The New Addition/ Black Soil Film

I am so excited to announce that one of my classmates has taken interest in my project! Her name is Ashley Ikegami and I am so relieved that she asked to help with the project. We are going to be partners in our endeavor to end light pollution on campus! WAHOO! So, the current mission is to get in contact with a guy that Bettymaya told me about. I don't remember his name, but she told me that he is in charge of the lighting facilities on campus, and that he has a map of all of the outdoor lighting on campus! This was really exciting to find out, but nonetheless I still think that Ashley and I need to take a tour of the campus to see all of the outdoor lighting at night here on campus. I really want to open the eyes of not only the students, but of anyone who steps foot into a city about the detrimental effects of light pollution on campus. I don't think people even realize the potential that we each have to make a difference, but we do! That is something that I realized when we watched the film about the women in a small Virginia town who kept a prison from being out in right across from their houses!

Here are some of the notes that I took on the movie "Black Soil," concerning a small Virginia town that beat the odds and made actual changes for the better in their tiny town to help it move forward and succeed!

Social:

• Don’t need us anymore; they have machines to do that

• Issues of isolation, poverty, building the prison would affect the communities there, didn’t even know about the project until it cam eon the NEWS

• Cross section of the community came together to say they did not want this prison

• Started out as an issue of land use

• Putting the burden not only on the people there, but their children and grandchildren because these prisons usually last for 100 years

• Almost no rules when deciding to put a prison in an area in the state of Virginia, other states have prison-siting criteria! WOW! Cannot believe that this is not a federal regulation

• Alice felt like she couldn’t do it, but he encouraged her that they didn’t want to hear about the figures, they wanted to hear her story

• Embarrassing when you do not have a bathroom in your house

• Do a bunch of little tasks and get a large task done

• Strong knit community when there were things that made it like a village, open space, restaurant, barbershop, etc.

• Build the organization, give it a strong foundation for the future, create leaders

• People came together as a result of the project, they became more powerful

• Low income community asking for choices, not something they thought they had before

• In pursuit of quality, is that going to appreciate? Can I leave it for my kids?

Economic: the people know their “place” in the economy

• Local issues being decided by the state

• Argument was that they will finally get some jobs on the eastern shore

• Will the people get the jobs? Do they want the jobs?

• Many people work paycheck to paycheck

• Jobs are assembly lines, work 14 hours a day, work two jobs

• People told Alice that she killed all the jobs, now is she satisfied, but she had an idea

• Got a plan together, contacted people who can help with the idea

• Putting in new residences for low income people until they can pay rent, started GED classes, helping out the people, giving them a leg up into society, will also supply jobs

• SHOP HOUSES! Love in one part, work in the other part of it

• Media exposure meant a lot to the success of the community

Environmental:

• The neighborhood is “embarrassing” very dirty, no running water, power plant and the roads are lined with garbage

• No running water to help put out a fire-SAFETY HAZARDS

• No clean drinking water for people in the community

• Clean drinking water and waste water issues, not interested in talking about the long term, only interested in the here and now

• 80% of open space is protected with the new construction plan

Every single thing that I took notes on affected the process to get something done. I know that it is so hard to believe in yourself and make something happen, but these people did it. They stuck with the process and got new housing, plumbing, clean drinking water, new businesses, and got the ball rolling and got people to care about what was going on. This is EXACTLY the goal of our project. We need to get people to care about light pollution and what is happening right in our own backyard. We can make a difference and we CAN make a change. The feeling of helplessness has been taking over lately, but I do think that it is that "learned helplessness" that we talked about kast semester, and it is something that I need to sever ties with! I have never been in charge of something so important, but I know that as long as I keep trying, something will get done! It is just a much harder experience than I anticipated...