I am a unknown voice on Its Getting Hot In Here, despite the fact that I read it daily and have devoted the past two years of my life to help direct the Energy Action Coalition. My silence on this blog ends today – and I will use every platform imaginable to tell the story we need to tell and I’m asking all of you and millions more to join me. I’m ready for a POWER SHIFT.
The youth climate movement encompasses some of the most dynamic, talented, and innovative thinkers and activists around…We have pushed the limits on our campuses, in our communities, and positioned ourselves to be a strong voice for the clean and just energy future. We are amazing, but we are not big enough, we are not loud enough, and we are not yet powerful enough – but we COULD BE!
As I read this blog, and I see such critical debates about the Lieberman-Warner Bill, or positions on Coal or Nuclear, or Bio-Fuels – I’m left with the same thought over and over again…We need to change what’s politically possible, we need to make the demand for our clean and just energy future so loud and so clear that we change the game entirely. That movement can so easily start with us young people modeling the power of the grassroots to grow exponentially in this fight.
Every day we as champion need to be bringing more people along for this ride. We will grow large enough and powerful enough to put the special dirty energy interests out of the driver seat and help drive our country towards the clean and just energy future you and I dream about each day.
Let’s taking the opportunity this fall to flex our muscles, make more noise than we ever have and shift the politics in this country for real. We’re calling the campaign POWER VOTE – but really the campaign could be called almost anything, the fundamental idea behind it is that we organize 1,000,000+ people to fight for the brand of change we all feel so passionate about. We are successful is this effort, not if we raise millions of dollars, or hire the best staff, we are successful if tens of thousands of young people across this country step up to organize those around them…This is about good old fashion community building, and having millions and millions of conversations with our friends and families and classmates. This about being highly visible not only in showing up to vote on November 4th, but following candidates of all parties every step on the campaign trail demanding they address climate change, its demonstrating in front of coal plants, its advocating for the creation of clean and renewable energy choices, it helping our nation vision what a green economy with million of green jobs actually looks like.
This is a long rambling email filled with excerpts of the inspirations streaming through my head and my heart and I thought this was a good place to start.
JOIN US! Run POWER VOTE on your campus, unleash the leader that is screaming to come out inside you! Sign up now to take the lead – www.powervote.org – we’ll help train you and support you to train and support thousands more! Make the commitment to engage 1, 5, 10, 1000 new people in our movement.
I’m standing up and making noise…I’m honored to have this community to share my ideas with and anxious to grow it together. Let’s get to work!
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amen
Jessy is right on — we need a youthquake this coming fall and spring, calling for massive federal investments in clean energy. Young people today are faced with an unprecedented opportunity to define a new politics for a new century and spark a clean energy revolution.
But is this really just good old-fashioned community organizing? My feeling is that this is as much about a thought movement as a traditional grassroots movement. We need both — old-fashioned, on-the-streets community organizing — in addition to the tough thinking, policy analysis, writing, reading, and blogging.
After all, this is a challenge unlike any before. Unlike our parents, we’re not just trying to stop a war or equalize civil rights. We’re trying to create an entirely new global economy — a fundamentally different undertaking that requires us to transcend the models of the past.
Keep up the good work, Jessy.
Jesse and others. Please take a brief moment to view our website. We are a group of dedicated citizens attempting to build the largest earth day rally in history and couple it with a demand of the new president to act to fight global warming. Power Vote should not be an end in itself, it should not be organizing simply for organizings sake, we need a common vision or action. Many organizations out there have money, but do not have large and decisive actions, which is what it will take to make progress. This election will be one of historic proportions, and we need to use that momentum to push our issue, and we can. The Will Steger Foundation of Minnesota is our first official partner, but we have contacted nearly everyone. Please join with us in making next earth day an historic one for the environment.
http://www.marchforyourmother.com/about
or
http://www.marchforyourmother.com/takeaction
Teryn,
Can you clarify what you mean by needing to “transcend the models of the past”?
Thanks,
Brian
YES! Jessy, I share your sentiment to my core. We are big but can be bigger. We MUST be bigger if we are to match the scale of this great challenge. It has to be now and it has to be massive! I am ready for this movement to reach its tipping point. Ready for us to reach that crescendo of undeniable proportions when we are a force so large, so powerful, and so active, that that it shakes this nation to its core. This fall is a historic opportunity to grow our movement like never before.
Teryn, I respectfully challenge your characterization of “our parents movement” as “just trying to stop a war or equalize civil rights.” While it is true that we face an unprecedented challenge with the climate crisis, a challenge that requires new and innovative thought and tactics, this interpretation of past movements is limiting and sets us up to miss out on some of the great wisdom we can draw from the past. These lessons will be essential for the success of our struggle.
“Thought movements” where inherent in the grassroots philosophies of the peace and the civil rights movements. These movements, like ours, wanted nothing short of a transformative shift in social paradigm and practice. They where not just seeking a change in government policy but to fundamentally alter the violent legacy of racism and redefine what it means to be treated like a human being in this country. Their movement was comprehensive and sought to revamp our economy, housing system, communities, schools, government, and foreign policy to reflect true human cooperation and compassion. These great visions where manifest in their courageous nonviolence in the face of unspeakable physical harm to themselves and their families. Much of their movement sought to embody the new world they hoped to create. Let us follow in their footsteps.
I wanted to share something I read today that provides some more historical context. The quote is from Ivanhoe Donaldson, Michigan State student and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in 1963.
“It [the March on Washington in 1963] does represent a continuum in the struggle, and the need from time to time to create exclamation points and questions marks and commas, so that people can define themselves in some time frame, which is also important to an organizer, to bring something to a culmination, to take people to a next step.” Excerpt from the book: Voices of Freedom, by Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer
Power Shift 07 was some spectacular punctuation. Now lets make Power Vote our exclamation mark!
Here, here, Jessy! The next few months are an incredibly important opportunity for youth to build up a movement to be reckoned with. Having been on the campaign trail for 6 months earlier this year, I can testify that it’s an open playing field. If youth came forward with a bold vision for our country, solutions to the economic, social, and environmental problems facing us, and a smart and compelling campaign to engage millions of new voters, we would dominate this election. That’s what Power Vote can become if people get engaged. Let’s do it!
I totally agree with everything, but we also have to remember that there are other organizations out there working for the same things we are, but in different areas of the country and have different memberships. Groups like the League of Conservation Voters and Alaskan Wilderness League have been getting petitions and emails sent to legislatures, which is great. But I wonder if it would be better if we were more united, instead of 4 smaller petitions, one BIG one!
So it’s important for us to remember that a lot of small voices can make one big one, and to let each organization do their own thing individually. But I think there could be more unification, too…