Countdown begins to Focus the Nation

By Cliff Newell

The Lake Oswego Review, Dec 27, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

ADVERTISEMENTS

With Focus the Nation, the message is the immediate necessity to do something about global warming.

The messengers are the nation’s college students.

Eban Goodstein, Northwest regional director for Focus the Nation, says that more than 1,000 college campuses and more than 1 million college students have become involved in a movement that is pointing to one day – Jan. 31, 2008 – to deliver a statement the USA will never forget.

It will be the largest teach-in in American history.

Leading the effort at Lewis & Clark College, the area base for Focus the Nation, are students Kiel Johnson and David Norse. They are highly optimistic that Focus the Nation can change the nation.

“This is an amazing opportunity to really do something about global warming,” said Johnson, a junior majoring in economics. “It’s important to use it to get involved and make it successful.

“Focus the Nation is not going to solve global warming. But it will get the discussion going.”

“Once college students hear about Focus the Nation they become incredibly supportive,” said Norse, a senior majoring in religious studies. “Even though we have a small campus, it’s hard to reach everyone. Once that happens, they want to get involved.”

Being college students, Johnson and Norse are using humor and ingenuity to get their message across.

Johnson will be busy organizing students and plastering the campus with posters and banners about the upcoming “Warm-Coming Dance,” for which swimsuits will be suitable attire.

This past November, Norse organized the Green Torch Relay, a most unique way to get Oregon politicians involved with Focus the Nation. Norse worked diligently for weeks to line up riders, runners, students on scooters and longboards, and rowing crew team members to convey a most imaginative, and large, invitation to Salem: A 15-foot long scroll signed by 4,000 people.

Norse still smiles when he thinks about the photo opp provided when the scroll was rolled down the steps of the state capitol while cameras from newspapers flashed.

When it comes to the call to action on global warming, everyone has his or her own tale of personal awakening. For many it was viewing the Al Gore movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” For Johnson and Norse it was Goodstein’s presence at Lewis & Clark.

“His talk really raised my awareness,” Johnson said. “It made me question what is happening and made me realize we need to change what we’re doing if we’re going to survive.”

“I’m a student life intern with Student Support Services,” said Norse. “I met with Eban at the start of the year and heard what global warming was all about.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>