Let the Next Generation Lead

IT IS TIME TO LET THE NEXT GENERATION LEAD

Let’s be there to support them.

Powershift - October 26-29, 2012, Ottawa     http://www.wearepowershift.ca

Today I watched three amazing, beautiful, and smart young 16-year olds on TV.  They were taking civics and began to take a serious look at the role of women in US politics.  They decided to send a petition to the Department responsible for orchestrating the presidential debates,  They had determined that there had not been a female moderator for the presidential debates in the last twenty years.  They wanted a dynamic female role model showing how a strong, competent woman would handle this debate.  The department refused to even receive the 180,000 signatures they collected but their action attracted so much media attention that their request was taken seriously.  Feminist, environmentalist Cathy Crowly of CNN fame will be moderating the presidential debate and these girls are thrilled to see that happen.

Young people today are smart, experienced, and knowledgeable about the political process.  They know how to focus a message and get their point across.  They have no time to wait.  Their future is at stake.  It is time to step aside and let them lead.

Brigitte de Pape, famous for her “Stop Harper” action in the Senate, is one of many talented young people who are bringing this “Powershift” into being.  They are creating a forum where the next generation can convene, supported by their elders, and create the vision for the next incarnation of humanity and the pathway to get there. 

I am really excited to have the opportunity to meet young people from across Canada who are organizing themselves to lead change.  I believe Powershift has identified the two most important issues facing us in Canada and around the world that need significant policy changes:  democracy and a new energy paradigm. 

It is our young people that will face the results if we allow our leaders to stay on the path of completely ignoring climate change.  We need to be refocusing our energy policies to really transform our society towards renewable energy as quickly as possible.  We want leaders who will respect the democratic process and support the people to do what needs to be done.  We really need a powershift.  I hope to work with the leaders of today who will make that happen.  I hope to be at their side as an ally and a support.

Do you want to be an ally?  If you live in Ottawa, register and come to the conference.  Offer to billet young people in your home. ( https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNIRTdBSmVNSlBGcEE0Y3BEcVVnOHc6MQ#gid=0 )  If you don’t live in Ottawa and can’t come to Ottawa, sponsor a young person from your community to come.   psc.logistics@gmail.com) Watch for what is coming out of the conference.

I am really looking forward to hearing Bill McGibbon, the keynote speaker.   We need his best ideas for how to make this shift.  Hot news today – Naomi Klein will be there.
See full schedule:  (http://www.wearepowershift.ca/schedule )

Breaking the Fast - So Now What?

We broke our fast last night in a candlelight service.  There was a wonderful mix of people from all walks of life – old and young, First Nations from several tribes, many ethnicities.  We were delighted to have Michelle Penny and her friends from the friendship centre to centre and ground us with drumming and song.  Then we all proceeded over to my house where we broke our fast with delicious, organic vegetarian soup and bread.  Those who had been eating a little took some cheese and some fruit.

I laid the table with a beautiful red embroidered tablecloth from Bangladesh.  It was decorated with patterns including fish and elephants, plants and insects.  I set it out in honour of Dewan Afzal, a Bangladeshi elder and our leader who initially proposed the fast.  He was our inspiration and our teacher.  When we viewed the film “Climate Refugees”, we learned that Bangladesh, like many islands in the Pacific, will soon be completely underwater (Maybe 8-20 years) with hundreds of millions of people landless with no place to go except to drown in the coming waters.  The movie talked about the potential loss of whole nations, and of whole cultures. 

Did you know that no country in the world gives climate refugees “refugee status?”  And no one wants to take in all these climate refugees.

In our closing circle we took the time to appreciate what we had gotten to know about one another.  We exchanged contact information.  Raven prepared for two weeks with her sons and her family in Thunder Bay before she goes back on the road on her walk to promote having ecocide put in the UN Convention on Peace as one of five crimes against humanity and the earth.  She is promoting the work of Holly Higgins (Eradicating Ecocide).  She is walking across Canada with this mission.  Watch for her.  She is worth supporting.

Many are coming back to Ottawa in a few weeks for the amazing youth and young adult (with adult allies) conference called PowerShift.  One of its organizers is Brigitte de Pape.  Their website is a model of interactivity, generativity, and offers great hope as an organizing tool in itself.  It is designed with such respect for process, focused mission, and valuing the diversity and potential of every single person who engages with it.  We hope to engage with them in this important conversation and consider methods of creating change.

Today, a core group went back to the hill and signed up 34 Liberals including Bob Rae to the pledge.  Justin Trudeau was not there.  Our group was hopeful to sign up Thomas Mulcair after question period.  I’m waiting to hear what happened.

Most amazing to me, I have begun to receive feedback from some of you.  Some of you have sent me your letters.  Some have fasted with me for a few days.  My friend at USC Canada told me that her husband (a person who has never taken any kind of action for justice in his life, read my blog and what I was doing and decided that during the fasting period “perhaps we should use our car a little less and walk more.”  I was moved to tears that as simple an action as a fast could generate that kind of increased awareness and opening of heart.

This is not the last time you will hear from the creative activists at Climatefast.ca.

Thank you so much, all of you, for your personal support and for walking with me in whatever way you are able.  It gives me courage to keep going.