Guest Post – from Sasha Ashton
Sasha is 16 years old and a junior at Headwaters School in Austin, Texas. On March 15th she joined with thousands of other students from around the world in skipping school and participating in a School Strike 4 Climate event. These protests were inspired by the work of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden, who last year began skipping school and sitting outside the Swedish Parliament, demanding that lawmakers take action on climate.
The Austin School Strike 4 Climate event was held in front of the Texas State Capitol building. Below is the text from Sasha Ashton’s speech, which she graciously shared with the Austin EcoNetwork.
We are here today, above all, because we are scared.
Climate change is a direct threat to our futures.
But we are also here because we have been gifted with a righteous anger. One unified, beautiful ferocity in defense of our home.
So give yourselves a round of applause for that.
But however righteous, it is a burdensome anger—and more than anything, it is an anger that stems from years of negligent action.
People are going to ask us why we’re not in school today and the answer is, why should we be doing classwork when the adults in the highest offices in this country aren’t doing the jobs we elected them to do?
What does it matter if we miss notes if the president of the United States of America can boastingly reject the Paris Agreement and then take the weekend to go golfing?
What does it matter what we get on our SATs if we can count on our fingers the number of generations that will be able to follow us in going to college?
We are here today because we have been told that our futures are a threat to the economy. That we are too young to understand. Because our politicians are too busy serving the private sector to be public servants.
Today we stand united, and we tell our elected officials that we will no longer be subject to their gas lighting. We are here to tell them that before the sea levels rise and wipe us out, that we will vote them out.
School Strike 4 Climate Austin event, March 15th
Please note – editorials and sponsored posts are written by guest writers to inform and educate the community on a variety of different viewpoints, as well as to share information about local eco-friendly businesses and organizations. However, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Austin EcoNetwork.
