Erin Brockovich filled Cohen Auditorium with charisma and humor last night as she pushed a two-pronged message: Help the environment and believe in your ability to stand up for change in the face of deceit.
The event was part of the Merrin Distinguished Lecture Series as part of the Moral Voices environmental justice initiative. Moral Voices is the social-justice arm of Tufts Hillel; it attempts to raise awareness each year on a different theme.
"It is a thrill to have [Brockovich] here. We like to have high-profile people come to engage the Tufts community," said Laura Herman, the chair of Moral Voices.
Brockovich gained fame after a biopic starring Julia Roberts, "Erin Brockovich" (2000), became a blockbuster hit. The movie depicts Brockovich's fight for justice against the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which was contaminating the ground waters of Hinkley, Calif. and causing the citizens to become ill.
"She demonstrates the power of one voice to make a difference in the lives of many," senior Emily Stone said during her introduction of Brockovich.
Brockovich continues to pursue environmentalism through her organization, Brockovich Research and Consulting, which is currently working on ground water contamination cases in Greece, Italy and Australia, among other places. "What should be our most important and passionate priority is to make sure Mother Earth, this planet and this world, continue to sparkle. Each and every one of us has a part," Brockovich said.
Reflecting on the movie, Brockovich relayed that the film's success marked the beginning of a much larger and more difficult battle.
"We didn't solve everyone's problems. Back then I thought the battle would get easier, but it got more difficult — a thousand dikes have exploded since I stuck my finger in this first one," she said.
"In real life there are no neat beginnings, middles or ends," she said. "Instead, life is a continuum; it is a series of interplays, conflicts and resolutions that happen over and over again." Brockovich noted that the Hinkley case was one of many of its kind, saying that similar stories of injustice and deceit exist everywhere.
When faced with failure, Brockovich said it is important to never give up. "Dr. Seuss' first books were rejected 27 times by publishers," she told the audience. "Sometimes losing can be the best way to win — before the final victory in the film, we get thrown under the bus — but morality is invincible. If you can stand for what you believe in, no matter how many times you get knocked down, in the end, your determination, beliefs and convictions will make you strong and successful."
Brockovich continued by conveying the importance of believing in yourself. "I was an underdog. In high school I was voted the girl most unlikely to succeed. My biggest problem is that I was too easily led by others — I let them define who I was and I became diminished because of that," she said.
Brockovich said she overcame these assumptions through her determination to believe in herself.
"The power to make our own choices is truly extraordinary — it can connect us with our own personal freedom; freedom from society, freedom from the unknown and freedom from the known," she said.
She encouraged students to trust their own common sense and then take action. "Choose freedom over deception, even though it seems difficult," she said.
"My main point is that we all live on this planet," she said. "Our lives affect other lives, and if we don't work together, then we are working against one another. Each individual story is eventually a victory for all of us."
Elizabeth Rodd, a junior, took the message to heart. "I thought it was very inspirational to see her in real life because her story seems like a Hollywood story, and to see her in real life brings it down to the real issues that we all have to deal with. It's not just a glamorized story," Rodd said.
Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, the executive director of the Hillel Foundation at Tufts, explained why he found Brockovich so inspiring.
"The story of justice is a story that our lives are intertwined. Erin Brockovich shows a provocative example of a woman raising a moral voice marked by power and compassion," he said.
