That's unfathomable...Terry tempest williams on democracy & hope "Q.What is the most pressing environmental concern we face...A. The Bush Administration"
Q&A: Terry Tempest Williams
By Aria Seligmann, Eugene Weekly
June 9, 2003
A lifetime resident of Utah, environmental writer and poet Terry Tempest
Williams writes from her own experiences as a Mormon woman living in
that state. She has authored six books, as well as "An Unspoken Hunger,"
a collection of essays, and two children's books.
Her work has been anthologized widely and reproduced in The New Yorker,
The Nation, Outside, Audubon and Orion and she's best known for
"Refuge," a book that tells the parallel tales of the degradation of the
environment and her mother's battle with cancer.
She's been inducted into the Rachel Carson Honor Roll and has received
the National Wildlife Federation's Conservation Award for Special
Achievement. On May 2, she received an honorary doctorate from the
University of Utah - a huge step for the university to make for that
state's own "wayward" daughter.
Eugene Weekly: What is the most pressing environmental concern we face?
Terry Tempest Williams: The Bush Administration. There are many forms of
terrorism and environmental degradation is one of them. We're being hit
on all counts. It's not enough that last month the Senate voted not to
drill in the Arctic - it went back to the House floor and passed. Bush
said he's going door to door himself. I believe our country is being run
as a business, not as a democracy and they don't understand that this is
a public process. Whether it's Bush/Cheney's energy policy behind closed
doors or the desire to exploit everything they possibly can on every
possible level - the environment, social issues or the economy - I think
it's devastating. Now there's this atmosphere of war where we aren't
allowed to criticize our president. To be called a traitor or a patriot
- this is one of the darkest times we're faced in this country.
What light do you see that will get us out of this scenario, besides the
2004 elections? What do you think the individual can do?
Speak. Shatter the silence. Question everything. Redefine. Reimagine
patriotism. Reimagine hatred and take back the language. I think we can
do this each in our own ways, each with our own gifts. I realize that
since Sept. 11 I've been writing mostly for newspapers. Books are too
slow and they don't get read. I've wanted to be part of the dialogue and
this dialogue is taking place daily and on a national and local level,
that's where we are having this public discourse. It's critical that we
engage in this form of democracy; it literally is happening at our
kitchen table. That's an exciting thing to see. We're struggling. I'm
struggling. I don't know whom to believe I don't know what to believe.
And everyday I hear myself saying over and over again, "I don't know."
We watch Saddam toppled and we're told this is in the same category as
Stalin and Hitler and I think, "Am I losing it?" But on the other hand,
I believe it is an occupation. It's about American Imperialism and I do
think they have their eyes on Syria, this fundamentalist government. On
one hand they tell us they're liberating Iraq, and on the other hand
we're watching the erosion of democracy in our own country. There's this
paradox going on. I wonder how the PATRIOT ACT will go over in Iraq as
the first document of democracy.
And here?
I believe we are in this atmosphere of terror and that they are imposing
and propagating and elevating fear to create compliance and complacency.
It's all the more critical for us to be highly attentive and to really
ground ourselves, to stay in the center in the thick of our lives and in
the thread of our own communities. That's the only place I know where
hope truly lives. And the only place we can have an impact is within our
own community.
I was arrested in Washington during the Code Pink rally. That's
certainly not something we anticipated, planned, or expected. There was
a wall of Washington, DC police that saying "You cannot come into
Lafayette Park" and "No, you cannot stand in front of the White House
and protest this war." That was a week before it started. And we looked
through their arms and saw pro-life protesters standing in front of the
White House with ghastly images and that appeared not to be a problem.
Again, the incredible irony and paradox. There is no room for diplomacy.
What can citizens do who want to change this administration's priorities
and agenda?
I don't know. We can vote. It seems really important that the 2004
election be held with as much integrity as possible. A great idea as
given by Granny D at the Code Pink rally. She said, "Vote absentee in
your state and then become a swing state suffragette and go to the
states that are close and help get the vote out." I thought that was
really smart.
She also said - again, we listen to our elders, she's what, in her 90s -
she said the Green Party needs to be patient with this next election and
that yes, the Greens can organize locally and build up state
legislatures and start from the ground up but this next election we have
to try to get a democratic candidate that can defeat George Bush.
Otherwise, we have four more years. I thought that was a brave thing to
say. And that may be controversial, but I agree.
Who would you support for the Democratic candidate?
I'm waiting. It may even be a Republican candidate. I don't know. I'm
looking for someone who has a vision and who dares to speak out against
these corporate ideas of democracy. I still have great faith in
democracy. I have great belief in the power of community. And I also
have a strong belief in dinner parties. In people's homes, where you
create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable speaking their minds
and are literally nourished. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had them in
our own homes where we are safe and we can have these dinner parties of
real discussion among our friends and also invite people with different
ideas so we can listen? If we can teach ourselves how to listen to the
other viewpoint, what a great idea. If we can get democracy around our
own dinner tables.
I'm also thinking of the whole idea of shadow. Whether we like it or
not, George Bush is our shadow: arrogance, impatience, entitlement,
greed capitalism; we are all complicit in that. I'm interested in
looking at what that shadow means. This is a time of reflection,
contemplation, calming down and settling. As a writer, I'm trying to
find places that test my own courage and comfort.
We are a nation at war. Can we have the courage to stay in that place of
darkness and not be undone by it, not be undone by despair? I have
enormous faith in the capacity to transform. This is a powerful time in
the evolution of the human psyche - like the Renaissance and the
Reformation. Look at the global response of humans to this war. That is
powerful. It's never happened before.
It's interesting to me that we started this conversation talking about
the environment, but we couldn't help but talk about the war.
These are core issues at the heart of the land. We can't separate them
but we have separated them and that's the problem. So when we talk about
the Earth, the animals as one consideration - when you talk about issues
of water and politics, every being has a right to clean water, we
incorporate conversations about democracy.
We need to be able to treat each other well in order to treat the
animals and plants well. It's a cycle, the embrace. We need to see our
limitations as human beings. I don't think the Bush Administration sees
any limitations. And how do you create democracy without humility?
This country was founded on the idea that anyone, well, white people,
could come here and be equal. And be welcomed. And tame the land.
We have to speak out now on behalf of our community and on behalf of the
land and say they're the same thing and say "No, we are not rolling
over" and "No, this is not a corporate enterprise." This is democracy in
the fullest sense and we must have regard and reverence and those are
the cornerstones of a just society.
Terry, why aren't more people out on the streets striking, protesting,
and refusing to pretend that life goes on as normal, at least for the
duration of the war?
Again, it's those words, I don't know. We have to ask ourselves, "What
do I have to give?" and then, "How do I give it?" Whether it's as a
writer, an organic gardener, as a teacher, a social worker, a mother or
father, we can exercise that courage and insistence, resistance, and say
there's another way of being, another way of seeing, and I do think that
counts. And numbers count. In many ways it comes down to that.
Aria Seligmann is the associate editor of the Eugene Weekly. |
