John Francis stopped speaking for 17 years to protest pollution.
For seventeen years, John Francis did not say a word and did not ride in a car. But he walked all over the United States and South America, with a banjo on his back, to inspire others to drop out of the petroleum economy and to demonstrate his belief that one individual following his conscience can affect change.
Francis changed a lot of things about his life one day in 1970 when two oil tankers collided under the Golden Gate Bridge, spilling black crude oil across the San Fransico Bay area. The accident prompted him to decide to give up cars. Well-known for his environmental activism, Francis also decided to give himself and the town a break from his tirades and arguments, and he stopped speaking.
The plan was to stay silent for a day. Then a day turned into a week, which turned into a month, and soon, Francis was revisiting his vow of silence on a yearly basis to determine whether to continue. He did make a few exceptions, calling his parents ten years into his vow to tell them he loved them. Francis also managed to attain a PhD in environmental studies in almost virtual silence, speaking only to defend his dissertation. As a teaching assistant, he led classroom discussions with gestures and sign language.
On Earth Day, April 22, 1990, Francis broke his silence. His ideas about saving the environment had evolved. The next day he was hit by a car. When the ambulance arrived, he refused to get in, and walked his way to the hospital. Later, however, when he was recruited by the U.S. Coast Guard to write oil-spill regulations and by the United Nations Environment Program to serve as a goodwill ambassador, he decided to accept even though both jobs would involve riding in cars and airplanes.
Francis claims his silence of 17 years taught him to truly listen to his fellow human beings and to the world around him. He has written a book called Planetwalker: How to Change Your World One Step at a Time.
This article was published Saturday, April 7, 2007.
