From an email just received from a member of School Strike for Climate (SS4C).
Stephen, I am not a fighter.
I don’t attend protests very often. My fellow volunteers at SS4C are activists, who are fighters, who do attend protests and make change wherever they can, who are loud and will make sure their voices are heard.
I’m not anything like them. I’m not good at making change, and I sure as hell am not loud – so, you’re probably wondering why I, a self proclaimed ‘non-fighter’, am emailing you from this address, and imploring you to strike with us on May 6.
It’s because my colleague lost her uncle, who bravely fought in the bushfires while our Prime Minister was in Hawaii, with his flimsy excuse being “I don’t hold a hose mate”.
Her uncle’s seat at the family dinner table is empty, because he did hold a hose.
It’s because my friend had her home ruined by the floods, with no money to repair it, and has been rendered homeless as the government she thought she could trust turned a blind eye to her communities’ suffering.
Her parents, first generation immigrants, had scraped together decades worth of money to buy that home.
It’s because I don’t want my classmates to have to stay back and clean up the mistakes of those who came before them, instead of moving the world forward with their bright ideas. They have been told their entire lives that they possess potential to change the world for the better.
It’s because the adults around me are still conflicted on who to vote for on May 21 – the same adults whose parents were born around the same time that scientists began warning us about the climate crisis.
Their decision this election will affect all of the people I mentioned, and more.
These people are just like you and me. They are all of us. Ordinary, hard working people.
I am not a fighter. But I fight for climate justice in spite of that, because with every step I take at a protest, I am thinking of my loved ones who have been affected so deeply by the government’s indifference to their plight.
Maybe you’re not a fighter, either. Maybe you’re like me, and you’re scared of conflict. Maybe you’re worried that if you do fight, it’ll be for nothing. And it’s okay to feel these things.
But I promise, these strikes spur change. They always have. And they always will.
So, Stephen, will you step up? Will you fight with us this May 6?
In solidarity,
Charlie (he/him)
On behalf of School Strike For Climate Sydney
I feel this is well worth reflecting on as we approach this election and considering the fact the BOTH sides of our two party system of government are funded by the Climate Wrecking Fossil Fuel Corporations.
We are now in an ever closing window of time where decisions made will either lock us in to the distinct possibility of a looming human extinction event this century OR the chance to take control of a future that MAY at least be livable for our children and the wildlife we all love.
Please think and act carefully as billions of lives , the fate of our civilization and indeed all life on our planet now rest with every decision made.
Steve Wells
Beenleigh
