Advocating
Environmental Reform: A Study Guide
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
Advocating Environmental Reform is a demanding course designed to expose you to decision makers in the community. Any active class members are expected top write letters to Congress and letters to the editor in order to practice the advocacy process. Advocating reforms is at the core of the American social and political system.
This Guide is to assist you when you practice articulating, explaining and criticizing the status quo. Practice is quite important so participants realize the ways and means, as well as the necessity, for transforming existing power relationships at the state and national levels to more effectively and fairly protect people, property, wildlife and natural areas.
Participants in the class will select and defend positions that are important because they are pending before Congress. Once researched and discussed, you then present those ideas to the policy-making audience based on additional research into related issues of energy, wildlife, water, land-use or public health issues. This is done because by understanding the modern political process, learners should become aware that the political advocacy process is critical to any analysis of social, economic and political change in the United States. But it is also crucial to comprehending the central dilemmas of natural resource allocation, power, and social inequities that so characterize the ongoing conflicts of contemporary society. The skills of analyzing, researching and defending widely recognized reforms is done to “prepare" you and your fellow "students for active citizenship.”
By examining the legislative process, lobbying and issue advocacy, learners in the class will see first hand the social institutions that shape and thwart policies and both impede and pass laws. By comparing the Congressional and state levels of legislative decision making, participants have a chance to practice life-long speaking, writing and social skills that can “contribute to your ability to reflect critically on the environment and will enable you to” practice methods which may better “sustain,” if not “transform the communities in which" we all "live.”
Research | Reliable research sites | On-line research
What did you learn? How will you change your strategy with what you learned during the term? In a sense, the final paper is about what you learned and what that means to your changing the way you advocate.
The advocacy class is divided into two parts, based on performance and products:
1. is concerned with your developing a position paper on a natural resources or pollution control theme, reflecting the legislative concerns of Congress and or the state legislature.
a. The fist source is this guide and a conversation with the class
b. The second source is the texts and the Browner film
c. The confirming source is the Congressional Quarterly Service
d. A fourth source is the Legislative update web pages of at least three of the following organizational web-sites:i. Sierra Club
ii. World Wildlife Fund US
iii. Natural Resources Defense Council
iv. Environmental Defense
v. National Wildlife Federation
vi. Save the Manatee Club
vii. National Audubon Society
viii. Wilderness Society
ix. League of Conservation Voters
The position paper is due in Draft form on February 7 and a last
revision is due after mid-term discussions and presentations on March 9.
2. is the creation and revision of a message, based on the position paper and your experiences in contacting Congressional and State Legislative, or Cabinet offices.a. The summary points are a draft due on February 14 as they are drawn from your position paper.
b. The summary points are converted into “talking points.” After consultation with me, the instructor, a revision and is presented March 6, verbally to the class.
c. The presentation of the revised talking points to the class on March 6 is a rehearsed three-minute, smoothly delivered “pitch” to class members.
d. By incorporating points addressed by all class members in these mid-term practice presentations, revised talking points are turned in on March 9.
e. The remainder of this part of the class is an assessment of what you did, how effective that action and research was, who you spoke with and what they told you.
The point of this assessment is to suggest, at the final exam, when the presentation of this assessment essay is made to the class in a brief five minute talk: what would you change or do differently to influence legislation?
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
The class will be difficult because the assignments require constant vigilance, careful attention to intelligence gained from calls to Congressional staff, and from six oral reports from each of the class members every Monday on the status of legislative action.
Describing the types of work you must do:
2-minute reports Who did you contact? What did they say? What was the ask?
By the phrase “the ask” I am referring to what is D.C. jargon for what did you ask the elected official to do? It is also related to the reason you asked to meet with the official or their staff.
Position papers: are essays researched and documented with citations that advocate a course of action based on, a review of past legislative intent, the existing law, pressing new information that requires a change in the law and a set of alternatives. (typed 5 to 7 pages, notes & sources).
A formal position paper has an executive summary, pages of references,
and an outline.
Talking points: based on position papers and arguments made by advocacy groups, talking points are a working document used to accompany you on a meeting so that you and the staff person you meet have a clear recollection of what you are saying and asking to be done, based on science, practical considerations, and legal restrictions. They are related to, in that that are drawn from, Position Papers but they are very different in their function, brevity, and persuasive style.
Letters to the editor: are very short to short descriptions conveying a single important thought based on an experience, or a previous letter, or an erroneous statement, and thus they are meant to clarify a point or to, argue a point, or present a clear alternative.
e-mail alerts are internet specific means of informing supporters of a serious –time sensitive—matter involving pending legislation, or decision-making, in order to dramatically elicit a wide public response to show support for a position. They must have the names and addresses and phone (contact information) of the people closest to the decision-making process, and they must have clear instructions about what to say and who to say it to.
