Right Action – Shirley DicKard

About "Heart Wood"/Dams/Environmental Concerns/Right Action/Sierra Nevada/Student Activism/The Future

Dams: A 19th Century Solution to a 21st Century Problem That Won’t Go Away

March 13, 2017October 2, 2020 Shirley DicKardLeave a comment

Dams have been in the news and on my radar again. Just as I’m revising the chapter in my book about fighting a dam back in 1990 (yes, the novel’s still in progress, but I’m pedaling faster now that I’m working with a writing coach!), here in Northern California the Oroville Dam spillway break caused the evacuation of 200,000 people in the Yuba-Sutter lowlands, and a new dam is being proposed on the Bear River in Nevada County.

I totally emphasize with all that would be impacted by the Centennial Dam that Nevada Irrigation District (NID) is currently proposing for the Bear River west of Colfax (Nevada and Placer Counties). Back in 1999, the Moonshine Road area of Camptonville was faced with the prospect of a dam on the Middle Yuba River. Without benefit of today’s social media, our very small community of 600 people organized, educated, then partnered with SYRCL to form our own MYRACL (Middle Yuba River Area Citizens League). Eventually, the Yuba County Water Agency took the Freeman’s Crossing Dam off the list of options for flood control. But in the current political culture of abrupt reversals, no one can afford to be complacent. Thankfully today, myriads of new organizations have joined SYRCL to focus on protecting our rivers and environment. Folks are better connected, informed, and proactive.

If you want to become informed about the Centennial Dam proposal and learn how to impact the process, here’s some links to check out. Citizens have until April 10th to give public comment to the Army Corps of Engineers, so do it soon!

www.SaveBearRiver.com, and SYRCL’s http://yubariver.org/get-involved/

Now back to my writing. Dams provide the dramatic backdrop for my present-time character, Harmony, a back-to-the-lander religiously devoted to saving the planet. Based on the true events in Camptonville, Harmony was part of a group that struggled to ward off a dam that would have inundated over a third of the families in her small, rural, community.

But in the end, it was the children who saved the river.

Excerpt from The Desk: (Note: “The Desk” was the former working title for “Heart Wood” before 2020)

Back then, the prospect of this dam hung like a shroud over our school kids. In classrooms, bathrooms, lunchrooms, and recess, all they could talk about was that half of their friends would be flooded out; families would be forced to leave; the school would have to shut down.

Mrs. Watson, the fifth grade teacher, understood that the best antidote for anxiety was action. She assigned her ten-year old students the project of creating a plan. What did they want to happen? Who could they approach? What would they say? Soon parents and school staff got on board and helped the class get on the Supervisor’s Agenda. TV and news media were alerted, and at ten am, the school bus dropped twenty children into a throng of reporters and cameras in front of the county government center.

CV Students Oppose Dam 1999 — Grass Valley Union Reprint, April 28, 1999

Once inside the Supervisors Chambers and called to speak, students displayed their six-foot, hand-drawn poster depicting how the dam would destroy their community. One-by one, four students stood at the microphone and read the speech they had practiced in class. How, they asked, could the Supervisors purposely wipe out one of its own communities?

Towering above them from their elevated desk, the five Supervisors leaned back in their seats, taking in the children, cameras, reporters, then back to the children. The Chairman thanked the students politely and announced they would make their final decision by the end of the afternoon, then added he wished he could to bring his own constituents to the school to learn how to make a good presentation!

The next day the school’s hallways were plastered with news coverage of the childrens’ appeal….the children who saved their community from being flooded.

Flash forward to 2,020. Having once defeated this dam that would have flooded her home, Harmony is now faced with the revival of the 19^th century solution to the 21^st century problem of droughts, decreasing water supply, and increasing demand. What is now different in this (hopefully) fictional account is that by 2,020, the environmental regulatory process has since been dismantled. No more red tape, pesky regulations, meddling oversight, or tedious public input. Developers are freed at last to finally get things done!

May I repeat how you can impact our future right now?

Check out: www.SaveBearRiver.com and SYRCL’s http://yubariver.org/get-involved/ The public has until April 10^th to comment on NID’s plans to construct Centennial Dam – a new reservoir on the Bear River between the existing Rollins and Combie Reservoirs. It’s up to us citizens to take notice and take action.

