This summer, Seattleite and Worldchanging contributor JP Kemmick will help to lead a group of young environmental activists in a bike trip that spans the nation and ends on the national mall in Washington, D.C. The trip, dubbed The Trek to Re-Energize America, is meant to drum up support for a clean and sustainable vision of America, by engaging with citizens across the country at a community level.
JP, co-organizer Sarah Judkins, and seven others left Seattle on May 18. Other riders participating in the Trek will be leaving from their home states across the U.S., meeting up as they ride until the group finally converging in the national capitol at the end of July. So far, 50 riders between the ages of 18 and 40, representing 15 states, have signed on to join the effort.
Below are some thoughts that Kemmick shared with us as he prepares to leave Seattle:
What inspired you to launch the Trek to Re-Energize America?
JP Kemmick: The Trek is building off tried and true environmentalism and adding a twist and a lot of tired legs. If we’re going to win the battle on climate change, we’re going to have to start treating it like the unprecedented fight it really is, and that means we’re going to need to get creative, with our hearts, our minds, and yes, our bodies.
Worldchanging: What do you hope to accomplish in D.C., and along your way there?
JP Kemmick: Our specific aim is two fold, one simple, the other grand. Our first goal is simple: we will present ourselves as real people in real communities. By having one-on-one conversations with diverse communities across the nation, we will offer ourselves as real people, not as talking heads on cable television “news.” We live in a pretty walled-off society. If we don’t like a group of people, it’s pretty easy to just ignore them. Obviously, this model has disastrous effects and leads to all kinds of misunderstandings. I am 100 percent convinced that all Americans want the same future, full of clean air, clean water and bread on the table. The fact that the air we breathe and the water we drink has become a partisan issue is ridiculous and largely due to the lies, slanders and mudslinging from both the liberal and conservative media. By presenting ourselves as the environmentalists conservatives are supposed to hate, and participating in honest conversations about clean energy, organic farming, and clean energy jobs, we hope to start to overcome that barrier, to be real people with real concerns in real communities who have probably never spoken to “the other side.”
The grand part of our goal is to have some impact when we all converge in D.C. Both high-paid lobbyists and grassroots activists visit D.C. all the time, and the place is inundated with constant concern for every issue under the sun. But not many of those people take two months getting there … on a bike. When we visit with our representatives, we will have a legitimate claim to knowing what’s on the minds of America, because we will have spent months talking with them about a shared vision for the future.
