A Sad Day For Humanity

This is an op-ed submitted to the N.Y. Times in 3/2019. It was not accepted. To bad it is something people need to hear.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
Nelson Mandela

What a sad day for the human race! On March 15, 2019 children walked out of schools across the world to protest adults’ inactivity towards climate change. They are demanding that we adults do what we should already be doing naturally, protecting our young. We are now one of the few more evolved(?) species on the planet who seem to being putting our own selfish interest in front of the care of our children.  Grizzly bears, wolfs, as well as most other mammals, many birds and even some fish will sacrifice their own life’s to protect their young from dangers. It is as if humanity is de-evolving.

On the NPR reporting on the subject (March 15, 2019, All Things Considered) it was mentioned that some had problems with children missing school for political protest. Here in lays one of the many obstacles that are plaguing the adults into inactivity and abandoning their duty to children globally. Is a hurricane political? Is a tornado? What political party does a drought belong too? There is nothing political about forces of nature or the devastation they can create. In fact after such calamities most involved at the ground level forget about the abstract world of politics and band together to help each other as humans. The responses of government may become political but the actual natural events themselves can not be political. Adult humans in this day and age seem to be able to label and or make anything political.

There are some who think that climate change is a political issue so let’s take the whole “climate change” idea out of the conversation for a minute. With or without climate change polluting the planet is not in the best interest of our children. When agriculture chemicals are creating algae blooms and poisoning drinking water or are sterilizing the soils so that future generations can not farm, we are not protecting our children. When petrochemicals are burned polluting the air, spilled killing oceans and land, or drilled contaminating ground water, we are not caring for our children. When burning coal makes air so polluted that in India and China people need to wear mask just to breath, we are not providing for our children. When strip mining in removing whole mountains and poisoning water and land, we are no longer nurturing our children. When adults condone clear cutting forest therefore eliminating the filter systems that clean air and create oxygen all future generations to breath, not to mention just the appalling prospect that at some time in the future our offspring may not get to see an old growth forest, we are not cherishing our children. When there is an extinction under way, today, and there is more focused on loud mouthed political figures than trying to save the planets animal and plant creations we are abandoning our children’s future. We are on the threshold of losing our humanity and the one of the most precious instincts we have, lovingly nurturing our young.

Whether one wants to call it climate change or pollution or global warming or ecosystem devastation it makes no difference, it is not about politics. This is an issue of whether we as adults of the human race are going to be true mothers and fathers to our children or not. Are we, as the care takers of the next generation, going to love our children enough to give them a world better than we found it or not? Our childern's childern's children are depending on us adults, in the present moment, to start this healing process.  One can make list about banning poisonous agriculture chemicals or halting all petrochemical  extraction and infrastructure projects but this is not about to do lists, this is about our heart. It is about love and respect for those who we care about most. It is about caring and care taking of those we bring into this world. It is about protecting our children from the mess we played a hand in creating. It is about loving our children, period.

These students are shaming us adult, rightfully so! This is not only a wake-up call it is an embarrassment that things have gotten to the point where the young need to demand for their parents to protect them.  It should be a given, as it is with most mammals, that we would do whatever it take to ensure the survival of our off spring. We are humans; we should start acting as such and love our children into the future.

My hat is off to these brave youths and my heart cries for them to finally be heard. As adults it is time for us to change what we are doing for them and their children. It may cause some hardship and be difficult in the extreme. We are adults and adults should bear those burdens for their children. Suffering with love is no longer suffering but a gift. It is time we give a gift to our children and not just words.

Joseph
Father,
Small Farm Organic Farmer,
Bellfountain, Or.

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph and Human Anonymous