but they consistently ask what else they can do to support our work and grow the movement. At Dogwood, we’re not working for these folks, we’re working with them, which is an integral aspect of grassroots work. And, while minority and frontline community members are still often underrepresented at these events and rallies, Dogwood recognizes this and works to address it through efforts like the Justice First Tour and the FOREST Circle.
In fact, Dogwood’s commitment to integrating social and environmental justice into their work is what drew me to the organization in the first place when I attended their Stories Happen in Forests (SHIF) event with no information other than a Facebook invitation. At SHIF, people shared stories about their connections to the forest.
One year later, I find myself intricately involved in these efforts, learning from and with everyone in this organization. This included organizing a hike in Umstead State Park to learn more about what makes Southern forests so special and teaming up with local artist Ariana Gershman of Moon Rabbit Studio to connect art and self-care with the forest protection movement.
If you want to be a part of this community, come out to our events — like Cheers for Trees in Durham on August 21st or Woods and Wild in Asheville on September 8th — and become a Forest Defender.
Dublin, August 13, 2018 – An Open Letter by 33 conservation and environmental justice organisations in the USA has today been sent to the Irish government, ESB [2] and Bord na Móna [3], opposing large-scale biomass burning in Ireland’s three peat power stations as a serious threat to southern US forests.
The groups state that both peat and biomass burning are profoundly incompatible with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and that the Edenderry, West Offaly and Lough Ree plants must therefore be shut down as soon as possible.
The letter supports demands by environmental NGOs in Ireland that the peat plants should not be permitted to operate beyond 2020 and that the Irish Government and energy companies must instead increase support for genuinely low-carbon renewable energy, such as wind and solar power.
Rita Frost from the forest-protection organization Dogwood Alliance, based in the southern United States: “ESB and Bord na Móna will do anything to keep their subsidies flowing for dirty, climate-polluting power stations. Their current proposal would replace peat with precious forests from the Southern US. The wood pellet industry in our region that would feed these companies is a key driver of forest destruction. Those forests lie at the heart of a global biodiversity hotspot and are vital for the future of the world’s climate,the region’s water supplies, and the local communities that depend on them.”
Bord na Móna has stated that it will burn US wood pellets ‘initially’. Its claims that it can eventually replace them with domestic willow and other biomass have been dismissed in the US Open Letter.
John Gibbons, climate change spokesperson from An Taisce says: “The Irish Government must listen to the warnings from US environmental groups. An Taisce has long called for the urgent phase out of high-carbon, dirty peat burning in Ireland. Burning either peat or imported wood pellets undermines Ireland’s climate change commitments while also destroying critical biodiversity. It must be ended.”
“It is cynical in the extreme for Bord Na Móna to plan to extend the life of its ecologically devastating peat burning business by contributing to similar destruction abroad”, Gibbons added. “As a semi-state company, it is under direct political control, so there is absolutely no reason Bord Na Móna cannot be directed by government to focus only on commercial activities that do not destroy biodiversity, increase flooding risk and further undermine Ireland’s climate targets.”
Rachel Smolker from Biofuelwatch, based in Vermont, adds: “If we want to have any hope of stabilising climate change at 1.5 or even 2 degrees C, we need to end fossil fuel and peat burning and we also need to protect the world’s remaining forests and allow ones which have been degraded or destroyed to regenerate. ESB’s and Bord na Móna’s plans for the three power plants will harm the climate both through direct carbon emissions and by accelerating the loss and degradation of forests.”
To download a pdf of the full letter, go here.
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Contacts: John Gibbons, An Taisce Climate Change Committee: +353 87 233 2689 Rita Frost, Dogwood Alliance, 828-251-2525 ext 26 Rachel Smolker, Biofuelwatch, office: 802-482-2848, mobile: 802-735-7794 Charles Stanley-Smith, Communications, An Taisce. Tel: +353 87 241 1995 email: [email protected]
Note: The Open Letter can be downloaded at https://www.dogwoodalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Open-letter-on-Ireland-Peat-Power-Stations-Aug-13-2018.pdf
This letter was sent to key government and corporate decision makers in Ireland. We sent the letter to the following contacts: Tom Donellan, CEO Bord na Mona Pat O’Doherty, CEO ESB Denis Naughten, Minister of Communications, Climate Action and Environment Michael Creed, Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine Hildegard Naughton, Chair of the Committee on Climate Action and the Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment Timmy Dooley, Fine Fail Spokesman on Communications, the Environment and Natural Resources Brian Stanley, Sinn Fein Spokesman on Communications, Climate Change and Environment Eamon Ryan, leader of the Green Party Brid Smith, Solidarity-People Before Profit James Lawless, Fine Fail Terry Layden, Fine Fail (Senate) Michael McDowell, Independent (Senate) Joe O’Reilly, Fine Gael (Senate) Mary Butler, Fine Fail, Joint Committee on Climate Action Jack Chambers, Fine Fail, Joint Committee on Climate Action Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, Fine Gael, Joint Committee on Climate Action Patrick Deering, Fine Gael, , Joint Committee on Climate Action Martin Heydon, Fine Gael, Joint Committee on Climate Action John Lahart, Fine Fail, Joint Committee on Climate Action Imedla Munster, Sinn Fein, Joint Committee on Climate Action Paul Murphy, Solidarity-People Before Profit, Joint Committee on Climate Action Tom Neville, Fine Gael, Joint Committee on Climate Action Carol Nolan, Independent, Joint Committee on Climate Action Thomas Pringle, Independent, Joint Committee on Climate Action Sean Sherlock, Labour, Joint Committee on Climate Action Paul Daly, Fine Fail, Joint Committee on Climate Action Maire Devine, Sinn Fein, Joint Committee on Climate Action Tim Lombard, Fine Gael, Joint Committee on Climate Action Ian Marshall, Independent, Joint Committee on Climate Action Michelle Mulherin, Fine Gael, Joint Committee on Climate Action Grace O’Sullivan, Green Party, Joint Committee on Climate Action
At the heart of our values at Dogwood Alliance is a deep-rooted belief that everyone has a right to a safe, healthy and beautiful place to live, work, learn and play. We value the diversity in our forests as well as the diversity of people here in the South and around the world.
Though our work is focused on protecting the forests and communities of the Southern US that face injustice at the hands of destructive industrial logging, we stand in solidarity with people around the world facing injustice at the hands of those in power who value profits above the health and well-being of communities and the planet.
Accounts of the horrid conditions and treatment of people, including families, have endured at the hands of our government are heartbreaking. Thousands of families have yet to be reunited and stories of ongoing mistreatment of those seeking refuge continue to surface in the news.
People who have risked their lives fleeing corruption, violence, and oppression deserve to be treated fairly, with kindness and respect. Every person seeking to come to America to make a better life for themselves or their families deserves a fair and just opportunity to seek legal citizenship.
There is never a valid justification for policies or actions that limit rights based on race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, country of origin, etc.
The current government practice of separating and mistreating families from Latin American countries trying to escape to safety in our great melting pot is cruel, inhumane, and discriminatory and as such runs counter the American values of justice that we hold dear.
Our internal policies as well as our programs and approach to organizing reflect and prioritize this. Our organization will continue to work at the highest levels to strengthen our resolve and leadership as an ally in the struggle for justice. We invite you to explore more of our work to see us putting our principles into action.
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