Be the Change
LightNews LightNews
bethechange206.bsky.social
Be the Change
@bethechange206.bsky.social
11 followers 22 following 85 posts
Collaborative social media account for undergraduate honors course titled Be the Change.
Posts Replies Media Videos
bethechange206.bsky.social
May 9, 2025 at 1:47 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Be the change that inspires a better tomorrow
May 8, 2025 at 10:55 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
May 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Let’s celebrate the new change approaching in our lives. Whether something has ended or is coming to end, or it’s the start of something new, let’s be excited for all the possibilities ahead of us.

(Photo is by Effie Lynn Photography)
May 3, 2025 at 1:04 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Arne Naess is a Norwegian philosopher + environmental activist who climbed mountains and took isolated time to think + write. He and other great thinkers I mentioned this week leave us with a question: What kind of legacy do we want to leave behind—and what are we willing to do to make it livable?
Arne Naess said, "Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear war, none is so great as the deadening of our response." Though the quote came from a different time, the idea stands true. Nothing has been or will be a greater threat to the human population than ignoring harmful patterns, continuing them, and not responding to what threatens the well-being of humanity, whether it's ignoring the suffering of others or the dangers behind our actions.
April 26, 2025 at 1:13 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe) is an environmental activist and economist who advocates for the return of Indigenous stewardship of their reservations and preservation of their cultural identity and sustainable practices

Learn more about her land recovery organization: www.womenshistory.org/education-re...
Winona LaDuke said, "Environmental justice means that no peoples should be sacrificed to pollution, no peoples should be relocated, no peoples should wait centuries for a clean environment." She backs her words with a land recovery organization with sustainable practices and economic opportunities for struggling indigionous communities and peoples.
April 26, 2025 at 12:49 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, writer, and policy expert. She co-founded Urban Ocean Lab, a non-profit think tank that envisions policy solutions in action against environmental injustice in coastal communities.

Learn more:
- urbanoceanlab.org
- time.com/6283728/be-t...
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson once said, "Is it wrong to make this magnificent planet unlivable. It is wrong for the corporations who got us into this mess to continue to profit while they set the world on fire. It is wrong to drive millions of species extinct by changing the climate, destroying habitats, and dousing the planet with pesticides. And it is wrong to leave the most vulnerable to bear the heaviest climate impacts." While her co-founded think tank is a beautiful concept, Ayana's words appeal to me most. She captures the injustice in permitting corporations to profit from the people who are vulnerable to their offenses against the climate and planet with strong imagery pushing the point, such as corporations setting the world on fire--and reminds us of just how many species have been driven to extinction. Relating the quote to real life, the mention of extinction and pesticides reminds me of the Neonicotinoid pesticides commonly used in agriculture, which are killing bees and their reproduction. But pollinating insects are important to our environment and its plant life---and therefore our air--with bees being amongst the most notable.
April 24, 2025 at 12:54 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Dorothy Louise Slaughter was a United States representative who minored in microbiology and majored in public health. She advocated for public and women's health, genetic rights, and medical research--and sponsored policies and acts in their name.

Learn More: massivesci.com/articles/lou...
Louise Slaughter once said, "Let's clean up our environment. Let's clean up our bodes, but most importantly, let's not permit our babies of the future to be polluted before they are even born."
April 24, 2025 at 12:22 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Boyan Slat is a Dutch inventor who dropped out of Aerospace Engineering and founded a nonprofit organization called The Ocean Cleanup, which develops and utilizes technology to accomplish his dream: removing 90% of the plastic in the ocean by 2040.

