Quiet Success: Trustee meditation protest
We want to follow up with thanks to all of you -- including those of you who showed up miraculously, those who couldn't come but expressed support, and those who read our email and thought "are they really asking me to do this only 22 hours in advance?" (Yes, we were late to learn the trustees' schedule.)
Our meditation protest was well-placed and well-timed, against all odds. As the Cornell Board of Trustees and Cornell leadership departed their morning meetings today, they filed past seven activists sitting in concentrated meditation. We represented Cornell’s diverse constituency: student, staff, researcher, faculty, alumna, and community members. Together, we spelled out the final agenda point for the Trustees’ meeting that morning: “CLIMATE.”
Prior to the trustees' procession we had been sitting for 45 minutes of concentrated meditation, punctuated by a full reading of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address “The Words That Come Before All Else.”
At noon, the procession of Cornell leadership and trustees commenced down our hallway. We continued meditating. Our non-meditating point person started talking. The luminaries curiously eyed our action and cordially accepted our literature, for the most part. There was the fossil fuel tycoon from Texas who shrank away as if the mere presence of a climate activist would jeopardize her quarterly return on investments.
She could be right.
Our meditators meditated.
One trustee cheerfully took our newsletter and shouted behind him as he walked out the door: "Upstream emissions! Upstream emissions!"
"They're real," we concurred.
Dean Archer graciously took a few minutes for discussion with our point person. He apologized for not responding to our emails, noting that these matters are very hard to discuss over email. (Indeed.) He said that we are correct about the personal/professional conundrum (alluding to our recent newsletter, which we were handing out). Climate feelings are personal, he pointed out. Personally, he is doing what he feels is right for the climate, which includes an exciting new battery company. And personally, we are acting on our feelings about the climate, which is very nice. When our point person suggested that these are urgent matters of scientific consensus rather than personal feelings, his eyes twinkled.
Our meditators meditated.
The police kept us in good company. Naturally we invited them to join us. Their pressing duties prevented meditation, but they did hear the Thankgiving Address, accept our literature, and use us as a landmark in their pressing communications ("I'll meet you next to the climate group.")
After a full 60+ minutes of meditation, we rose from our seats and took stock. The trustees had moved on. It is impossible to know what will come of this among the trustees and Cornell leadership. But we know what came of it among ourselves: at the right place at the right time with the right number of meditators, we put CLIMATE silently and unignorably on the agenda, even for a moment.
A friend says of our action today: "Sitting in meditation outside the Trustees’ meeting is a beautiful way to engage meaningfully, mindfully, and, I pray, effectively."
Amen.
