A brand new river group has formed down in Mississippi, the Friends of the Sunflower River. That’s great. They’re using a blog as their main webpage. That’s great, too. And one of the first posts on their new blog has the headline “Small Environmental Groups Can Make a Big Difference.” That’s also great, and it’s what this blog post is really about.
“Make a difference” are words that work to attract attention and put people in the right frame of mind to help you out. That’s because one of the biggest things holding people back from contributing to our cause is the sense that their efforts are too inconsequential to matter. A lot of otherwise well-meaning people are quick to say “I can’t make a difference, so why bother?”
Of course, you can’t just tell people they can make a difference and leave it at that. You’ll have to follow up by telling them what they can do. But, offering some encouragement always gets the conversation off on the right foot. It’s kind of like a giving someone a compliment on the first date!
Good job, Friends of the Sunflower River. Best of luck down there.
American citizens lack first-hand experience with coral reefs, ocean fish stocks, offshore drilling, and other deep sea issues. Watch today’s episode to learn how experts and activists can overcome this deficit and bridge the gap between their specific concerns and Americans’ broader concerns for nature protection, pollution control, clean water, and life.
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Louis Harley’s retirement merits a nice feature story in Washington Post today. He’s the last full-time Potomac River commercial fisherman in the Washington metro area, and his story strikes a chord with those of us who share and admire his intimacy with the river, but how do stories profiling Harley and his peers influence everday citizens’ feelings about the health and economic role of the river today?
The Post reports that Harley has made his living hauling fish out of the Potomac for 65 years, and he has watched the once-pristine river become fouled with pollution and its wildlife disappear. And has has also seen it rebound somewhat in the late 1970s and 1980s. And although age prompts his retirement rather than the state of the fishery, he watches with amazement as new mini-mansions and yachts close in on his small business and “muddy, fish-smelling skiffs.”
Your humble blogger has fought both alongside and against commercial fishing interests over the years, depending on the issue. I always mourn their loss. There will be one less person on the water keeping a trained eye on the river next year. One less person for whom the word “habitat” is more than something they hear about on the Discovery Channel.
But stories about vanishing ways of life do not motivate the public to protect the river, at least not as broadly or strongly as the words that work. One reason is that the economic message is weak and unconvincing. Regular citizens are highly skeptical that recreational and even commercial fishing amount to significant economic activities. The article underscores that by playing up Louis as the last of his breed.
Another is that evoking the past generally doesn’t do much to motivate Americans. About anything.
Articulate your vision “in terms of the future, not the past or present,” advised message-meister Frank Luntz in his famous leaked message memo to Republican legislators a few years back. Others concur and that’s good advice for you, too. Americans respond much more strongly to concerns about their families, children, and the well-being of future generations than tales of days gone — or going — by.
If Louis Harley had gone into retirement voicing his concerns about positive aspects of his life on the river that future generations won’t be able to share, that would be powerful. But the mere fact that the once-thriving and profitable fishing industry has all but disappeared from the river is something that will evoke nostalgia from most people who read this article, but not alarm and resolve.
Read the feature story about Louis Harley’s life along the Potomac River.
See the Washington Post’s photo gallery for this story.
I’ve been saving this great picture for weeks, just waiting for the right moment to blog about it — but communications guru Andy Goodman beat me to it with a dead-on critique in his Free Range Thinking newsletter.
But I won’t begrudge Andy for scooping me. I’ve been reading his newsletter for years and I’m a big fan. In fact, I have modeled much of the approach for this blog — blending research, theory, and critiques of concrete examples — on Free Range Thinking. It’s an enduring and constructive approach to addressing the community’s PR needs, a welcome contrast to flash-in-the-pan blowhards like Lakoff, Shallenberger, Nordhaus, Mooney, and Nisbet who dispense criticism so freely and offer useful suggestions so rarely.
To see back issues of Free Range Thinking and subscribe yourself, click here. You’ll be glad you did.
To read Goodman’s insightful take on the photo above, click here.
