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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