This Week's Work

Submitted by Jeff Gottlieb on June 9, 2007 - 5:43pm.

This final entry is to give you all an idea of what’s been going on during my fellowship this week. Because of the close affiliation between The Regeneration Project and California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL), I’ve been helping out here at the CIPL office. CIPL has written a letter to Toyota asking them to withdraw their lawsuit against AB 1493, a bill which passed in 2002, but was has been blocked from being enacted due to lawsuits from automakers. (The bill offers rebates for fuel efficient cars by adding surcharges to fuel inefficient vehicles. For more info click here for a .pdf fact sheet.)

We specifically targeted Toyota because of their power, influence, and leadership in the auto industry. My work this week has entailed calling leaders of congregations across the state who have signed the covenant and are a part of CIPL to ask them to add their signature to the letter.

I don’t want to romanticize the tedious work of tracking down phone numbers, leaving countless messages and assembling it all in a database, but it has been tremendously rewarding when I’ve actually spoken to them on the phone and they’ve added their signature to the letter. Watching the number of names steadily increase towards our goal is inspiring because it means that they (and their congregations) support our work.

So was I nervous during those first few calls? Sure. Was I speechless when told that a certain reverend I was trying to reach had passed away? Big time! Will it be worth if Toyota drops their lawsuit? Most definitely.

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