Another Kentucky Derby has come and gone… this year Barbaro took home the garland of roses. If you were watching the Derby on TV, you probably knew at least one person in the crowd, our own Brianne Jurs.

I, on the other hand, did NOT attend the Derby, thus avoiding sunburns, rainstorms, and other inclement weather patterns I’ve experienced at previous races. Rather, I enjoyed Derby Day (a de facto state holiday) by having all my friends over for brunch and my own Derby Pie, followed by a relaxed dinner at Eun-hyey Park’s apartment during the race. Best of all, I didn’t wait in line for an hour with all the rowdy drunk people to get off the racetrack infield.

However, I did see the results of drunken revelry the following day, when I went with our church’s youth group to pick up litter at the local state park. First of all, I should point out that I am a complete germophobe—I don’t think CoCo members will soon forget my horror the time Sacha Maxim picked up a stepped-on Twizzler from the floor and ate it.

As you can imagine, then, trash pickup is hardly a favorite activity of mine. Combine that with my trash cleanup experience as a sophomore in college: my group of naïve Whitworth students found and carried a mysterious garbage bag all over the park, only to discover in the end that it held several pounds of marijuana (which, for the record, we were immediately relieved of by the park ranger). So I don’t have a good history.

No illicit drugs this time, but me and my little cohort of three twelve year olds did manage to find plenty of liquor bottles, tires, cigarette butts, and, strangely enough, what we can only assume is human feces at the park (a word of advice—when you see a little napkin sticking up out of a pile of rocks, leave it behind! You may discover a bit more than a discarded napkin. And poop is biodegradable anyway).

Growing up, I was never big on what I now know as eco-justice, maybe because “environmentalist” is a dirty word in agriculture-driven Eastern Washington. I learned enough early on to believe that littering is bad, though, that we needed to have some level of respect for the world around us. Interestingly enough, I didn’t learn that lesson at church—public schools taught me that one.

Yet there is a strong theological basis for environmental care. Presbyterian General Assemblies have been making statements since 1951 about our stewardship responsibility of God’s good creation, realizing that we are only tenants of the land God has blessed us with. In fact, the original Hebrew word used in Genesis, the one we translate as “dominion” over the earth, is really closer to “steward” or “caretaker.”

Going to the park and picking up tires is a start on that journey toward being a good steward. But it really only scratches the surface of how deeply interconnected this issue is to many other justice issues. For instance, one statistic quoted in NNPCW’s discussion resource (which you can get free from our office if you contact me!) says, “Communities with one commercial hazardous waste facility had, on average, twice the minority composition of communities without facilities.”
As women, moreover, the tampons many of us use have been treated with dioxin chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. Our sisters internationally struggle to keep families alive as water sources are polluted and forests are cut down, contributing to global hunger and poverty. As young people in this country, who can say what effect the enormous amounts of electricity needed to run our cell phones, our computers, even our microwaves, will have on our bodies long-term? Poor stewardship of our world goes far beyond our local parks—in an interconnected ecosystem, it impacts each and every one of us on a global scale.

There are lots of suggestions for ways to be more environmentally-conscious in the NNPCW discussion resource. Hold a swap meet in your dorm so that people can exchange goods instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. Use less water by turning off taps when you’re brushing teeth or in the shower. Use public transportation, buy at yard sales, write your class notes on clean backs of used paper. Get involved in the political process around environmental issues. And of course, recycle!!!

I used to feel that such activities were sort of pointless, since other people weren’t doing them. But it isn’t about whether you’re doing such activities with a bunch of other people. What matters is whether you’re living faithfully to God’s commandments as a tenant of God’s good creation—because after all, it only takes a little bit of yeast to work into the whole dough.

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for God has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.” --Psalm 24:1-2

Kelsey

I take gold and other precious metals from old computer parts and forge them into jewelry.

-From someone who is totally a college woman

My fiance works for aircraft engine manufacturer, and he wanted to make his wedding ring out of an old titanium part. But, I told him that he couldn't. He offered to make me one too. What a silly man!

-From someone who happens to be named Kelsey

I bet the park ranger quickly disposed that marijuana you found.

-Someone who looks like a college woman from afar but when you get close up you realize it's a dude.