The first wave meets with ENR staff Tuesday.
Wow. That was the first word that came to mind when I sat down to write about the week we just had with the winners of the Organize to be Heard challenge.
Most of them are actually still here, out exploring Washington in what has been some of their only free time between events, meetings and an impromptu protest.
These were 13 college students, several of them sophomores or younger, that have made organizing their calling. It was no surprise that they hit the ground running on Tuesday afternoon, immediately sitting in what was basically a policy briefing.
Yesterday I had the privilege of sitting in on a few of their meetings with senate staffers. I say privilege because I did no talking, but sat listening as the youth leaders told these staffers exactly what they are doing in their states and asked how they could help convince their Senator to support comprehensive legislation.
They stressed how important this legislation is, not just now, but for generations to come. Questions ranged from policy to politics, but all centered around the same theme: how can we help get legislation passed now.
Because now is when it is needed. That message was reiterated in the big event by the Capitol Reflecting Pool, where DJ Biz Markie (of original Just A Friend fame) spun on the stage, while the Hip Hop Caucus, ending the Clean Energy Now! Tour in Washington, brought a diverse audience the likes of which many in this movement haven’t been used to seeing. The wide range of backgrounds represented at the event showed just how many Americans are ready for this legislation.
EPA Admin. Lisa Jackson addresses the Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! rally at the Capitol.
Reverend Lennox Yearwood gave a passionate closing speech at the event, having each member of the crowd hold up one finger in a showing of unity. “This movement just keeps going. It just keeps going. We can’t stop now,” he said.
We didn’t. After the rally the work resumed in earnest. Students met with Senators from the their states, relaying their ideas and hearing those of the member. Some meetings were just one student, one had all 13. Some were student-led, others led by staffers.
One meeting, with Senator Barbara Boxer’s staffer, was actually in the Environment and Public Works committee office, meaning the students had meetings in two of the major committee offices that handle energy and climate issues (the other with an the Republican Staff Director of the Energy and Natural Resources committee the day before).
Another meeting, in Senator Stabenow’s office, actually happened right after the students from Michigan ran into the Senator in the hallway. She stopped to talk to them for a couple of minutes, thanking them for coming all the way to Washington.
The first result of these meetings came today, when the group sat down for its final meeting, brainstorming for the future. How can we continue to put pressure on Congress to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation? And how can we bring more people into the movement?
One way to help the former is by preventing lawmakers from doing things like gutting the Clean Air Act, something the challenge group was able to do by being in the right place at the right now time last night, protesting a Sen. Lisa Murkowski dirty energy fundraiser.
These are our leaders of today and tomorrow.
Hopefully this week these students were able to come up with many other ways to do both. Certainly we expect to incorporate some of the things they’ve suggested in the coming days, weeks and months. Then again, hopefully this doesn’t take that long.
If I’ve learned one thing this week, however, it is that this overall fight is far from over. Even if Congress passed a bill tomorrow, it would still need to be improved over time. We will still need to push to phase coal out of this country’s energy production. We would still need to push to make corporations more responsible for their environmental damage and politicians more accountable to Americans that need jobs and want energy independence.
These are our jobs. This is our future. The students that came here are not tomorrow’s leaders, they are leading today. While one day, probably sooner than we used to think, youth of this nature won’t solicit the response of “wow,” today it still did. Mostly the wow had nothing to do with their youth, but their commitment, knowledge and work.
Can we commit with them? Can we turn a youth movement into a national movement? I’m ready. I was not blown away this week, I was excited. We have work to do and we know there are people like these students out there doing it. So let’s keep going. We can’t stop now.
