A Sermon for Yom Kippur Day 5768/2007

by Anya Rome

 
Shalom,

 One of my main memories of growing up in a Jewish household was saying prayers, over bread, grape juice, and candles. We would bless each with a different prayer, but they all had the same beginning: Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha olam. That’s something that even my non-Jewish friends have heard. But what does it mean that all these prayers have the same beginning? We might select different words, like “Aht brucha Shechina…” but the idea is always the same: we are connecting our most spiritual sense (Adonai, Shechina, Ruach) to our sense of what is real around us—ha’olam, the universe.

 While preparing for my Bat Mitzvah, I learned to explore these prayers to find my own meaning in them, and consider what they might mean for all of us. Exploring the Shema, I remember having that revelation, that I believed that God is in everything. That when I say “God is one,” everything is one. So although traditionally there are many blessings of the things around us-- for seeing a rainbow, the sea, eating bread, food that comes from the ground--to me, they begin with the same reminder that God is One with the universe.  And those blessings tie me to the whole world. 

             And it’s not enough just to bless silently; our tradition has us saying these words aloud, often together. The tradition of vocalizing our blessings helps us make the connection between our spirituality and the world around us. It reminds us to put our emotion and passion actively into the physical world we experience. To me, that’s what makes it a blessing.

 The Power of giving voice is that it’s active.  The power of giving voice together as a community helps us know the power of being active as a community.  It makes what we do a blessing, not just what we say. 

 I was very honored to be asked to speak to all of you, but to tell the truth, I didn’t really feel qualified.  I don’t consider myself as active toward tikkun olam as a lot of the people I know. But then I remembered an experience of giving voice actively that gave me a powerful feeling, that comes back to me when I think about it; it makes me feel blessed, and makes me want to do more.  And that felt important enough to share. 

 The first time I had ever heard of the term Environmental Justice, I was exploring issues to focus on for my service-learning project at school. I was torn between spending my time helping an ecology organization, and working for an organization that helps people directly. That’s when I heard about the PG&E plant.

 Bay View Hunters Point in San Francisco has a reputation for being poor and unsafe. Due to a history of discrimination, people of color were forced to live there, and the area still remains predominantly non-white and low income. Although there are hopes for improving the living experience of its residents, the challenges are huge.  Hunters Point is very industrial, and with industry, generally comes waste and pollution. Because of poverty and the consequences of racism, the community of Hunters Point is forced to live with this waste, which ultimately has caused extreme increases in health problems.  

             My two friends and I decided that the pollution in Hunters Point would be a good place to start our project work. We began researching and contacting people, and ran across the name of Marie Harrison who worked with a group called Greenaction.

 We gave a call to Greenaction, expecting to leave a message and hope to get an answer. Instead, Marie herself answered the phone. She told us that she would be happy to give an interview, but that the best people to talk to would be the people of Hunters Point themselves. She said to come to downtown San Francisco, where there would be a rally in front of the PG&E headquarters the next afternoon. We did not realize, while we were talking to Marie, that we had stumbled upon an opportunity that would change our lives. 

             Contacting these people, taking the bus to go to a rally, already had our hearts beating at an abnormal rate, but nothing compared to the feeling that came over us entering the rally scene on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. With our video camera we began recording the slowly-growing group of people who had come to speak out against the neglect of the people and land of Hunter’s Point. As more people started to appear with hand-painted signs, and holding the hands of their families, we could feel the energy coursing through us. I remember having trouble holding the camera still enough to capture a shot. As we followed the very mixed crowd, people began to speak through the megaphone.  They were sick, they said. Sick with asthma, cancer, and hives, and they were SICK of being neglected.

             Getting ourselves to approach our first interviewee was difficult, but we conquered our nerves and began asking people why they were there. There is no easy way for me to describe how it felt to start to make a connection with a stranger, and to see their anger and their fear. I could show you, though, because while reviewing the interviews I had recorded, I noticed the steady descent of the camera as I forgot I was holding it, I was so engrossed in their stories.  They told about kids running in the grass and getting rashes from the chemicals that had been dumped underground.  They talked about asthma, chronic nosebleeds, hives, headaches. A seven-year-old told us about being sick and getting bloody noses.  She also wanted to express to us that she was the best in her science class.  We talked to people who can see the naval shipyard and the PG&E plant from their houses, both of which have produced huge amounts of toxic waste.  The toxic waste permeates the water and soil around it. This is a problem with known effects on the life of the community, but all that had been done at that point was to cover the toxic waste with concrete. It seems not to have worked very well. The health effects of neglect and misuse of the environment is showing up most in the weakest members of the community; seniors, and children.

 In that small gathering on Market Street were people who often feel unrepresented in our society, without the power to fix what most of us take for granted in our own neighborhoods.  Moms were speaking up for their children, and youth were speaking for their families. People were yelling into their megaphones, with buses and cars whizzing by. It had a desperate feeling, but it also had a really brave feeling.

 It was intense enough standing with these people who were living in a city where I had thought problems like these didn’t exist, but it was also difficult when I realized I was experiencing all of this with some feelings of prejudice or fears that I thought didn’t exist in myself.  I was shy when asking for interviews, but was particularly hesitant to ask an intimidating looking, tall, black 18 year old for an interview. But it was this guy who made the biggest impression on me. Once we got him talking, he spoke fervently about representing his family, and the people of Hunters Point:  “This is what is important to me,” he said, leaning closer to the camera to be sure he was heard, “that we all come together and take responsibility for how our land is today”.

 It was gratifying to learn that, about five months later, the decision was made to tear down the PG&E plant, after ten long years of protest.

             Reflecting on my experience with the Hunters Point protesters, I realized that it made me feel like being active was not as hard as I always had imagined it. The people I talked to were just people, and their issues were relevant to everyone. Issues of ecology, and the issue of racism, no longer seemed so separate to me. I no longer had to choose which one to work on.

 We do all have to challenge ourselves to take that first step.  I’m blessed because my school pushed me to have this experience.  I’m also blessed because Jewish tradition reminds me to bless; to give voice to an awareness of the issues and the beauty that surrounds us; to recognize the passion we feel.   By taking that passion and running with it we may start treating each other, and the earth as one.