You recently posted a video of local students participating in the global march for climate awareness. This was commented on by a number of folks tut-tutting about skipping school, the futility of demonstrations, and other such nonsense.

Climate change is a legitimate, scientifically-proven catastrophe in the making. Young people are going to inherit the world we left them, and it is a grim endowment. Unfettered pursuit of economic growth at any cost has the oceans full of trash, forests decimated, food production dependent upon unsustainable practices, and urban design centered around automobiles.

These kids have every right to be upset about the mess we have left them. What are they really missing in skipping out a day of school? Our schooling obviously was not enough to cause us to question our society’s wasteful ways. Demonstrations bring attention to concerns, as is evident in the fact that this photo was run and that I’m moved to write this letter. Nearly all of the positive progress our society has made has been the result of brave acts of protest, civil disobedience, and perhaps even a little skipping of class.

At best, we should be firmly supporting the younger community in stepping up and taking action of any kind to improve the world for themselves. At the very least, we should step out of their way and suspend our judgements. We’ve failed them, and own them an apology, not censure for exercising their right to peaceably assemble.

Robert Campbell
Port Townsend