Worldchanging for human rights

When I was a child reading science fiction, starting in about 1969, I remember discovering the dystopian narratives of John Brunner. He was using what I later would come to understand as sophisticated modernist narrative techniques to extrapolate on the new understandings about pollution and ecological crisis (think Alvin Toffler, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Diet for a Small Planet). I found his novels disturbing because they were bleak, very close to reality, and did not have heroes who saved the universe at the end, instead showing the effects of fear and anxiety on ordinary people living through the accelerating collapse of the world's ecosystem and social structures. One of his novels was called The Sheep Look Up from Milton). I was too young to understand the big picture, but that book has stayed with me, as a prophecy of what could happen if we did not wake up. I didn't see any hope in this angry, all-too-prophetic book.

A couple of days ago, as I was driving to the school board meeting to speak out in favor of the Human Rights Campaign's curriculum to counteract homophobic bullying in the public schools, I listened to radio news headlines that were almost apocalyptic: the death toll climbs from the cyclone in Myanmar and the authoritarian regime is stealing food and aid from the people; reports of the earthquake in China eloquently communicate the pain of all those parents who've lost their only precious child in the rubble of collapsed schools; tornados are increasing in severity, but is it becaue of increasing in severity because of global climate change? the degradation of ecosystmes contributes to the raging wildfires; Bush's lackeys have finally declared polar bears a "threatened" (but not endangered!) species, and admitted that maybe there's something to this global warming stuff after all. Food and fuel prices are rising, and the poorest will be hit the hardest. I feel anger and sorrow. It's tempting to give in to despair. But, as Alex Steffen says, in his manifesto for a politics of optimism "Cynicism is obedience." There is a global movement for change, made of many pieces. Some of them connect at Worldchanging.com. As they say, "Worldchanging: Change your thinking"

Last week, my contribution to the meme of Passion Quilt was a post about how I am passionate about teaching as "changing perspectives." Today I'm joining folks who are blogging about human rights, and I want to think about it in the same way: what do we need to do to change our thinking about our relationship to the planet so that we can make changes for human rights.

I got an email from someone at the The Advocates for Human Rights, (formerly known as the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, but they have grown),letting me know about this event. I clicked their link and it took me to something called "Bloggers Unite:Blogging for Hope, hosted by BlogCatalog.com. If you click there, you can see what other bloggers are thinking and writing about human rights. We are working together for a critical pedagogy of hope.