By Jacob Klein
As we change societies, we must change from operating on the mode of individualism to community-centeredness. We must “walk our talk.” We must be the values that we say we’re struggling for and we must be justice, be peace, be community.
With this, we reach the final Jemez Principle and final column in this series. However, that doesn’t mean the work is over. In fact, the final principle points towards the continuing and ever-evolving nature of democratic organizing and environmental justice. This principle calls on us to not simply know by reading but to understand by doing. And by doing, we change ourselves and we change the world.
As activists, we seek change. We’re not happy with the status quo. As the world moves, so must we. It can be unsettling at first, but it will happen whether we want it to or not. As we seek to change the world, we must remember that we will change too.
I’m reminded of the great Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Of the many kernels of wisdom she shares, one sticks with me now: “All that you touch/You Change. All that you Change/Changes You. The only lasting truth/Is Change.”
My mission in starting this column was to try and change our Sierra Club community, at least a little. To invite members on a journey with me as I explore the Jemez Principles and build a greater understanding of what working for justice can do for our environmental work, and what it can do to truly support the people who are under the wheel of oppression and marginalization.
It’s been two years since this journey began, and I’ll be honest that in trying to change Sierra Club, I have also changed. I have learned how to be a better partner to our environmental justice allies. I have blundered and erred, chosen my reality over listening. I have taken space and made space. Throughout it all, I keep trying.
I came up as an organizer in the progressive Jewish organizing space. In that space, we often turn to the Pirkei Avot, or Ethics of the Fathers, a collection of ethical maxims from Jewish tradition. One that lingers with me states, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”
For me, I think about this at every level — the personal all the way to the movement. And the Jemez Principles have been tools to remind myself, create a map of where I want to go and what I want to be — and what kind of world I want to live in.
To fight for justice, to fight for people’s right to life, to fight for non-human life, our communities — our homes — must be tended. And to tend them, we have to keep bringing in justice and peace.
I leave you with another quote from Butler’s Parable of the Sower, which any environmentalist and fighter for justice should read:
"To benefit your world,
Your people,
Your life,
Consider consequences,
Minimize harm
Ask questions,
Seek answers,
Learn,
Teach."