Live on line Monday, and a short reflection

With RFK Jr., Nicole Shanahan, Vandana Shiva, and Ryland Engelhart

Hi everyone, tomorrow I’ll be on an Earth Day panel with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Nicole Shanahan, Vandana Shiva, and Ryland Engelhart. It is a Kennedy-Shanahan fundraiser, so you’ll have to pay $24 to watch. Register here.

Yes, I’m still quite involved in the Kennedy campaign. In fact I spoke at a rally last week. Well, sort of a rally. It was to kick off ballot access in New York, which requires tens of thousands of signatures.

Before I went on stage, the question arose in me: “What do I serve?” Because in fact, my highest priority is not to get RFK Jr. elected, it is to put my words at the service of the turning of the world toward healing, beauty, life, and peace. So I resolved to speak my mind and not pretend to believe anything I do not, nor to feign enthusiasm when I do not feel it. And on the flip side, not to hide my enthusiasm when I DO feel it.

It is a lot safer to stay apolitical. To stay above it all, aloof, superior, cynical. Because when you publicly supports a political candidate, you place yourself on “the other side” in the minds of many people. In my speech I addressed that a bit – the separation of our country into hostile opinion tribes. Support the wrong candidate and you become an untouchable. We have got to heal that if our country is going to emerge from its paralysis. Two mobs riot against each other on the deck of the Titanic.

The division is an insatiable monster whose food is any sphere of civic life that remains unpolarized. Environment is one of those spheres that has fallen victim to the monster. I don’t think it has to be that way, so my intention on the panel will be to introduce a unifying narrative that transcends the polarized views on environment. Because fundamentally, all of us (or nearly all) love nature and want to live in a world where life thrives.