The Right to Clean Water has 5 months left to reach their goal of 1 million signatures.
This is a really important cause that is underfunded. This amendment will change the FL constitution to include clean bodies of water as a right to all Floridians. Effectively, that puts the responsibility in the hands of state agencies, and clarifies what happens if they fail. For a state agency to favor industry and agriculture over bodies of water, will be unconstitutional. This will allow us to keep our government in check.
But aren’t private corporations the ones who need to be kept in check? Yes. Industry is supposed to be kept in check by our state agencies. That is their function. They get paid for this so that when you're out there being a teacher, a cop, a fireman, a plumber, you don’t simultaneously have to keep up with thousands of corporations and use your money to sue them.
We have elected officials whose job it is to keep industry in check. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. We know full well of the deep pockets that influence our elections and decisions made by those elected officials. The only way to keep our elected officials in check is through a citizen initiative.
Constitutional ballot initiatives exist so that the people can come together and change the law of the land, when the legislative process fails us. The governor cannot veto it. This is how we get around a corrupt administration. This is how we, the people, keep our government in check.
So how do we get 1 million signatures and where are we now?
Organizers find events to table at, festivals, college campuses, community events, many times spending their own money on vendor fees and bringing their own group of volunteers. It is thanks to individual efforts, people stepping up and finding a space, finding volunteers and making it happen, that the organization is able to progress in signature collection. The problem is that there aren’t enough of us and we are running out of time.
We need funding, we need people who will get entire organizations of people to sign the petition, we need people to speak at their congregation and have a table outside the church service, we need hotels who have a stake in clean water to sponsor us.
In Florida? Find a regional coordinator and get involved!
You can also donate, read more, or see FAQ here.
What’s my strategy?
I organize the efforts at a college campus, managing 15 volunteers. I’ve capitalized on the mandatory volunteering the university requires for graduation. Even though other colleges don’t require volunteer hours, some high schools do. One of my goals this summer is to find out how to tap into those potential volunteers and get them doing what I’m doing at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). If I can get someone to table at every college campus in Florida twice a week, that's 70 campuses, if they get 20-50 petitions, that's 1400-3500 petitions a week, 28,000-70,000 petitions from June 1st to November 1st. Another strategy I have is having the petitions at my weekly live music event. The more people that come, the more signatures we get that way.
Want to help me dedicate more time to organizing for the environment? Donate here.