Many of Bernd's peers are paralyzed by feelings of powerlessness in response to what they perceive as a crumbling world. "Millennials tend to share an apocalyptic outlook. That's across the board, whether or not one is politically involved or not," she said. "The politically involved ones have the apocalyptic outlook but have decided to do something about it. The other ones, they still have it, but they just feel helplessness."
Reversing the Texas 'Brain Drain'
As a resident of Texas, a state notorious for its right-wing politics, Bernd has noticed that people who share her values often want to move away. "I look around and I see that there are a lot of folks like me, people who are interested in this kind of work, they tend to leave," she said. "Texas has a real brain drain in terms of progressives and hard-hitting folks who are doing work that is similar. They all tend to leave and go to urban centers. They all want to get out because it's awful. You can't blame them."
But for Bernd, she looks at this "brain drain" and it makes her want to stay and fight even harder. She has a fondness for the "really critical people" she's met in Texas because they tend to be more hardened. "The progressives, the activists, the journalists who come out of Texas, a lot of them have what I like to refer to as 'red state rage', especially folks my age who have grown up in this jingoistic, post-9/11 context. And you turn that burner up on that jingoism to '10' because you're in Texas."
People willing to fight against government and corporate corruption in a state like Texas are more resilient and heartier, she said. And, luckily for her, Bernd counts many of these people as friends, comrades who have provided her with moral support during rough times.
She's part of a group of activists that started the Tar Sands Blockade, a campaign of direct action to stop construction of TransCanada's Keystone XL South pipeline through Texas. Bernd used her technology and media skills to build the Tar Sands Blockade website, and her partner Graham made a documentary called Blockadia Rising about the effort.
Bernd gets ticked off with right-wing politicians in Texas who pound their chests about private property rights but then don't stick up for the landowners in the state who are getting their property seized to lay the Keystone XL pipeline. According to Bernd, the legal system in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S. has always failed people.
A broad consciousness came out of Occupy and other movement in support of direct action. "It's one of the last things we have that serves as a primary vehicle for change at this point in history," she said. "It's very important for us to take power back into our own hands because we can't rely on institutions."
Along with Molly Ivins, a fellow Texan, one of Bernd's journalistic heroes is Naomi Klein, who recently published a book about climate change and capitalism called "This Changes Everything." One of the chapters in the book is called "Blockadia," which tells the story of campaigns like the Tar Sands Blockade that are working to stop business as usual by the energy industry.
"Reading her book, the only word I have for it is 'sublime.' Blockadia comes from us, the Tar Sands Blockade. We coined the term," she said. "And she used it to title her chapter. The experience of reading 'This Changes Everything' and seeing the Blockadia chapter was really surreal."
Journalist or Activist? Or Both?
Since getting hired by Truthout in 2013 as a full-time assistant editor and reporter, Bernd has been paying closer attention to her role as a political and environmental activist. She did not get arrested, as most of her close friends did, while trying to block the Keystone XL project. "When they brought me on in September 2013, I stepped back from some of my activism and am more aware of that kind of line and tending to respect it a little more."
Defining the line between activist and journalist came to the fore when she was reporting on the recent sentencing of journalist and transparency activist Barrett Brown. In her Jan. 23 article, "The Chilling First Amendment Implications of Journalist Barrett Brown's Five-Year Sentence," Bernd highlighted the statement that Brown gave in the Dallas courtroom: "If I am not a journalist, then there are many, many people out there who are also not journalists, without being aware of it, and who are thus as much at risk as I am."
Bernd recalled that, as she listened to Brown speak these words, it was hard not to internalize the question. "If Brown isn't a journalist in any legal sense, am I? When the court adjourned for a 30-minute break, I walked into the hallway and looked at my press badge," she wrote in the article. "Sure, it's a little on the grassroots side, but I don't need an official seal of approval to practice my art. Neither, it seems, does Barrett Brown."
In response to the prosecution of Brown, journalist Quinn Norton wrote an article announcing that she was stepping back from her reporting on hacking. "I have a family to care for including a child, and I can't ask them to enter this murky legal territory," Norton wrote. "I hope that other journalists and security professionals join me in protecting themselves by stepping back, and calling for legislative clarity."
Bernd said she cannot blame Norton for her decision or for calling on other cybersecurity reporters to step back. "If I had a family, those considerations would be at the forefront of my mind," she said. But in the meantime, Bernd plans to be careful in her reporting but, at the same time, will try her hardest to stick to her principles, which include not backing down from taking on the powerful.
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