I really found Debbie Raphael’s
talk to be very interesting, and my conversation with her following the talk
was very meaningful! She currently works for the California Department of
Substance Control and described her role of getting involved with government.
She considers her role to be that of a civil servant, rather than a politician.
She initially came from a science background but wanted to make something
happen, and she believes that government is the place for that.
Raphael also believes in the power
of asking the right questions and with her work in regards to products that
contain many chemicals, she wants
items to be produced in the safest way possible, rather than saying that something is probably “safe enough”. She warns
against the “seduction of appeasement”, or the danger of compromising and in
the end, only having something that really isn’t any good. Her core value that
she shared with us was to express vision in what we believe, and ended by
saying that the world is run by those who show up.
I enjoyed my conversation with her
as we discussed the plastic water bottle industry, and I learned how there are
no regulations for bottled water, while there are regulations for tap water.
When discussing the difficulties with waste and recycling, one comment she made
that I wholeheartedly agree with is that we can’t shop our way out of this
problem, and I think this message is valuable for such a consumerist society.
We ended our conversation with Raphael with a discussion of something that she
has done to get nearly every job she has ever had. She has asked employers and
other individuals for “informational interviews”, in which she asks them not
for a position, but for a half hour of their time. She asks them related and
meaningful questions and always concludes the interview with the question “can
you give me the names and contact information of three people who might be able
to help me out or are doing work similar to what I have talked about, etc. It
was very cool, and she was a sweetheart and told me that she would love to do
this with me should I choose to ask her! This was just the first of many
valuable interactions from Green U as I continue to talk about these speakers
over the upcoming days!
If you missed the first post that
contained more general information about the speakers or experience at Green U, click here!
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