A Long Way Home
In mid-September, I received an email from a friend in Portland, Oregon. She and her partner would soon be making a trip to Victoria, British Columbia. “Do you still live there?” she asked. “We are casually crafting an exit strategy.” When I told her I was about to move back to the States, she responded with a common refrain: “Why would you move back right now?” It’s a question I’ve been struggling to answer. In the 12 years that I’ve lived abroad — and especially this past year — I’ve watched as my home country has become more dysfunctional, dangerous, and unjust. Why would I move toward what many others are trying to escape? I still don’t have a great answer, but I think it has to do with a sense of responsibility. I’ve been away a long time, working as a journalist in Australia and Canada. And, more recently, I’d been questioning whether I should bring my acquired skills and knowledge back “home.” In July, Earth Island Journal offered me an opportunity to do that and return to California — a place I grew up in and will always love. I would work with Earth Island Institute, a progressive organization founded by the late activist David Brower that values courage, equity, and intersectionality. I would publish stories about grassroots efforts around the globe to protect people and the planet. Despite growing attempts by the Trump administration to silence and punish journalists, the job felt like a way to contribute and fight apathy. I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area this past Monday, just after Trump ordered the National Guard into Portland (where I had stopped on my drive south and enjoyed a peaceful cappuccino, and a view over a city that was certainly not at war). I don’t blame my friend for wanting to leave in such a political climate, nor would I blame any scientist or service worker or citizen for leaving a place that feels hostile or unsafe. Not contributing tax dollars or talent to an oppressive government is one form of resistance. Another, I think, is staying, or returning to try to help. On my first day at the Journal office in Berkeley, as I was walking up the cement stairwell of the David Brower Center, a quote on the wall from the Indigenous botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer caught my eyes, and then my heart: “To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it.” I’m happy to be in a place, and in a job, dedicated to that kind of healing. I look forward to sharing stories that inform and inspire positive change near and far.
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