Photo courtesy of Heather Wilson
Hello from Texas! I've spent the last few days with Ben Jealous as he continues the important work of listening before he leads, and gears up for the last leg of the listening tour this coming week. As Ben gets ready for his first day as Executive Director Monday, I wanted to share some of the exciting highlights of what we’ve been hearing.
So far, Ben has visited 16 chapters in 10 states and will continue with stops in Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix That’s a quarter of our chapters and more than 15,000 miles!
So you don’t miss it, here is some news from the tour!
Earlier this week, Ben shared his thoughts on building movements and power to win with the Los Angeles Times. I want to call attention to one line in particular, when Ben said, “In this democracy, to get big things done, we need big, uncomfortably large coalitions.” I couldn’t agree more.
In Mississippi, Ben spoke with Word in Black how poverty and social injustice are obstacles to our environmental goals. And check out Ben’s op-ed about the ongoing toxic train derailment disaster in Ohio.
Ben also hosted our very own response to President Biden’s State of the Union Address.
I’m so excited for Ben’s first official day tomorrow, as he joins our deep bench of volunteer and staff leadership at the Sierra Club. Ben’s vision and leadership, merged with the best of what exists at Sierra Club, will further galvanize our incredible grassroots-led organization. We’ll have more next week from Ben’s final leg of his listening tour, including his stops here in Texas, Southern California, and Arizona.