A look at all things Ocean Recreation Hill Day, and a guide on how to maintain policy goal momentum.
Ocean Recreation Hill Day is here! Once a year, representatives, volunteers, activists, and lovers of our coasts come together to advocate for Surfrider’s mission policies at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. This year, March 8, 2023, is the day! All year long, Surfrider Foundation prepares policy proposals to present to our federally elected officials. At Hill Day, Surfrider chapters and student clubs from across the nation join forces to educate our representatives on the vitality and urgency of climate forward initiatives. The team demonstrates the expansive support for environmental policies.
Three primary goals guide this year’s action. First, ensuring and protecting that our water is clean and safe for the benefit of public health. Second, preventing plastic pollution. Third, supporting the adaptation of our coastlines amidst a changing climate. To learn more about specific initiatives that fall beneath these umbrella goals, go here.
While we in Long Beach are sitting on the opposite coastline as the nation’s capital, there is a great deal we can do on our own to help our friends who are fighting for environmental protections on the front lines.
Environmental policies, as we all know, do not come to be overnight. Rather, environmental policies can take years of effort and deliberation before they become law. Further, such policies do not form due to the sole efforts of a select group of people, like those attending Hill Day meetings with elected officials. Rather, environmental policies become law because of people across the nation who are passionate, persistent, and patient.
Passion, persistence, and patience are the “Three P’s” of environmental policy action.
Passion sparks the fire of environmental initiatives. People who care about the state of our environment are the people that have the potential to create the most change. In all of your environmentalist efforts, be passionate!
Persistence kindles the fire. In the grand history of ups and downs in the fight for the policies we want to see, persistence is what allows us to win out in the end. Continue contacting your representatives. Respond to Surfrider’s action alerts. Attend beach cleanups. Stay up to date on current events. Pay attention to policy proposals. More than anything, do something!
Patience trusts that the fire will live on so long as its initial spark is kindled. Fighting the good fight isn’t an easy task. It can be demanding as much as it is draining. In times where it seems there is more working against us than in favor of us, stay patient. Patience is a virtue that wins in politics. Just remember, we got this!
Hill Day is a reminder for all of us involved with Surfrider to celebrate our passion, our persistence, and our patience during this past year and into the future. It is a reminder that democracy works in our favor if we work for what we want. Hooray for Hill Day!