Despair/Environmental Concerns/Right Action

Despair

December 3, 2016June 9, 2020 Shirley DicKardLeave a comment

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

I stare into the open refrigerator, my bare toes curling on the cold linoleum. I need comfort food. Where’s the custard, or mashed potatoes, or macaroni and cheese? I woke up feeling punched in the stomach. This is not my morning; he is not my president; this is not happening. Joe comes down the stairs in his robe and I shove the refrigerator door closed. He shakes his head; we exchange glassy stares.

Curled into a chair, I hug my knees. All we’ve accomplished in the last eight years will be wiped out in one coup. I listen to Dora sputtering a message on the answer machine but can’t bear to take it.

”No one saw this coming,” Joe says, his fists are curled tight like he wants to bash someone.

I rummage around the pantry shelf hoping that the old box of Cream of Wheat is still there. It isn’t. I settle for polenta instead and pour my grief into the hot water along with the yellow corn.

“Such a sad, sad day for Mother Earth.”

“And health care, honesty, clean energy, integrity, respect…”

I stop Joe with a wave of my hand, too weary to commiserate.

After a warm bowl of polenta smothered in melted butter, I change into sweat pants and go outside to rake leaves, same as I did when my father died, or when words are too much a struggle. I haul a garbage can full of musty oak leaves up to the garden and dump them into the open graves of my raised beds.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, as I yank a few dandelions out of the carrot patch and toss them onto the pathway.

I thought maybe you could change something, comes a whisper back.

I drag myself to the house, heavy with despair. I can’t think, can’t read, can’t write. I draw the curtains and curl up on the couch.

My stomach remembers third grade.

“Draw something that you really care about.” Mrs. Clark gave us two days to create a masterpiece, and I worked on it every spare minute I had. While boys drew hot rods and fancy bicycles, I drew flowers. Not just flowers, but intricate specimens from the garden beds that surrounded my home: pink hydrangeas, red bottle brush, white calla lilies, purple rhododendrons. From mom’s cutting garden I drew snapdragons, pansies, and zinnias. I even drew a few weeds, like the ones with long pointed swords you could join together to make scissors.

The day our art projects were due, I still had one blank space to fill in, and decided I could finish it during morning recess. Though I knew it was off limits for third graders, I slipped my art page into a big picture book, hid a yellow and a green pencil in my pocket, and sneaked out to the baseball diamond where I knew dandelions grew by the dugout. I was almost finished when shadows from behind loomed over my page.

“Looks like your flowers need some dirt to grow in.” Fat-bellied Percy dribbled globs of mud onto my page then leaned over and smeared them into my flowers. His friends laughed and jostled about, even Bruce who would never hurt a fly. “Good goin’ PC,” they said. I froze.

“Hey, let’s make flower seeds and plant them.” PC snatched my beautiful flowers and in slow motion, tore them into small squares that drifted to the dirt in front of me. Ricky, David, Bobby, and even Bruce hung around PC, slapping his back; all wanting to be just like him as they strutted back to the classroom.

I hung my head. I knew I shouldn’t have been out there. Fighting back tears, I rushed to the bathroom, closed the stall door, held my stomach, and cried. I didn’t recognize the anger then, I thought it was shame.

Mrs. Clark cocked her head when I dropped my white page with two nondescript pink flowers onto her desk. I lowered my eyes, and back at my seat, buried my face in a book. A week later, I got my page back with a frowny face on top and her note: “It looks like you didn’t try.”

(From The Desk, a work in progress)

About "Heart Wood"/Environmental Concerns/Right Action/The Future

Acting Locally

January 14, 2014October 2, 2020 Shirley DicKard8 Comments

Just when I thought my life was perfectly full, I take on something really big. It wasn’t my idea – well, of course it was – but somehow I had made the decision without telling myself. I realized this when I woke up at 4 am and started writing notes on how I was going to run the local community newspaper.

Being Editor of The Camptonville Courier was never, ever on my retirement radar. Five months ago the last volunteer Editor left, and though people in our small town said how much they missed the monthly “community voice,” no one has come forward to take it on. Certainly not me! I’m a writer. That doesn’t mean I know publishing or want those responsibilities to take over my life.

