Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, who was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019, has consistently rebuked world leaders for failing adequately to combat the deadly climate crisis that imperils all life.
Thunberg has been open about her diagnosis on the autism spectrum calling it a “superpower” that aids in her activism. Her inspiration and vigilance have sparked a worldwide youth movement to save the Earth and help ensure that the young people of today and future generations actually have a future.
When ideas emerge that challenge entrenched systems of power, oppression, and privilege, forces for the maintenance of the status quo often wage figurative and literal battles to exterminate counter ideas and actions to prevent and turn back any gains progressive movements have fought so tirelessly to advance.
We see history replete with intense and often violent backlash from many factions against movements working to end, for example, the dehumanizing and oppressive institution of slavery, “Jim Crow,” apartheid, human sex trafficking, and so-called “ethnic cleansing”; to advance women’s suffrage and movements for women to control their bodies; to workers’ rights; to the right to quality education and health care for all; to civil and human rights for people of color, for women, for LGBTQ people, for intersex people, for people with disabilities, for young people and elders, for people of all religions and for freethinkers, for people of all ethnicities and national backgrounds, for equality of opportunity for people of all socioeconomic classes; and the instances continue endlessly.
Susan Faludi, in her now-classic exposé, Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women, details the intense resistance to feminist ideas and movements for gender equality. By shining an intense light upon this backlash, Faludi reveals and debunks the myths and stereotypes perpetuated by social institutions, from business to the media, working to restrain women in all facets of their lives.
From the Oval Office, the Backlasher-In-Chief, Donald Trump Tweeted about Greta being named “Person of the Year,”
So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!
Even today, it still takes courage to speak out and counter the stereotypes, the scapegoating, the fear, the ignorance, and yes, the hatred. Yet, throughout the world, on university and grade school campuses, in communities and homes, and in the media, we see young people developing positive identities at earlier ages than ever before. Activists are gaining selective electoral, legislative, and judicial victories.
The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and our parents to call BS. Companies trying to make caricatures of the teenagers these days, saying that all we are self-involved and trend-obsessed, and they hush us into submission when our message doesn’t reach the ears of the nation, we are prepared to call BS.
Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida excited the crowd at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale just four days after a gunman plowed down students and faculty with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle killing 17 and injuring another 15 precious souls. Through her voice, her passion, her outrage, and her deep commitment, Emma poured hot cleansing waters to the tipping point into a barrel representing a movement that has long been filling in our country to wash away the deeply entrenched stain of gun violence.
It is a movement declaring that people are worth far more than corporate profits and political payoffs. It is a movement demanding that common sense measures be taken to finally begin to end the scourge that is gun violence in the United States of America. It is a movement proclaiming clearly and forcefully that condolences and prayers are simply not enough, and most importantly, that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Emma continued: “Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS.”
The United States stands at the cusp of great social change, led by strong and articulate young people who are cutting through the BS of longtime and largescale entrenchment holding in place a system catering to the rich and the well-positioned.
Black Lives Matter, and professional athletes sparked by the courageous actions of NFL star Colin Kaepernick, are challenging institutional racism; women are pouring out into the streets and onto the ballots to break the log jam blocking their entry into the ranks of key policymakers; the #MeToo and #Time’sUp Movements are standing up by demanding an end to sexual harassment and gender inequality.
LGBTQ youth are shaking up traditionally dichotomous notions of male/female gay/straight, and masculine/feminine. They and their allies continue to push for full equality and the freedom to enter public facilities most closely aligning people’s gender identities.
They are transforming and revolutionizing the society and its institutions by challenging overall power inequities related not only to sexuality and gender identity and categorizations and hierarchies, but they are also making links to the various types of oppression, and they are forming coalitions with other marginalized groups.
Disability Rights activists are sitting in and acting up to ensure quality health care for all and the security of benefits for all who require them to maintain a high quality of life; labor activists are demanding a realignment of the nation’s economic priorities overwhelmingly and increasingly separating the haves from the rest of us. Immigration activists are fighting for fair and equitable U.S. immigration policies.
Emma Gonzalez continued:
They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works. We call BS.
Young people have been integral in the development and success of social movements from the very beginning, and today, they are challenging norms and traditions as have the young of the past.
They are dreaming their dreams, sharing their ideas and visions, and organizing to ensure a world free from all the deadly forms of oppression, and along their journey, they are inventing new ways of relating and being in the world.
Schools and other youth communities are microcosms of the larger society. By students saying that “we will collectively take a stand,” they are, a least symbolically, lodging their vote against what they believe to be an unjustifiable stand on the part of their government or by other leaders. They are declaring their opposition to politics and policies as usual.
Civil Disobedience
At 10:00 in the morning throughout the U.S., the call was given for 17-minutes of silent meditation in remembrance of the 17 murdered comrades at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Speakers then contributed their voices in demanding the right to safe schools and safe streets free from the plague of violence long overtaking our nation.
Following some rallies, students and their supporters marched to local parks to join with community members, or to government houses to meet with legislators. Demonstrators in Washington, DC sat with turned backs on the White House in silence, before marching in solidarity to the U.S. Capitol to lobby lawmakers.
Many school administrators viewed these rallies as learning opportunities for students actively to engage in the civil project of our democracy by adding their voices and their talents for constructive social change. Others, however, did not heed the call by figuratively standing “in the doorway and blocking the hall.”
Administrators at Saint Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta, Georgia, for example, launched email messages and warned students over the intercom system that any student who engaged in the walk-out faced severe disciplinary action, including school suspension as ordered by the Catholic Arch Diocese.
Three female students from Saint Pius X High School spoke on camera with a reporter from MSNBC during the rally at a local Atlanta public school giving reasons why they defied their administrators and placed themselves at risk to add their voices of support in demanding their rights to safe schools.
The young women had attempted to organize a similar rally at their Catholic school. When administrators rejected their request, they all agreed that they had to stand up and speak out with their voices and their bodies.
Stated one: “This is a day I will remember for the rest of my life.” All three acknowledged that they were taking risks by showing up, but these were risks they were certainly willing to take.
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Have you read the original anthology that was the catalyst for The Good Men Project? Buy here: The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood
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Talk to you soon.
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