October 13, 2021
I can’t remember a time when environmental and social justice didn’t figure prominently in my consciousness. For extra credit in fifth grade I tried my hand at designing a solar steam generating power plant — naive, yes, but I was hopeful. Then I planned to either give back our whole farm to the Seneca Nation (if they wanted it), or turn it into a forest preserve (if they didn’t). And that was before I entered high school; then possibilities and concerns emerged with overwhelming and interdependent devastation and complexity — there was no beginning or end to entangled injustice and exploitation of the natural world, other species and one another by systems constructed to maintain the power of a few over the many. Hence, I’ve been a dedicated deconstructionist ever since this realization. I work to dismantle structures of oppression and violence and living beings and ecosystems wherever I see them. I oppose all forms of “-isms.” I believe in the basic rights of all people to life, liberty, clean water, clean air, healthy food and the ability to be heard. And I believe all living things have an inherent unique right to live free of exploitation simply because THEY ARE HERE — they have their own inalienable rights to exist as themselves, not as commodities to serve us. This is the same for a tree, or a river or a mountain — they are unique unto themselves and have the right to be respected in that capacity. This is where I stand.
I am currently serving as Atlantic Chapter Chair, and have for the last 3 1/2 years. I am also Conservation Chair for the Finger Lakes Group. In the past, I also served as Atlantic Chapter Conservation Chair and as Finger Lakes Group Chair as well as being on several Chapter Conservation Committees.