Largest (3,000 – 5,000) public rally in Louisville’s history. The following is the address delivered by Jackie Green – community centered transportation and land use advocate.
Good morning. You should see yourselves from this perspective. You are many. You are beautiful. The peace and justice that we seek cannot be created on an Earth that cannot support all of life with dignity and equality. Earth has been under assault for 100 years. And as the assault accelerates government refuses to pursue peace, justice and a stable Earth. So here we are, demanding change in the way we treat Earth and each other, demanding change from our governments, our industries, our institutions. If our demand is to be taken seriously, if our demand is to have any integrity, we must ourselves change. As Gandhi put it “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” We must change as individuals, as family units, as communities. We must cease our personal participation in the assault on Earth. In our change is the power to force change upon our governments and institutions. They respond to power, particularly the power of the dollar. And we spend on average 40% of household income on housing, transportation and utilities. Our power to force change, our power to assault or to heal is found in that 40%. As one who quit flying in 1993, and quit car ownership in 1999. I urge you, as you travel home today, to contemplate the power of your dollar spent on housing, transportation and utilities. Here is a bicycle, no ordinary bicycle, but an agent of change, like TARC buses, like shoes, a tool of resistance – resistance against tar sands, pipelines, refineries, emissions, offshore drilling, fracking, oil spills, Wall St, and military intervention. An instrument of peace and healing. An agent of change. “Be the change.” Thank you.
