Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Know Your Enemy

On June 19, 2019, a convoy of log trucks, big rigs, and tractors shrouded the State Capitol in a fug of diesel soot and blasted their air horns to protest proposed climate legislation. As a demonstration, it didn't make the case for the status quo very well, but it wasn't meant to; it was an unmistakable middle finger raised to those perceived to be threatening their livelihoods.

The loggers and truckers were supported by money from timber and trucking executives, but it would be a mistake to assume the demonstrators were paid actors. These are real people understandably concerned that their ways of life are threatened by the efforts to eliminate fossil fuels. They just want to survive. Which is what they have in common with climate warriors.

"We will no longer stay silent about politicians that try to legislate us out of a job," Timber Unity PAC (TUPAC) wrote on its facebook page.

Politicians are an easy target, assumed always to be venal, even when they are duly representing those who elected them. And those constituents are assumed by many hard-working Americans to be fey baristas and hemp-wearing arugula farmers. But it is children who are in the vanguard of climate warfare, fighting for their future. For any future.

Any log trucker looking to mow down a few of these perceived enemies would have scored big at the climate rally in Portland last Friday. Thousands and thousands of young people showed up, but not one was interested in running people out of a job. Instead, they are trying to prevent extreme capitalism from running everyone, truckers included, out of a livable planet. It's a matter of perspective. Working men and women often see the world through a lens as narrow as a wallet, but children are not so constrained.

It's always been easy to mock children for being foolish and idealistic, a term that usually stands in contrast to "realistic." Realism is what is left when the clarity of youth gets sullied by circumstance. We grow inward as we age. But that doesn't mean the idealists are wrong. Maybe it never did.

"They just want to get out of school," people sneer. But every one of these marchers already knows more than those who belittle them. That is why they march for "climate justice." And what is that? It is the recognition that those who have profited the most from the catastrophe we face will be affected the least. And those who have gained the least will be hit the hardest.

That is why every iteration of the Green New Deal insists not only on transitioning to clean energy, but strives to direct new economic opportunities to the poorest communities; and it includes elements such as fair living wages, and guaranteed health care and education for all, even if it scuffs up the purses of the wealthy.

Authentic gray-haired hippie, bottom right
The cohort of gray-haired hippies at the climate rally recognized the spark of youth and idealism and marched alongside in support and approval. It was easy to make fun of us back in the day too; the peace sign was the "footprint of the American chicken." We protested a pointless and devastating war in part because its consequences were personal, true. We lamented the slaughter of innocent Asians in a way we might not have if we were not being lined up for sacrifice ourselves. And sure enough, as soon as the immediate threat was lifted, we swarmed Reagan's new capitalist casino and scooped up all the money we could. But it doesn't mean we were wrong to protest. We weren't.

These children aren't wrong either. And their idealistic souls will remain intact because there is no more fool's gold left for them to plunder. They know the facts. The facts are that we are stripping our living planet of what is needed to sustain it, and yet our leaders are still doubling down on disaster. We must stop, or die. Hell yes, that's going to shake things up.

There's nothing simple about it, except the pure and absolute imperative for it. When your house is on fire, it's not easy to jump out of the window, but you must to survive. People working for climate justice might give you a net to jump into. What you don't do is try to put out the flames with gasoline.

21 comments:

  1. Your voice is heard ... loud and clear.
    Well, at least read!
    Reread!
    Stamp of approval!

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  2. I am blown away by the young folks, especially Greta Thunberg. She is an old soul in a young body. I hope she understands the difference she has made already.

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    1. She doesn't seem to require praise. She really wants to get us moving.

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  3. In the early-middle Oughties, I asked, “Where are the kids, the college students? Why aren’t they marching? Where are the protests?” I conclude there was a generation so hobbled by the Great Recession, they had no psychic energy for organization on a big scale. They were depressed. And, during their involuntary existential numbing, Hell swarmed out of the underland and did its worst, tried to drown them, shoot them, cage them, cripple their education, destroy their oxygen. But now, their little brothers and sisters are woke. They are my hope. All power to them. Thanks for this post.

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  4. I think the scuffing up of various wealthy wallets is long overdue. Where's the point in having multi-millions or even billions of dollars? This is not to say that I don't want to win the lottery. I do. But I wouldn't be hoarding the money. I'd be keeping enough to see me through the rest of my life and spreading the rest among family, friends and charities.
    We had similar climate change/justice rallies here in Australia, in my city about 100,000 people marched and chanted.

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    1. The Australia contingent was massive. We heard about it. Isn't your prime minister the sort who might motivate climate warriors?

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    2. I'm not too sure, he seems to be wobbling either side of his fence.

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  5. "WASHINGTON — Sept. 19, 2019 -- The Trump administration on Thursday announced the repeal of a major Obama-era clean water regulation that had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water." This is what the United States government is doing, right now for its citizens and the planet. And STILL, people wear MAGA hats and support the president. Guess we're not great yet.

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    1. He REALLY wants to keep blowing up mountains for coal and dumping their corpses in the water. Nothing even subtle about it.

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  6. "It is the recognition that those who have profited the most from the catastrophe we face will be affected the least. And those who have gained the least will be hit the hardest."
    Murr, you have a way of adding clarity to the situation. I am very happy to see the younger kids finally starting to pick up where we left off.

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    1. They have an even greater imperative. It's so odd to think we're here at the endgame.

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  7. Wow, this is one of the most incisive commentaries that I've ever read! Bravo, Murr!!

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  8. Endgame,indeed, and no comfort. The hope these kids engender, weak as it is, is more than our generation has done lately to stifle the growing evil (yes, it is that) that wants to consume ALL THAT IS. So, amen, I say.

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