I’ve always disliked children and very young adults taking the lead in political causes, or being used by their parents for their parent’s political causes. Greta Thunberg seemed to be very different. When she came to the U.S. in August she was 16, today her biological age is 17 but I suspect her maturity age is much higher.
Because I view Global Warming as an existential threat to the very survival of the civilized world in her life time, her struggle isn’t just for a political cause, it’s a struggle for survival for young people around the world.
I can’t even begin to imagine the pressure that taking such a lead position must be on such a young person. I would have bet that she would cave to the cameras and attention and would soon begin to conform to the respectable slow motion inaction of establishment diplomacy that would never threaten the spotlight. She didn’t. She confronted the inaction, she challenged the media, she really spoke truth to power.
We all wish her the best for her future on her birthday, and thank her for the ray of light that we all needed in these dark times.
So how is she spending her birthday?
The eco-warrior who has inspired a global movement of young people walking out of lessons on ‘Fridays for Future’ marches held one of her own in her home city of Stockholm. It is the 72nd week she has been on strike to demand action to save the planet. But unlike her very first strike, today Greta was not alone, but joined by other activists outside the parliament building in Riksdagen. Greta tweeted a picture of herself at the march early this morning holding her trademark sign that reads in Swedish: ‘School strike for climate’.
RESIST!