Learn more: theoceancleanup.com/boyan-slat/
Boyan Slat once said, "For society to progress, we should not only move forward but also clean up after ourselves." In other words, for a better society and future, we should do more than anticipate future problems to resolve, promote growth and unity, and recognize the mistakes of our past and forge ahead; we should clean up after the mess we’ve made, which affects not only ourselves but the flora and fauna that coexist with us.
April 21, 2025 at 8:53 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
The change starts with us! Start with something small. The important is to start! Together we can change the world.
April 20, 2025 at 1:49 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
This simple but effective image speaks a thousand words. It represents the difference between equity and equality. Equal access versus equal opportunity. We must acknowledge that within our society, everyone is unique and has different needs. These needs require varying levels of help to be met.
April 11, 2025 at 5:32 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Change is like building a puzzle. First, you dump the pieces out and notice what has been “stuck-in-the-box.” Next, you put all of the pieces together. Lastly, the finished picture is beautiful; much better and bigger than the one displayed on the box—what we imagined was possible!
March 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
When one thing is not working, try another. A lack of ability to change will stop any metamorphosis in its tracks.
www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-rese...
March 3, 2025 at 11:40 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Change is not accomplished all at once. Rome was not built in a day. Whatever your endeavor, do not expect to see reception right away - instead, keep at it, and you will reap the fruits of your labor in turn.
www.sciencealert.com/change-don-t...
March 3, 2025 at 11:30 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
What people see you do, they emulate. We think of children as learning by example, but adults do it in the same manner - conformity. If you want a positive change, embody it and others will follow.
www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.h...
March 3, 2025 at 11:23 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Every change to society comes with a backlash. An eternal push and pull. We only make progress by never stopping or giving up. Imprisoned for 27 years, Nelson Mandela immediately started the fight all over again upon release. No setback is permanent.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_...
February 25, 2025 at 7:37 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
It is only by example that we build a new world. Perhaps we could learn from the example of August Wilson, a Pulitzer prize winning playwright and black rights activist.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_...
February 25, 2025 at 7:22 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
margaretwheatley.com/books/turnin...

In building the world we want, we need each other.
February 19, 2025 at 11:40 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Trans women in Federal prisons face danger as EO 14166 threatens to transfer trans women to men’s facilities where they are at heightened risk of violence and harm to their well being. For more about how the prison system impacts LGBTQ+ people & ways to connect & intervene visit
www.blackandpink.org
An upside down pink triangle with bars going through it. The words black and pink are across the triangle. A hand holding a bar is in between the words.
February 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." -Percy Bysshe Shelley

Read excerpts from Be The Change student climate fiction poems, and learn more about some of our acclaimed climate fiction and Afrofuturist writers: storiesforearth.com/2021/02/11/black-cli-fi-and-ecofiction-authors
February 14, 2025 at 3:06 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
In her book "Braiding Sweetgrass," Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves together her Indigenous and scientific knowledge into stories about our world. How do her teachings on the three sister plants help us nurture our own individual gifts?

Learn more about Kimmerer's work:
www.robinwallkimmerer.com
February 14, 2025 at 2:49 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
"Our ways of understanding and acting in the world shift at the level of relationship and in community," writes Andrea Ritchie, author of "Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies."

How can we practice change on a personal level?

More on Ritchie's work: www.andreajritchie.com/about
February 11, 2025 at 10:37 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Something that came up for us in class this week was the question of hope in the face of uncertainty, fear, or terror. Nick Cave's poignant words on hope here:
An image which reads: "Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position, it is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act as small as you like, such as reading to your little boy or showing him a thing you love or singing him a song or putting on his shoes keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time we come to find that this is so." - Nick Cave
February 1, 2025 at 2:19 AM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Born on this day in 1941, Angela Y. Davis is a prolific theorist, activist, writer, academic--and change maker.
An image with text which reads "I'm no longer accepting the thing I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept." -- Angela Y. Davis
January 26, 2025 at 11:15 PM
bethechange206.bsky.social
Do we have the power to change anything we want about ourselves? Sometimes, our own ways of making sense of the world lead us to think change is simple and without its challenges. Use quotes like the one below to inspire you without pressuring yourself to be perfect in your "change(s)."
January 24, 2025 at 12:42 AM