Yet, something’s right. Here I am, one month after that fateful night, and loving what’s happening. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I feel supported and delightfully challenged by all I’m learning about running a newspaper. More importantly, I have a crew of twelve community volunteers who are helping by taking on pieces of the work.

What cinched it for me is this is one thing I can do for my community. I’ve often grappled with what is right action, considering all the suffering and planetary deterioration around us. Not surprising, Christie, the present-time character in the novel I’m working on, grapples with the same question. She knows that by the end of the century, her future great-granddaughter Amisha will be grappling with the impact of the actions we do/don’t do today. Here’s a draft excerpt from The Desk: (Note: “The Desk” was the former working title for “Heart Wood” before 2020, and “Christie” is now “Harmony)

“It seems no matter what route I take, I always end up wallowing in the same pool. Signs are everywhere. My humming laptop has already collected the morning’s emails – Outrage! Warning! Take Action! Thank god lots of people are working hard for causes, yet I sit here paralyzed by despair. I’m not a hero. I’m just me, living my life with right intentions as best I can, yet sensing there’s a huge tsunami coming toward us.

I go downstairs and refill my coffee cup. On the way back up, I rationalize that in small ways I am doing something. I grow my food, reuse cloth shopping bags, frequent farmer’s markets, and shop locally before checking Amazon. I’m a poster child for “One Hundred Ways to Save the Planet.”

Seated at the desk, my new fountain pen is poised in my hand, ready to write. I’m in love with it. Compared to a ball point, the ink flows almost as fast as my thoughts.

Amisha taps me on the shoulder.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” I ask, startled at her voice in my head.

“For water. The hand pump still works.”

“Oh that!” I laugh softly. My husband wanted a fancy solar pump and back-up system, but I told him I wanted simple. Too much high-tech stuff makes me feel helpless.

“You planted fruit and nut trees,” she continues.

“It’s what we back-to-the-landers did.”

“But they lasted. Even without anyone’s care.”

“So the drought-tolerant ones really were?” I’m impressed.

“I couldn’t have survived without them.”

I shift in my seat, feeling uneasy. “But it wasn’t enough, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t.” Her voice is cold and dry inside my head. I cover my eyes, despair drawing me down like quicksand.

About "Heart Wood"/Creative Writing/Environmental Concerns/Personal Writing Retreat/Right Action/Sierra Nevada/The Future

Day 2 – A Personal Writing Retreat

October 6, 2013October 2, 2020 Shirley DicKard22 Comments

I reluctantly leave my cozy down comforter, knowing I have miles of words to write today. After yesterday’s drizzle, the sun is invigorating. First, a tall mug of black coffee and a bowl of hot oatmeal, then I open my laptop to where I left off in the Scrivener program.

Hummer and Rupalini pop up on the screen to greet me. They’re the old couple who escaped the growing dystopic world of the mid-2000’s and settled in the hills. He’s saving his last 2 bullets from his now empty stockpile; her mind long gone, she’s obsessed with finding out when the world turned.

After that chapter, I return to the present day narrator, wondering what will move her from feeling overwhelmed and hopeless about the state of the world and get her motivated into action.

Scott knocks at my door with a refilled jar of brown sugar and the most recent copy of Yes! Magazine from Diane. I’m drawn into conversation with him, and write down his blog, The Rambling Taoist. He came to Skyline Harvest for a short visit and stayed. Skyline attracts such interesting people!

I write all morning, take a break for lunch and a short nap, then continue into the afternoon. My word count is mounting, but not fast enough. I console myself that the time I spend thinking through larger aspects of this project doesn’t show up as word counts.

There’s a lot of good stuff in Yes! Magazine’s Summer 2013 issue. Here’s a few notes I took:

Will we turn against one another in a struggle for the last resources, or turn to one another in cooperation and community? (Sarah van Gelder)
How to create new cultural stories and what we consider sources of true happiness? (van Gelder)
Definition of Revelation (Latin) and Apocalypse (Greek) is “A lifting of the veil, a disclosure of something hidden; coming to clarity.” (Robert Jensen)
It’s an illusion we can maintain an extractive economy indefinitely. Our planet is not just a mine and a landfill. For some, it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of air conditioning! (Jensen)
“Prefigurative Interventions” – Playful Protests, Pranks & Serious Works of Imagination.” Look it up! Beautiful Trouble, a Toolbox for Revolution at http://www.beautifultrouble.org

The afternoon sun beckons me out to pick some figs from the huge tree next to the Ranch House. I also explore the other buildings for future stays. Each one is cozy in a grandmotherly kind of way.

