BRATTLEBORO — If you're over 50 (as I am) and a citizen (me, too), would you consider admitting that we have failed our children?
We've failed them on preventing, or at least curbing, gun violence. We've failed them by loading them with crushing debt - just add college expenses and the most recent Republican tax cut.
And finally, we've failed them by inaction in the face of the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change.
Before you jump out the nearest window, pause and consider the hope-filled School Strike for Climate Change that took place recently.
The strike was inspired by the example of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden, who, in turn, was inspired by the teens in Parkland, Florida. Kids fed up with adult indifference and inaction took their message to the streets and social media.
Sweden endured heat waves and wildfires this past summer. Ms. Thunberg spent the last 30 weeks protesting outside the Swedish Parliament her country's inaction on climate change. And on March 15, she was joined by more than one million other kids and activists in more than 2,000 locations spread across 125 countries. No surprise, there were protests here in our town of Brattleboro.
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The three protests that day - one at Brattleboro Union High School and two downtown - were organized by a group of local teens and pre-teens.
I attended the ones at Pliny Park. What gave me so much hope was the children who demanded the megaphone and led us in chants of outrage and calls to action.
I saw a sign that asked, “Why go to school when there is no future?”
Some were as young as 7 and others, recently established teens. Many cars drove by and heard our “No more coal, no more oil, leave our carbon in the soil” chant. A few drivers tooted their horns in solidarity.
We lustily cheered every passing bicycle rider. We listened as teens asked their peers if they could live in a world without winter snow, coastlines as we know them, or if they could tolerate a species extinction rate of 50 percent.
We heard them scream, “NO!” after every query.
We heard them, didn't we?
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I asked Lucy Congleton, 19, one of the core group of organizers, how she got involved.
“I went to a workshop at The Root Social Justice Center linking climate change and racial justice,” she said. “After that, Brattleboro 350 reached out and wanted to be supportive of a school strike.”
Congleton said that Greta Thunberg inspired her because she's “not letting other people (a.k.a. adults) or her own insecurity stop her.”
Where might Congleton's focus go from here?
“Now Brattleboro Common Sense wants to support youth action in local conservation, turning fear into power,” she said. “There are personal and small-scale actions that can make a difference. I want to bring emotion into the conversation, especially the fear, creating a safe place to work through it.”
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When Greta Thunberg recently addressed the adults in the room at the Davos Economic Forum, she said, “I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.”
Back at Pliny Park, a few of the adults cried, perhaps in some novel combination of shame, pride, and hope.
I carried a sign (someone else made it) that reminded us that we have only 12 years before reaching the point of no return with climate change.
A boy of 11 or 12 asked me, “So what happens after 12 years? Do we all just die?"
I had no answer.
Do you?