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
In addressing public officials, always be polite, considerate and charming (if you can), involve the person in your effort by suggesting what they could do to help advance your position, or give them a range of things they might do. Always elicit a definite response, even if it is a time to follow-up on what has been done, or what the elected official’s position is going to be on the matter that most concerns you. Always thank them for their time and consideration. Remember you are creating allies and you want to come away with some understanding of the elected official’s position, constraints, and “wiggle room” on the matter. These are busy people so specifically ask for something to be done.
Assessing the process:
What did you do? What did you not do? What did you learn?
How will you change?
At the end of the term you will be asked to assess what you have learned in terms of the experiences you had and in light of what each of the authors have suggested is important in asserting the protection of natural resources and conservation of the nation’s commonwealth.
Assessing the Process essay. This should be a formal paper (typed, 8 to 12 pages) with a) a summary, b) foot or end notes, c) a bibliography, and d) two appendices. The first appendix is a record of whom you contacted and when, the second appendix is the issue you selected, how it was defined and what the prospects for the matter are at this juncture.
Each of the readings has an important set of beliefs that you will want to convey in your position papers, and tailor to a specific audience in your talking points. The goals of these efforts are to recover the ground of the discussion. That means the message has to be something everyone can embrace, to the extent that the opposition is forced to look as if they are inconsistent, unfair, or dubious in attacking the position you suggest.
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
The following phrases are paramount examples of “good messaging” despite what one may think of the actual effects of the actual policies to which these phrases have been attached:
Healthy Forests
Clear Skies
No net loss of wetlands
No child left behind
War on poverty
What each phrase has in common, is that it is brief, fairly transparent, and
makes anyone disagreeing with the positions immediately put on the defensive.
So if you are advocating a position that is complicated, you must consider how,
in the end it will be perceived by people who have no depth of appreciation
for the policy nuances, intricate details, or scientific jargon. People want
to know the outcome and how it benefits or harms them. You do not win because
you are right, or truthful, or morally superior. You succeed, when you do, because
you have a clear statement of what needs to be achieved and how that benefits
people.
All of this comes down to a message.
Any message involves a clear statement, verbally deliverable in less than a
minute of what is the solution to the problem and how that is important all
summed up in a clear short to very phrase. Consider these declarative, historic
phrases:
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” (8 words)
“Testing whether that nation of any nation, so dedicated, can long endure.” (12 words)
“We have a rendezvous with destiny.” (6 words)
“A house divided against itself cannot stand” (7 words)
“The spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak.” (9 words)
Once you have a message, do not waver, “stick to the message” means that you repeat the precise phrase over and over when questioned so that someone gets a distinct, explicit and clear expression of your meaning.For instance:
“The science clear: global warming is real, solutions exist that save money, create jobs and reduce the rate of harmful pollutants.”
“Wildlife is a public trust possessing an added value worth billions of dollars in terms of recreation and tourism.”
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
With respect to Framing Messages:
November 15, 2004
EDITORIAL OBSERVER
Why
the Democrats Need to Stop Thinking About Elephants
By ADAM COHEN
If George Lakoff had his way, the Kerry campaign would have run a commercial
attacking the "baby tax." Dr. Lakoff, a Berkeley linguistics professor
and Kerry campaign adviser, wanted to divide the interest on the national debt
by the number of Americans born each year. The result, $85,000 per newborn,
say, would have been handed to a baby in the form of a bill, and the baby would
have started to cry. That, Dr. Lakoff says, "frames" the issue "in
a way people can understand."
"Framing" is a hot topic among political junkies and in the blogo-sphere
right now, thanks to Dr. Lakoff. In "Don't Think
of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate," his surprise
best seller, Dr. Lakoff argues that Republicans have been winning elections
because they have been better than Democrats at framing issues - from taxes,
to abortion, to national security - in ways that resonate with core American
values.
Dr. Lakoff has been stepping out of the classroom lately to lecture everyone from the Senate Democratic caucus to "living wage" advocates on how to use linguistics to craft a more effective message. "Framing" alone won't give the Democrats the White House, or the Senate and House. But Dr. Lakoff's theories offer the Democrats a road map for going forward.
The title "Don't Think of an Elephant!" comes from a classic experiment Dr. Lakoff conducts in Cognitive Science 101. He tells his students not to think of an elephant, and he has yet to find one who has managed it. Thinking about elephants is the frame, and negating it simply reinforces it. This was the problem, he says, with President Richard Nixon's famous declaration, "I am not a crook."
