 When I was 11 years old, Hurricane Irene hit my town. I remember the feeling of cold water rising to my knees as the storm flooded my family’s basement. I remember the sense of despair that washed over me and my younger siblings as we barreled buckets and buckets of ice cold water out of our basement. And the sad part is this is the reality for so many 11 year olds — like the young people who emerged from the ruins of Hurricane Katrina, and the Texans who survived the apocalyptic freeze this winter. To be a young person right now is to live through decades of violent policies always on the brink of crisis. We are facing the perils of climate change, racial injustice, under and unemployment, and persistent economic insecurity, because for years politicians have sold out our future to corporate and fossil fuel executives, ignoring the cries of ordinary people. As young people we’ve been forced to make a choice – will we quietly watch as our world falls to devastating crises? Or will we pick up the buckets and use our strength to bail our way out of this flood? And we’ve chosen to pick up the buckets, John. We’ve made thousands of calls, and knocked on thousands of doors til our knuckles bled to get Democrats elected on a bold, progressive mandate. And when the pandemic hit, we got up and delivered food and mutual aid to our neighbors. We took the reins on this political moment and shook the ground under politicians' feet to make the Green New Deal impossible to ignore. So Biden, we’re demanding you to come down, stand with us, and pick up a bucket. That’s what you promised to do when you ran and that’s what we need to stay alive. Put the Civilian Climate Corps Act in your infrastructure package. Put young people to work rebuilding our own communities. Give us health care and pay us good wages. Usher in the Decade of the Green New Deal. So that when the next disaster strikes, our buildings are resilient because of the labor of Civilian Climate corpsmembers. And when we do need help bailing water out, the burden is not put on a terrified 11 year old, but a corpsmember will be there alongside her to weather the storm. Let’s get to work. |