Divest Haverford’s 15 Days of Action
By Sam Shain
Kicking things off and painting the school orange.
College students across the country are waking up. We know that even as fossil fuel investments fund our education, they are bankrupting the future which gives our education meaning. In class, I’m reminded that my generation is inheriting a deeply wounded planet and a system that accepts human suffering as the status quo. I wake up every morning knowing that there’s oil on my hands– and a fire in my belly.
That’s why I’m fighting for a socially responsible endowment and a livable future. I know that I’m not alone in this. Divest Haverford! is in the middle of a two week mobilization. We’re engaging with our community in every way we can and we’re growing stronger every day. We’re bringing our fight to the EPA with the Alliance for Appalachia on April 15. We’re bringing it to the student body with orange felt squares, film screenings and coalition building. We’re sending it to our hometown newspaper editors and we’re bringing it to PNC bank as we stand with the Earth Quaker Action Team in holding PNC’s board accountable for funding mountaintop removal coal mining. We’re bringing it to TD bank on April 20 for funding the Keystone XL Pipeline, and we’re bringing it to our home campus as we demand divestment from the fossil fuel industry.
Action with the Alliance for Appalachia and Tri-Co Divestment Groups.
Divestment is a tactic and the goal is environmental justice. We know that climate change and resource extraction are creating disproportionate damage in communities that already face the most extreme marginalization– indigenous and First Nation peoples, our friends and families in West Virginia, im/migrant folks living near the proposed Keystone XL, residents of the Global South. At the same time, we know that sweeping change is possible. Fossil fuel corporations, with the support of of thousands of silent investors, have created immeasurable amounts of human suffering and environmental damages. There is oil on our hands, but this doesn’t have the be the future that we shape and inhabit.
We’re taking action for 15 days because we don’t have a choice. We’re tired of feeling immobilized by the scale of the climate change crisis. We’re taking action because we believe in a better Haverford and a livable future. There’s oil on our hands. There is fire in our bellies. We know we’re not alone in this fight. We know that the road to environmental justice is a long one. These 15 days, we’re getting 15 steps closer. For more information, please visit www.divesthaverford.org and www.facebook.com/divesthaverford or email us at divesthaverford@gmail.com