Trying not to think of elephants, Dr. Lakoff suggests, sums up the Democrats' plight. Since Republicans have framed the key issues, Democrats cannot avoid being on the losing side. Take taxes. Republicans have succeeded in framing the issue as "tax relief," a metaphor that presents an affliction, and that predetermines who are the heroes – tax opponents - and villains. Taxes are, of course, necessary even for programs Republicans back, like the military, and simple economics dictates that we cannot keep cutting taxes and maintaining spending forever. But the Democrats are hard-pressed to make these points once the frame is "tax relief."
It is not by accident that "tax relief" presents taxes in moral terms, as a calamity in search of a cure. Values, Dr. Lakoff argues, are the key to framing campaign issues. Democrats have an unfortunate tendency, he says, to see campaigns as product launches, believing that if they roll out a candidate with the best features, or positions on issues, identity, not their self-interest - that they seek out candidates whose values appear to match their own.
Voters will support him.
Republicans understand that people vote their values.
After the election, pundits made much of the influence of a few "moral"
issues, like gay marriage and abortion, on the outcome. But Dr. Lakoff argues
that values play an important role in almost every campaign issue. The Republicans'
success has been driven in large part, he argues, by their ability to frame
less morally charged subjects in terms of core values. He is impressed by a
line from President Bush's last State of the Union address: that we do not need
a "permission slip" to defend America. It reframed multilateralism,
once a widely accepted foreign policy principle, as weakness and national infantilization.
As Dr. Lakoff sees it, Democrats
need to start framing issues in terms of their own values, which, he insists,
are no less popular with the American people than the Republicans' values. This
project will, however, take more than spin and sloganeering. On many subjects,
he argues, the Democrats suffer from what he calls "hypo cognition"
- more simply, a lack of ideas. Republicans have been working for the past 40
years, since the defeat of Barry Goldwater, in well-financed think tanks, on
developing conservative ideas that voters will rally around. The Democrats,
he says, need to start catching up.
One frame Dr. Lakoff likes,
which he believes could become a progressive wedge issue, is "poison-free
communities." The Republicans' war on government regulation has left industry
increasingly free to spew toxins into the air and water, despite the harm it
is doing to the public. Keeping people healthy is a core progressive value,
but it is one that many swing voters and Republicans share. Few people want
their children poisoned by mercury in the name of a theory about the appropriate
size of government.
Framing can also deflect the other side's charges. Dr. Lakoff argues that the Democrats should fight the Republican campaign for "tort reform" by recasting it. Rather than debate over frivolous lawsuits, he says, they should talk about protecting people from law-breaking corporations and negligent doctors. When Republicans talk about greedy trial lawyers, he says, Democrats should talk about - and he really needs a better phrase here- "public protection attorneys."
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
/=•=•=•=•=§==§=
- =§==§=•=•=•=•=\
Interview
Election Over, Debate over Morals Persists
On November 3rd, 2004, Talk of the Nation's Neal Conan sat down with George Lakoff to talk about how moral values ran this election.
Conan:
How and when did moral values come to play some a prominent role in this election?
Lakoff: They've been playing a prominent role in
elections all the way through, from the 94 election on, and even before that.
The problem is this: that the democrats do not know how to express the unconscious
values that they feel in their guts, whereas the republicans have figured out
how to do it and do it very effectively. You know, moral values are not about
just abortion and things like marriage and stem cells. They're about much deeper
issues, and just about all issues.
The basic idea of morality in this country comes from notions of the family.
Conservative values come out of what I call a strict father family, and the
progressive values come out the nurturing parent family. And those are values
that the democrats don't know how to express, values having to do with both
care and responsibility, responsible caring. But also, out of that comes protection,
comes opportunity, comes the value of community, of trust-of all the things
that progressives in this country feel very deeply, and that lie behind all
of their legislative proposals.
But they don't know how to talk about their values. They don't know how to express
them. They don't know how to come together around their values the way the republicans
have done. So it's very important to understand that the moral values issues
are not about just these few things like abortion and so on. They're about everything.
What's protection about? Protection is not just about terrorism, thought it
is about that. It's also about environmental protection, consumer protection,
worker protection, economic protection for people who are economically vulnerable.
These are major issues that are values issues. The democrats have made a major
mistake in thinking that they're special interest issues and that people vote
their self interests. People don't. People mostly vote their values, and that's
what this shows.
For the rest of George Lakoff's analysis with Neal Conan, visit Talk of the
Nation.
