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Last Saturday, I got to go to a celebrity-studded beach party for a few hundred in Santa Monica. That may sound like an exclusive Hollywood industry soiree, but it was actually a grassroots, environmental activist event called Hands Across the Sand -- open to anyone and everyone who came to Santa Monica beach. And actresses Amy Smart and Rosario Dawson just happened to be among the 500 activists who showed up.
But eco-celebs weren't the focus of the event, and Hands Across the Sand wasn't just an odd SoCal thing. The global event had people gathering at more than 900 spots around the world, simply holding hands at noon to make a peaceful statement to oppose offshore drilling and call for clean energy solutions. People who'd been feeling immobilized by the Gulf oil spill turned off the depressing news on TV, got off their couches, and headed out -- to spend a lovely day at the beach with the like-minded activists they'd never had the chance to meet.
"As we held hands on the beach, we talked together, as if we were neighbors," writes Brenda Peterson at The Huffington Post about her Hands Across the Sand event in Seattle, Wash. Among the 168 who held hands with Brenda on Alki Beach were a biofuel-loving man from Boeing aircraft, activists from People for Puget Sound and a group of three grandmothers who call themselves "Seattle's Raging Grannies!"
Judging from the Hands Across the Sand events, like-minded activists come from very un-like backgrounds. Meredith Forbes of The Blue, The Bad and The Ugly shows that the eclectic event at Coney Island gave people a chance to connect neighbors who may be very different from each other, but clearly share very similar concerns:
There were people from all walks of life, from organizers who had come up from the Gulf to surfer dudes to seniors who left the comfort of their beach umbrellas to grab a hand and lend support.
There were socialists passing out fliers and curious youngsters who were checking out the line. "I don't think BP did anything wrong," said one 10-year-old boy. "I mean, there shouldn't be such a demand for gasoline in the first place." A hippie dad countered with "BP shouldn't be allowed to drill two miles into the ocean floor." Hmm. Were either of them wrong?
These events let a very diverse group of people unite against seemingly insurmountable problems -- from the Gulf oil spill itself to oil dependency to ocean pollution. At a time when individuals can feel powerless, Hands Across the Sand gave people a chance to put their collective force big enough to inspire hope. That's what Laura Erickson of Laura's Birding Blog spoke about at her event in Duluth, Minn.:
In the face of this accelerating disaster, it’s easy to despair. It’s easy to say we can do nothing. It’s grown increasingly easy over the past decade to give up—to feel that our individual voices, our consciences, our love for our natural world have no influence on anything anymore.....
We gather here in a unified rebuke to apathy and despair, our hands linked in unified belief that the natural world matters, and that our voices can and will be heard. We must never waver from a firm resolve that our democratically elected government will once again represent our voices. Our government must firmly and consistently regulate corporations, and effectively enforce these regulations, so that we can put an end to privatizing profits while socializing risks.
Laura's rallying cry echoed by many women bloggers who attended a Hands Across the Sand event -- and found hope in the collective. "Suddenly the beach seemed buoyant with all the cheering and ways we could actually make a difference, lend a hand,"
