"Kids Against Climate Change - Save Our Future"
In our house dinner conversations are really an indoctrination to political discussions. It doesn't matter the age or political affiliation; if dinner is happening politics is being discussed and you will not leave without being subjected to a political rant. For a young child this can get boring (and predictable). But over the past couple of years our daughter has met Congress members and State Senators. She's made protest signs and attended rallies (US Uncut, OccupySJ, Walmart, Forward on Climate). She is proud of her Obama t-shirt and talked to her friends at school about voting for him. She is 8 years old.
So when she chose to do a report on Jimmy Carter we began to talk about human rights and how we hope that President Obama will leave a legacy that captures the climate change movement. In her report she talks about racial and religious equality and about putting kindness and humanity before all else. This, apparently works in elementary school as it is what they call being a friend. She has pictures of him as a child with a puppy, as a boy who enjoyed talking about politics with his parents and as a man on his peanut farm. She had to learn some big words to share her picture of President Carter with his family at a Habitat for Humanity event. She wants to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity now. I think our dinner time discussions are paying off just as they did for marriage equality. But what after all, will marriage equality matter if climate change deniers and plutocrats continue their course of destruction? As our discussion continued our daughter stated that maybe the president should talk to Sasha and Malia about climate change just as he did about marriage equality.
"PBO, ask Sasha and Malia what they think of the XL Pipeline."
This made me think that we could address a letter to Sasha and Malia encouraging them to talk to their dad about climate change. It is probably their faces the president sees when he thinks about America's future... our planet's future. But as my husband pointed out, this puts a lot of pressure on his daughters. So why not write a letter to the First Mom encouraging her to talk to her husband about using his executive power and saying No to the XL Pipeline and Yes to legislation that addresses the health of the people and our environment.
Dear First Lady Michelle Obama,
First I want to share with you how grateful my family is that you and your family are in the White House for four more years. I believe that you and your husband care about the American people and understand government's role in it's citizens' well being.
I want to ask you to please talk with the president about climate change and the course our planet may take if the XL Pipeline is allowed to be built in our country. This is not just an environmental issue, it is a human health issue. As a mother and breast cancer survivor I cannot encourage the president and our representatives enough to study the effects the XL Pipeline and climate change would cause on our health and well being.
The environmental decisions your husband makes today will impact your daughters and mine. You see, we sit around the table and talk about politics too because politics effects all aspects of our lives. Whether it be embracing all individuals as equal and worthy of respect regardless of race, religion or socioeconomic status (my daughter calls this being a friend) or going to the doctor's when she is sick. Please tell your husband that any decision he makes on climate change must consider all whose land this dangerous pipeline would cross and the children of today whose lives will be effected by his decisions. As I saw first hand at yesterday's Forward on Climate Rally in San Francisco, "There is no Planet B." This is the Presidents opportunity to leave a lasting legacy on humanity.
With warmest regards,
The remembrance Family
So here is my request: write a letter to FLOTUS appealing to her as a mother, wife, daughter, person of this country and planet.
Here are photos from Forward on Climate Rally in San Francisco on February 17, 2013, the largest climate rally in San Francisco evah!
Photos courtesy of Laura Levin, Glen The Plumber, Suzanne Nathans and Nancy Mancias.
"Obama, Grow Up and Stop Global Warming"
"2 Generations for Solar Energy"
"Another 8-year-old For Climate Action"
"KXL divided by Growing Climate Problem = __
Do the Math"