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
Sample Letter to the
editor:
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
People and laws hold key
By Jill Clark
Posted January 10, 2005
I am concerned that Broward County still does not have a manatee protection plan in force. A more specific concern stems from Broward County's November 2004 draft plan, [reported on in the Jan. 6 South Florida Sun- Sentinel] which contains language that continues to place manatee habitat in jeopardy. The draft appears to allow for unrestricted boating-facility redevelopment in sensitive survival (travel) areas for the manatee.
I recently completed manatee population research for the Rollins College Environmental Studies Department and discovered that the manatee once enjoyed a life span of 60 to 70 years. Their life expectancy has now dwindled to a mere zero-to-10. Within the first three years of a sea cow's life, its body is scarred by boat-propeller blades almost beyond recognition.
We are a nation that prides ourselves on our elderly. Why cannot this same sense of life-appreciation be applied to this benign order of Sirenia, which 21st-century paleobiologists tout has existed for 50 million years?
In February 2004, the Florida
population count indicated a 2,568 tally, having declined from the state count
approximately one year prior of 3,113. For this legendary mermaid of the sea,
a reduction of 545 manatees in one year is critical -- especially when one takes
into account that a major contributor to manatee mortality -- watercraft –
is manageable by way of conscientious people and legislation.
Recent statistics indicate that the proportion of watercraft-related manatee
deaths compared to the total number in the county -- 37.5 percent -- looms higher
than the 24.5 percent state average.
The U.S. Geological Survey's 2004 manatee population report additionally released
a regrettable interpretation of these statistics, relating that the Atlantic
Coast subpopulation (inclusive of Broward County) may be declining.
The population and the survival
rate of the manatee is an indicator of the health of our own waterways and
environment in general.
The habitable waterways of this person-friendly marine mammal will remain only as clean and safe as clearly defined protective measures permit.
Jill Morgan Clark is a community college professor in Central Florida
.
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
Obstacles to Conservation
awareness
recognition
behavior
adaptive learning
opportunity costs
Conservation isA) development
B) long-term use
C) protection of essential resources
D) sustained yield management
E) locking-up of natural resources
F) something else: (explain)
What factors have caused conservation to change from the 1902 Newlands Act (reclamation) until the present?
What are the underlying criticisms that you have about the way conservation was practiced since the 1980s?
What is the course? | What to study? | What has to be done? | Etiquette | Message explained | G. Lakoff critic | Letter to the editor
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
What must you do in the
class to do well?
It is my desire for you to excel in this class by reading carefully and asking
serious questions about the texts, the evidence they present and the conclusions
drawn about how social systems persist despite imperial conquest and cultural
domination. I am here to assist your intellectual and emotional development
with respect to understanding ourselves as public members of a society, ethnic
heritage, and cultural tradition we inherit. I reward you for working hard and
developing your own answers to the rather deep and challenging questions posed
weekly in the class. For every hour of class, three hours of study is expected.
Be alert, & respond weekly to e-mail, so that you can contact congressional
offices and other class mates with the correct information on your positions,
so attendance and the six weekly verbal reports (briefings) are important for
you to tell us what you know, are discovering and will do next week. (conference
calls.)
All work in the class is
judged by the following criteria:
Grades: all assignments are graded with careful attention to each of these criteria:
{CLIFS}
1. C, clarity, coherence, spelling, grammar & logical consistency
2. L, length & development of your arguments, ideas, or presentations
3. I, information from the class texts, library research, or interviews
4. F, frequency of examples from the lectures, journal, notes & readings
5. S, subject developed & discussed in a thesis, introduction, summaries, & conclusion.
Assignments | How to do well | Monthly meetings
Meet with me monthly, Set up ten-minute meetings with
me in my office to discuss your talking points, position papers, and letters
to Congress, before discussing, in April, your final comprehensive essay about
what you did and how you would change your approach.
Tie the texts to our ideas, after we have discussed the relevant passages, so that your position papers become a work-in-progress that is under constant revision to improve its message.
Participate in one or more
of the meetings: Congressional staff, or one of the lobbying trips.
Using the study guide, because it has discussions of key terms and your assignments
in detail.
All work must be your own, other's ideas or words must be attributed by a specific
reference, or else you have committed a fraud, and you are guilty of plagiarism,
for which you can fail this class.
This button below works as a navigational aid.
schedule | Research home | Atlas | site-map | Ecology | laws | reliable web sites | quick look
Science Index | Site Analysis | Population Index | Global Warming Index | Nature Index | Research sites | Genes
Terms | Glossary | Word webs | Basic vocabulary | Advanced Vocabulary | Antonyms | Synonyms | Etymology | Concepts
Writing | Interviews | Free Writing
Research | Reliable research sites | On-line research
