Starting in 2019 I was asked by a local radio station, KRSM 98.9 FM, if I would be willing to record one-minute sound bites for the station to air. I think I am one of five other Native people and people of color who do what is called the Southside 60. I have chosen to use my minute to talk about the climate crisis and hold out action and hope for people. Here are two of the “sound bites.” I would encourage everyone to search out opportunities like this to make our viewpoint heard.


This is Marcie Rendon, and this is my Southside 60:


The earth that has sustained human life is in a period of rapid change. As humans, and caretakers of the earth, we are in a place and time in history where our compassion, kindness, and flexible thinking will be required more and more to meet the challenges of a warming earth. Each human has the capacity to think well of all other humans, to think well of all life on earth. We have the capacity to think flexibly in each and every new situation. And each situation is a new and different moment, a new and different situation. We have a responsibility, I think, to grow ourselves into the people we were meant to be. To be more kind, more compassionate. To use our thinking for the good of all life that exists. We can do this by tapping into our own goodness without fear or shame. We can do this by deciding to take leadership to see that everything goes well for everyone around us. It sounds like a big task, but when taken one step, one moment at a time, it is doable and will develop the capacity to sustain human life over the long term.


This is Marcie Rendon, and this is my Southside 60:


We are all born with a deep excitement about life, with big dreams and hopes for what we might accomplish. Life has a tendency to wear us down. Some of us give up on those hopes and dreams but they are never gone, they are just covered with layers of dust—the dust of oppression, the dust of abuse, the dust of addictions, the dust of too many hurts that it seems impossible to get rid of. While it may seem impossible, it is completely possible to dust off those hopes and dreams and live them to fruition. This coming time of climate change is going to require more and more of us to decide, to actively decide, to move beyond the hurts and oppression we’ve had to live with to a more powerful place of deciding to fulfill our birthright to live those big dreams and hopes. Each of us is capable of deciding to live well and to see that the lives of those around us can go a bit better. If enough people in a community make the decision to live well, with a caring attitude toward everyone else, everything, even the coming climate change hardships, will go better for everyone.