Be a Bird Dog
Bird-dog (bûrd’-dôg), v. To follow, monitor and/or seek out a subject of interest, such as a public official, with persistent attention to get answers to questions or influence the subject.
I have to tell you that it made my day to wake up to this boisterous video from the Sunrise Movement . It put my climate despair in check for a while, knowing that Joe Manchin is being hassled every step he takes from his yacht (yep, he lives on a yacht in DC) to his job in the Capital. All eyes are on the West Virginia senator as his self serving resistance to climate legislation may very likely doom our biosphere to unlivable conditions in the very near future.
This bird dog tactic can be very effective in forcing electeds to take a position on the record. A relentless team of bird doggers can accomplish amazing things.
Back in 2014, when then Governor Andrew Cuomo banned fracking wells in the state of New York, he acknowledged that two years of birddogging played a role in his decision. Here’s a short film that shows what bird dogging looks like:
I was part of the bird dog team here in NY, to make sure Cuomo heard us wherever he went. I got my fracking wake up call in 2009 while spending a summer at Camp Ballibay in PA when fracking was just getting started there. The time spent bird dogging was time well spent, we saved New York from a ecological nightmare. There are no easy wins for environmentalists, this work requires determination, persistence and a sense of idealism, holding space for a better world that our hearts know is possible.
I salute the Sunrise Movement for their relentless pursuit of Senator Manchin. These bold young activists are literally fighting for their lives. And our lives too. #WeWantToLive
