By
Adam Fletcher
When
I look at the place where I live, sometimes things seem worse off than ever.
There are huge government deficits and growing unemployment; Social Security is
running out and we’re drilling for oil in every pristine corner of the planet.
Here in Olympia homelessness feels louder than ever, and my jobless friends
can’t find work that fills their stomachs, let alone their pockets or their
souls. These are challenging times.
Yet,
somewhere between the blurry lines, socially-conscious media has seeped into my
brain, leaving me with the lesson from my toilet paper package, "In our
every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next
seven generations.” For me, this adage is defines intergenerational equity.
First used in economics, today when I work with adults and youth focused on
civic engagement I use intergenerational equity to describe the reciprocal
awareness each generation has about the people and events that have come before
them and the people and events that are yet to come.
When
we volunteer throughout our community, either as leaders or followers, planners
or doers, I think it is important that we each see the responsibility we have
to acknowledge the people who have come before us, see what impacts they have
had, and figure out how we can build upon those actions. We also have a duty to
name our goals and to look ahead at what we might be causing. Using the concept
of intergenerational equity as a way to think about these things, we can really
begin seeing why we do what we do, and how our actions affect the world around
us long after we’re gone.
Several
years ago I volunteered with a local nonprofit that replanted a patch of native
vegetation along a local waterfront. While dozens of people were planting
several of us found signs that the area had been planted before, including old
tags from native plants identical to what we were planting. After a few days of
trudging the job was done, and my volunteerism felt good. But 10 months later
all the plants looked dead, not rising with the fall rains. A year later the
area was grown back over with invasive species, and I was bummed. Talking with
the project coordinator, she found old newspaper articles that talked about the
toxic dirt in that area, and two years later she geared back up volunteer
efforts; only this time they took steps to analyze the soil and mitigate the
toxins. Now that patch has looked great for more than 5 years. That's
intergenerational equity at work in volunteer work.
In
that same way I am eager to volunteer in my daughter’s elementary classroom
here in Olympia as often as I can. Every time I leave there I’m a little bit
exhausted and a lot inspired by the energy and excitement of the students and
their teacher. But I also rest assured knowing that the impact I’m having goes
far beyond any individual student or day in class; instead, I know that seeing
a familiar adult face week after week helps acclimate to supportive and
sustained role models. Being a male, I also know that I’m influential that way,
too. That's intergenerational equity, too. Both of these examples demonstrate
awareness of what's come before, and what is yet to come.
Considering
how intergenerational equity can drive our volunteerism and affect our
communities can allow us to be more successful in all of our efforts. Ruth
Bader Ginsburg once asked, “Who will take responsibility for raising the next
generation?” I want to expand that and ask, “Who will take responsibility for
raising the past generations, raising the next generations, and nurturing the
present generation?” Intergenerational equity demands nothing less.
Adam Fletcher is the
President of Common Action Consulting and a close partner with the Volunteer
Center on issues of youth engagement.
Comments