Saturday afternoon found James, Eva and I leaving the university library, heading home. Eva had just finished a fitness class and James and I had been using the Lexis-Nexis account to gather more information about some companies that we were interested in. The first week of the fall session at the university was about to start and it was Family Weekend. The university grounds were full of families getting tours, moving furniture and taking pictures. Dad’s new entrance gates looked spectacular and there were lines of families formed up on either side to take pictures with them in the background. There was even a small plaque on the side attributing the new gates to dad and the students at Galt’s Blacksmithing school.
I recognized the parts that had been made by the students in the intro course this summer and I spotted the decorative latches that dad had asked me to make for the gates. Passing by the gates, we walked through the large student quad. I used to think that it was weird to walk out the entrance gates of the university and find yourself in the main quad which was a part of the university, but dad had explained that as the university had expanded, they’d decided to leave the gates where they were as a historical reminder of how far they’d come, much in the same way that a parent marks off a child’s height on the kitchen doorway.
Taking advantage of the Family Weekend, many of the SIGs, student interest groups, had set up information and sign-up tables around the quad. These groups had no official standing with the university, but they brought together students with similar interests for extracurricular activities. This was their best time of year to sign up new members. There were quite a few sports related SIGs, including popular sports such as football, baseball, basketball and hockey, along with lesser sports, like Ultimate Frisbee, darts, foosball, and Quidditch. Each of the main political parties was represented, along with the Libertarians, the Greenies and the Weed party. That last one seemed to have quite a bit of interest. Given the fact that over five percent of North Carolina was allocated to the military in the form of military bases across the state, it was no surprise that each of the branches of the military were represented as well. Chess, drama, and glee SIGs were there, and I even saw some Karate and Tae Kwon Do tables. Sadly, Kung Fu was not represented. Rounding out the group were the various Fraternities and Sororities that you find at most universities.
Eva and I had a good time, chatting up some of the students at the tables and pretending that we were college girls. James stayed behind us and kept to himself. I think he was preoccupied with planning on how best to make trades with the information that we’d just gathered. We had just stopped at one of the last tables to listen to the Glee SIG sing an interesting version of Bad Guy, when I heard a raised voice saying, “You don’t care that we’re ruining our planet? You can’t even be bothered to sign our petition. It’s your planet too. You should do your part.”
I turned away from the singing group and looked behind me. James was being towered over by a guy that looked like he belonged in the Football SIG and the guy was seriously invading James’ personal space. From a different angle, I wouldn’t have even seen James. For his part, James seemed more annoyed than scared and he wasn’t stepping back.
“I didn’t say that I don’t care about the planet. I just don’t want to sign your petition. Now please get out of my way.”
Mr. Big didn’t move away. I saw him dart a quick glance over to some girls at the Save the Planet SIG table and then he said, “Don’t you understand how important this is? How can you go on ignoring this?”
I made my way over the James’ side. Eva walked around to his other side. James didn’t look away from Mr. Big, but I could tell that he knew we were there to back him up, if he needed it.
“I’m not ignoring anything, except for your petition. It’s just a waste of time.” James was raising his voice now, to match Mr. Big, and a crowd of spectators was forming. I noticed a few cell phones coming out and I really hoped that this wouldn’t degenerate into something that could go viral.
“How is saving the planet a waste of time?” Mr. Big was playing this up. I was pretty sure that he was either posturing for the girls at the table, or that this was a setup and they picked James because they thought that a loud confrontation would attract more students to their table.
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“Come off it. You’re not saving the planet. Getting people to sign a petition for the university to divest of all of its fossil fuel stock is a joke. If it’s a good investment, then the university should have it. It’s not like there’s anything to replace oil yet. Besides, for them to divest of the stock, they have to sell it to someone else. How does that change anything, except make it so the university can’t even propose or vote for changes at the annual stockholder’s meetings. The more stock you hold, the more power you have. Seriously, have you guys given your strategy any thought at all?” Yeah, this wasn’t going to end well. Mr. Big was turning beat red. He glanced again at the girls and he also noticed the cameras. I could almost see the calculation in his eyes. He could either go big or go home and with his size, go big was his go-to option. He couldn’t just let James walk away now.
“We’re out here trying. We’re here and we’re raising awareness about climate change. We’re talking to people about making small changes that can create huge differences. We’re showing people that they can make a difference, because if we don’t do something now, then there won’t be a later.”
James laughed, “Raising awareness? Who isn’t aware of climate change? It’s been in the news and in our classrooms for our entire lives. You’d have to actually be a rock to not have heard about how we’ve destroyed our planet. I couldn’t have been made more aware over my 16 years on this planet. And you know what you get with small changes? You get small differences. In California, they’ve banned plastic straws. They’ve banned plastic bags in half the country. Are we safe now? Not from what I’ve been told. We’re told that every storm is due to climate change and that there are more of them than ever before. It seems to me that nothing we do will ever be enough and do you know why? Because of the fact that over 85% of all greenhouse gasses are not being produced here. Almost 40% of those gasses are being produced in China and in India and the rest of Asia and their numbers are increasing every year, while ours have been decreasing. If you’re really interested in raising awareness, then that is where you need to put your little table. Instead, you’re here, standing around flirting with the girls and pretending that you have some higher purpose. And if you really cared about the planet and it was an all consuming goal of yours to help out, then you’d be studying sciences to learn how to make microbes that clean our air and water or how to make better and cheaper solar batteries so that we can have electric cars that make sense. You could be studying business so you can learn how to build a company that will create some new innovation that will actually make a difference. So how about it, huh? What are you studying? How are you planning on making a real difference for the planet or are you just here to get a job and live your life and pretend that you did your part? Because raising awareness isn’t going to get the job done anymore.” As James finished, the small crowd around us erupted in cheers and applause and James started blushing.
Mr. Big was not happy. I had a feeling that he knew that he no longer had much of a chance with the save the planet girls. He’d also been stood up to in front of a crowd, but I could tell that he didn’t want to let it go. Leaning forward, he was that close, I quietly said to him, “He mentioned his 16 years on this planet. Think about it, big guy. High school Junior. You won’t just get expelled; you’ll go to jail.”
I leaned back and watched the anger drain away from his expression. He was big, but he wasn’t dumb. He stuck out his hand to James and said, “You’re right and I’m sorry if I got too intense there for a bit.” James shook his hand and the crowd cheered again and started to disperse. I noticed that none of them went to the Save the Planet table. Mr. Big went back to the Save the Planet girls with his shoulders slumped, but I was surprised at the warm welcome he received. Maybe things weren’t as bleak for him as I thought they were.
We walked on past the last tables and out of the quad. Eva was babbling a mile a minute and practically hopping up and down. She had been expecting trouble and her body was all geared up for it. When Mr. Big backed down, all her nervous energy needed to go somewhere. James, on the other hand, was his usual self. I don’t think that he even saw the danger in what he did. He wasn’t an idiot, rather he merely saw the episode as a passionate debate, and he believed that society’s norms would keep it from getting out of hand. He was right, in the end, but I knew that he was only just barely right.
A block past the quad found us in a residential area of the university containing a mixture of dorms, faculty and employee housing, and fraternity houses. I stopped and smelled the air. A scent had taken me out of my conversation with Eva. I smelled smoke and I looked around for visible signs of a fire. Eva said, “Over there. There’s smoke rising over that house.”