I’d like to introduce you all to a project I’ve been hard at work on.  It’s called The Trek to Re-Energize America, it’s a bike ride, and it has the potential to create a massive groundswell of support for real, serious climate action from our new president and congress.
The Trek to Re-Energize America is a bike ride to D.C., starting from wherever you happen to be at the time.  Riders will depart for D.C from all across the country, leaving from their home states and sweeping up media attention and grassroots support as they go.  Many of you have already heard about the Trek as I’ve had the pleasure of talking to youth leaders in the movement across the country this summer.
So, why a bike ride? Because we need to start thinking outside of the box.  This is not a typical partisan political issue and we can’t continue treating it like one.  PSA’s, slick ads in hip magazines and blog posts are not going to build this movement to where it needs to be in the small timeframe we have.  It is going to take real, on the ground action from a lot of people in a lot of places.  Hence, the obviousness of a bike ride.  It’s been done before and it’s happening again in a few weeks, but we need to start thinking bigger.
The Trek tackles one of the fundamental problems of our movement, and that is momentum.  Rallies and conferences are great and vital, but they are not necessarily movement builders.  They can be great media events, but they also fall prey to “flash in the pan” problems. The Trek will take place in the summer of 2009 and will travel across the country, building grassroots support and media attention until converging on D.C at the end of July for a huge day of rallying and lobbying.  And trust me, if you bike thousands of miles to talk to someone, you’d be amazed at how much more receptive they can be.
We’re excitred to launch the Trek website today and to start building the coalitions and support that the Trek will need to be succesful.  We’ll need everyone’s help to make this a success and we hope to hear from you soon.  E-mail contact@trektoreenergize.org if you’d like to get involved.