History as taught in our schools tends to dwell on wars, major disasters, and people in power. Seldom do children get to learn about the ways ordinary individuals or small groups of people have shaped the course of events and the character of places. Yet the cumulative impacts of local citizen activism have been far-reaching, especially in saving cherished natural landscapes from destruction.

In just about any coastal town that has maintained its own special character, you can find people who stood up against some development proposal that would have run roughshod over places they love. They took action when most were resigned to what seemed inevitable and, working patiently and from the heart, drew others into their vision. The odds they faced were often enormous, yet often they prevailed.

Were today’s schoolchildren to learn some of these stories, there would be new hope for democracy. I like to tell these stories in Coast & Ocean. They give me courage. I especially like the one that began more than 30 years ago in the small city of Imperial Beach, three miles from the Mexican border.

For more about Imperial Beach, see Imperial Beach and the Wealth of Nature.