Charles City couple joins Earth Day march in Washington

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Bruce and Janiece Bergland were staying at a bed and breakfast in Arlington, Virginia, last week when they asked the caretakers what their Saturday plans were.

“‘We’re going to the science march,'” Janiece recalled him saying.

The Berglands and their hosts were some of the thousands of protestors flooding Washington, D.C., to attend the March for Science last weekend. The couple started planning to join when the march was announced a few months ago, said Bruce, a retired science teacher.

“Once we got up to Constitution Avenue and headed toward the Capitol, it went pretty fast,” Bruce said. “It was not, to me, like a protest. Everybody was in a great mood. There were kids in strollers on up to people my age and older, probably.”

The Berglands arrived at the Washington Monument by 10 a.m. as speakers like Maya Lin and Bill Nye addressed the early crowd. Musician Jon Baptiste and Stay Human helped lead the crowd in dancing until the march began at 2 p.m.

“A lot of medical scientists and researchers wore their lab coats,” Janiece said.

The planned march generated some national discussion on whether scientists should include themselves in political protests. Organizers and supporters argue that recent politics have done too much discrediting scientific research to stay out of protests.

“I think they’ve been pushed to the breaking point where they can’t take it any longer. They need to take a stand,” Bruce said. “Their integrity is being challenged.”

Bruce taught environmental science for several years before teaching biology, and he and Janiece consider themselves environmentalists, he said. The two had never been involved in protest or social justice movements before.

“As soon as we found out about it we thought, this is something we should do,” Bruce said. “I guess we just thought it’s time to take a stand.”

The two arrived in Washington Thursday night, and spent Friday and Sunday visiting memorials and museums around the district. They spent the entire day on Sunday inside the Newseum, which explores freedom of the press in the U.S. and globally.

“We could have spent at least half of another day in the Newseum,” Bruce said.

Even after getting drenched in the rain all day Saturday, the march was a positive experience for the two, Janiece said.

“It makes you kind of proud to be in a country where you can do that and have a peaceful march like that. I don’t know how much effect it will have, but they were all over the world,” she said.

Now that marchers are back at home, the two are thinking about what they should do in Floyd County with the experience.

“We’re helping to support some of the organizations that are fighting global climate change,” Bruce said. “I don’t know where it will lead from there. I am going to work to make sure we get representatives here in Iowa that are sympathetic in the next election. We both will support those who support science and the environment.”

“There has to be more nerd power,” Janiece said.

The swarm of people supporting the march left a big impression.

“There were many times during the day where I just got a lump in my throat,” Bruce said. “It was happy — just different emotions that you went through.”

“If there’s a cause you care about and you can afford it, I recommend doing something like that,” Janiece said. “It makes you feel involved. Part of a huge society.”