Monday, March 18, 2019

In The Year of the Female Earth Boar, The Great Shift to Save Our World

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‏Verified account @AOC Jan 2. Sí, se puede.
Sharice Davids, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Deb Harland

"Every two years we gather in this chamber for a sacred ritual under the dome of this temple of democracy, the Capitol of the United States. We renew the great American experiment. I am particularly proud to be the woman Speaker of the House in this Congress, which marks the 100th year of women having the right to vote, and that we all have the ability and the privilege to serve with over 100 women members of Congress, the largest number in history." -- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives via MSNBC, January 3rd, 2019

I knew I had to hold off until the new Congress was actually sworn in before I posted in celebration of what "We, the People" accomplished in the November 2018 mid-term elections.

Now I feel free to declare victory and urge you to continue to lean forward.

There is so much struggle ahead of us. And so many harrowing days and nights to come.

In 2017, the Women's March announced the rise of the Resistance. 

"The women’s march in Washington was roughly three times the size of the audience at President Trump’s inauguration, crowd counting experts said Saturday. Marcel Altenburg and Keith Still, crowd scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain, analyzed photographs and video taken of the National Mall and vicinity and estimated that there were about 160,000 people in those areas in the hour leading up to Mr. Trump’s speech Friday. They estimated that at least 470,000 people were at the women’s march in Washington in the areas on and near the mall at about 2 p.m. Saturday." -- New York Times, 1/22/17

In 2018, Indivisible turned desperation into focused fury.

"There are an estimated 6,000 local Indivisible groups, with at least two in every congressional district in the country and more than 1,000 in California. The hash tag #indivisibleteam has resonated across social media.  The groups, largely autonomous, are made up almost entirely of volunteers, many of them young and most of them Democrats. 'The model of the organization is that it is based on the local groups. It’s not top down, it really is grass roots,' said Jiggy Athilingam, who coordinates Indivisible’s state and local policy in California. Numerous such groups were formed after the election, but Indivisible has gained national attention ... A month after the 2016 election, the Greenbergs posted a Google Document to about 600 people titled the 'The Guide', 23-page statement of Indivisible principles, a sort of manifesto and a road map for peaceful political action. The Guide soon went viral in social media, and Indivisible was noted frequently on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show, exposure that spurred national interest in the movement and played a significant role in its rise. The Guide’s authors say it offers “a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to replicate the Tea Party’s success in getting Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents”... Members show up at the public functions of candidates, GOP and Democratic alike ..." -- Capitol Weekly, 5/2/18

In 2019, inspired by 16-year-old Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Greta Thornberg, MILLIONS of children (along with their adult supporters) walked out of tens of thousands of schools in over 100 countries, striking for immediate and radical action to come to grips with the planetary climate crisis:

"All over the planet on Friday, millions of children and young adults walked out of their classrooms in an unprecedented collective action to demand a radical and urgent shift in society's energy and economic systems in order to avert the worst impacts of human-caused global warming and climate change. With demonstrations in more than 100 countries and tens of thousands of schools, the worldwide Climate Strike is the largest since 16-year-old Greta Thunberg sparked a wave of increasingly huge marches and walkouts with her one-person strike outside the Swedish Parliament last year. Since then, Thunberg has admonished and appealed to world leaders at COP24 and Davos, successfully securing a commitment from the European Union to fight the climate crisis while inspiring strikes all over the world. European students began holding weekly walkouts in Brussels in December, while Australian, and German young people are among those who have organized strikes as well. 'We have been born into this world and we have to live with this crisis, and our children and our grandchildren,' Thunberg told a crowd of her peers in Stockholm in Friday. 'We are facing the greatest existential crisis humanity has ever faced. And yet it has been ignored. You who have ignored it know who you are.'" -- Common Dreams, 3/15/19

Lovina, 15, and Delema Janvier, 17, Alberta, Canada: As indigenous youths we have a close connection to the Earth. We strike for the Earth, to protect and save it from what the human race has done. As indigenous youths we have a close connection to the Earth. We know that without it we have nothing, we are nothing. Our community is directly affected by the Cold Lake oil sands, which is a large deposit of tar sands. Some of the tar sands can be extracted through drilling, which is incredibly dangerous to land, animals and people, and affects the water and air quality in negative ways. We must think of the future generations: what we do today, tomorrow and the next day will impact the next seven generations. We must change our ways from burning natural resources, from releasing so much carbon, from poisoning what we need to live. We cannot survive by drinking oil.
Kaisanan Ahuan, Puli City, Taiwan: Our traditional culture is deeply rooted in harmony with the spirit of nature I am from the Central Taiwan Plains Indigenous People. As the indigenous people of Taiwan, we have a particular vulnerability to climate change. Our traditional culture is deeply rooted in the harmony we have with the spirit of nature. We face heartbreaking loss due to increasingly extreme weather events. We urge the Taiwanese government to implement mitigation measures and face up to the vulnerability of indigenous people, halt construction projects in the indigenous traditional realm, and recognise the legal status of Plains Indigenous People, in order to implement environmental protection as a bottom-up approach.
Brianna Fruean, 20, Samoa: In the south Pacific, we’re already having cyclones, floods and droughts
I started my activism quite young – at 11. That was when I first heard about this thing called climate change. As a young girl in Samoa, a small island in the south Pacific, hearing the implications it had for my island scared me and jumpstarted my passion to do something about it.I feel like the young people of the Pacific are now experiencing what young people around the world will experience tomorrow. Right now, along with a lot of other vulnerable communities around the world, we’re having cyclones, floods and droughts. And it’s going to be that – and worse – for future generations. It’s great to see young people being passionate and not backing down to older people saying: “You should be in school.” Real education sometimes happens outside the classroom. I think the school climate strikes have proved that. I learned about hope and solidarity outside the classroom. All my friends know about Greta Thunberg, who has stayed strong and hasn’t backed down. I really think that she is going to do great things for this generation. It’s that solidarity that keeps you optimistic. And feeling that you have a team, that you’re not alone, that we’re all in this together. It’s not just one person yelling from outside the UN building or our parliament. And where there are mass numbers, there’s power. Our slogan is: “We’re not drowning. We’re fighting.”  -- Guardian, 3/15/19



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