Voice 1 Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Steve Myersco, Voice 2 And I'm Marina Santee. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 3 ‘Thank you for being here' Voice 1 Five simple words. But they meant a lot to the people who heard them. Even the man who said them seemed surprised by the sound of his voice. He was John Francis. And these were the first words he had spoken in seventeen years.
Voice 2 John Francis lives in the United States. He helps to manage an environmental organisation. He also works for the United Nations. But people know him mostly for a decision he made on his twenty-seventh birthday. On this day he decided to do something very unusual. John Francis explains, Voice 3 ‘I decided that I argued and talked too much. So I decided I would stop speaking for just one day. And so I did. I got up in the morning and I did not say a word. And I have to tell you, it was a very emotional experience. I began to listen for the first time... And it was very sad for me. I understood that for many years I had not been learning. ... And so I decided I should do this for another day, and another day. Finally I promised myself I would keep quiet for a whole year. I decided that I would rethink this on my next birthday, and maybe then I would talk again. Well, that lasted for seventeen years.' Voice 1 But this was not the only big decision that John Francis made. One year earlier, he decided never to ride in a car. He lived in California in the United States. Choosing not to use a car seemed like a very strange idea.
Voice 2 John Francis decided this after seeing two ships crash near San Francisco. Both ships were carrying oil. The oil poured into the sea. It killed thousands of sea birds and covered the coast. John Francis decided he did not want to use vehicles that used oil. So he walked instead. He hoped that other people would follow his idea. They did not. But John Francis continued his own protest against oil by walking everywhere.
Voice 1 Then John heard about an environmental class. It was in a university that was about six hundred kilometres away, in the state of Oregon. So, he walked the six hundred [600] kilometres to begin at the university.
Voice 2 Two years later, John completed his time at the university. So, he walked to another university in Montana. He joined another environmental class. Here, he also began to teach some classes. He did all this without saying a word. His family did not understand why he refused to speak and ride in cars. John Francis says, Voice 3 ‘My father came to see me finish university. He said "We are very proud of you son. But you must start riding and driving, and start talking. What are you going to do with your university degree?" I did not know. I took my bag and then I went on to the University of Wisconsin. I spent two years there writing about oil spills. No one was interested in oil spills. But then something happened: Exxon Valdez.' Voice 1 In 1989 there was another huge oil spill. A ship, the Exxon Valdez, hit land in Alaska. Oil ruined much of the local environment. Suddenly John Francis's work became very important. It was also around this time that John decided to start speaking again. He organised a meeting for people to hear him speak.
Voice 3 ‘On April twenty-second 1990 I began to speak. I said, "Thank you for being here." I said this because it was sort of like a tree that falls in a forest. If there is no one there to hear it, does it really make a sound? I thanked my family. They had come to hear me speak. And that is communication. They also taught me about listening - they listened to me. It is one of the things that I learned from the silence - the need to listen to each other. That is really very important.' Voice 2 Now John Francis could speak, the United States government offered him a job. He helped to write laws on how to manage oil spills. The United Nations also made him a UN Environmental Ambassador.
Voice 1 But later, John began to question himself again. He saw that he was limiting himself by walking everywhere. He began to think that this restriction had made him a prisoner. He wanted to ride in cars and airplanes again. So, for the first time in twenty-two years he rode in a vehicle - a bus. John Francis talks about this decision, Voice 3 ‘I had become a prisoner... The prison that I was in was the fact that I did not drive or use vehicles. ... Every birthday I had asked myself about my silence. But I never asked myself about me only using my feet. But now I was a UN Ambassador. I had finished university. And so I saw that I had a responsibility to more than just me. I was going to have to change. But I was afraid. I was so used to the man who only walked. I did not know who I would be if I changed. But I knew I needed to change.' Voice 2 John Francis now does a lot of work teaching other people about the environment. He has also created an organisation called Planetwalk. Planetwalk encourages people to care for the environment. John says people need to be willing to change if they want to care for the environment. However he knows that people can often be afraid to change. John Francis hopes the way that he changed can be an example for everyone. He says, Voice 3 ‘We can often find ourselves in a wonderful position. But then there is another place for us to go to. We have to leave behind the security of whom we have become. We have to go to that new place - to whom we are becoming. And so I want to encourage you to go to that next place... We have to do something now. We have to become activists... We are part of the environment. How we treat each other is really how we are going to treat the environment.' Voice 1 The writer and producer of this programme was Steve Myersco. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom. All quotations were adapted and voiced by Spotlight. The words of John Francis were from a talk given to the organisation TED. Computer users can find a link to TED's website on the script page for this programme. This is on our website at http://www.radio.english.net. This programme is called "John Francis: Walking, Not Talking". You can email us at radio @ english . net. Thank you for listening today, goodbye.
