Jennifer Meeropol is the granddaughter of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and the daughter of RFC Founder, Robert Meeropol. Jenn became the Executive Director of the RFC on September 1, 2013. Prior posts on this page were written by Robert (unless otherwise noted), and represent his opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the RFC.Last Friday evening Elli and I heard Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org*, speak at Amherst College. Bill is probably the leading environmental activist in the country. The 650 people who jammed the original lecture hall, and the 300 more who flooded the video-fed, auxiliary venue, were a testament to his drawing power and the growing unease so many feel about climate change.
I’m writing this on September 4th, 22 years to the day after I started working as the RFC’s first Executive Director in a rent-free office in a friend’s law firm. Today also marks the first day of my last year at the RFC’s helm.
On September 6th President Obama is slated to be nominated for a second term by the Democratic Party at its convention in Charlotte. I won’t be there and I doubt I’ll watch the choreographed proceedings on TV. There’s something else that I’d rather do on that day.
Monday evening I gave a talk at World Fellowship entitled “Eco-Terrorism: the New Communism” with Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red. I addressed some differences between what I called the “traditional left” and the radical environmental and animal rights movement.
Monday I read a report that demonstrators in Burlington, Vermont (a left-oriented city that has sometimes been dubbed the People’s Republic of Burlington), were attacked by police in full riot gear using pepper spray and rubber bullets.