Each person and idea I have encountered in the Youth Climate Movement has altered the lens through which I view the world. Preconceived notions of identity, privilege, value, power, love and what is good or right have been reshaped, strengthened and shattered.

Last August, I drove my parents’ Toyota Camry 500 miles to New Hampshire for the Sierra Student Coalitions summer leadership gathering – Shindig. Five days later I drove home with new friends, renewed inspiration, and new understandings. Among those I met was Ivan Stiefel. He’s the sort of human that radiates community. His is the energy that fills a room, and rather than sucking people to him, it floods the room with a shared joy. At Shindig, he and another climate justice leader, Timothy Denherder-Thomas, - for whom I also hold immense respect - co-led a training on community organizing and power. It was a brilliant combination of insight on the nature of power and the strength of communities and the tools with which to leverage power. The most empowering idea and tool I internalized can be represented in a simple diagram, and it looks like this:

Power is simply the ability to do. Perhaps this is an old hat to all you organizers out there.

It is interesting to think about these power dynamics in the abstract, but every day I experience each dynamic in some capacity. My experience as a participant in Sunday’s Freedom From Oil rally at the North American International Auto Show brought each of these power dynamics into sharp contrast and revealed the tangible connections between them. This is part 1 of my narrative, reflections, and analysis of a moment in the movement.

(more…)