The Cabin's Livingroom — The Cabin’s Livingroom

Next time I come to Skyline Harvest, I might stay at the Cabin with its multi-level outside deck. Or if I had a group, we’d take over The Ranch House. I probably won’t have time to spend writing in the screened Gazebo, but maybe next visit.

After dinner and another session with Diane, then an hour of cello practice, I’m revitalized to write again. The moths check in on me against the lighted window, wondering how I’m doing.

When I close the laptop at 11:30 pm, I’m at 2,159 words for the day, for a grand total of 2,525. Not as many as I’d hoped.

As my Grandma Moffett would say, “Well, it is.”

Environmental Concerns/Right Action/The Future

Planetary Compassion Fatigue

August 18, 2013 Shirley DicKardLeave a comment

Eleven political and environmental emails today. Ten deleted. I’ve got planetary compassion fatigue. How to do the right thing when I’m buffeted between hope and cynicism ? So many people working on urgent causes trying to elevate awareness, concern and of course, money. But it’s too much. I snap my laptop closed with a decisive click. Time for the river.

My Honda knows the way to my favorite river trail. It glides down the north fork river canyon, following the intricate twists and switchbacks of the mountain road until the road flattens out and parallels the shallow, trout-filled waters of the north fork. Shallower than normal for this time of year, I notice. Every year’s different, but I can’t help feeling a smidge of concern.

Sandals off, hiking boots on, I find the dusty trailhead. The first part is rocky, but I know it will smooth out around the bend and I’ll strike up a cadence. I pull off a handful of manzanita berries and pop them in my mouth. Crunchy, slightly sweet. My husband and I made manzanita berry sugar last week, experimenting with what’s edible in the wild. I hope I never have to live on them, I think as I spit out the granular seeds.

My steps fall into a rhythm against the soft dirt, sending waves of vibration up my spine. Thump, thump, thump – base notes to the river’s wavering alto. Hermit Thrushes fill in the soprano voice. My mind lifts off and floats along.

I’m troubled with information overload, I think. There’s so much to be concerned about, but what can one person do? Sign the next email petition, press the “Donate Now” button, listen to the phone pleas, call my Senator? What actually makes a difference? I kick a rock from the trail, watch it tumble down the bank and splash into the river.

Thanks to technology, I know what’s going on almost as soon as it happens. Great-Grandmother Eliza only had telegraph, newspapers and back fence gossip, I muse.

“Hah! But it was sometimes a week after it happened.” I’m aware of Eliza’s voice and let it come through. “You want to do the right thing,” she continues. “You’ve got the whole world literally at your fingertips. I had to use my feet – hitch the buggy, go house to house. Except Sundays – one more reason to go to church. Oh, and letters.”

“Snail mail,” I snort.

“It’s all we had until telephones became common.

“But you made some important changes. You got the saloons closed; got land set aside for state parks.”

“Did it through face to face persistence. You’ve got to look them straight in the eye, see into their soul.”

“Video conferencing,” I think.

“Someday you won’t even have that.” My future Great-Granddaughter enters the conversation. “Just voices inputting information in your head. And even that will die.”

I pull off the trail to make way for a hiker from the other direction. He smiles, nods, and passes through.

I pick up the thread of conversation. “I wonder sometimes if information overload is intentional. I get so distracted and overwhelmed: public drinking water privatized, elephants wiped out for tusks, tax breaks for corporate “farms”, oil spills, bee-killing pesticides, sex trafficking, GMO’s, fracking…. After a while, it all becomes background noise and I stop caring enough to do anything.”

“Then you should stop listening,” Amisha cuts in.

“Don’t let her get away with that,” Eliza says. “I did what I could with what I had … and what I cared about. Think of the power you have with your Internet and what you all call “social media”, she says.

Is it power or illusion? I wonder.

Category: Right Action