"Hope is telling the truth"

On Greta Thunberg, old men, and not accommodating selfishness

Did you watch Greta Thunberg’s speech at the Youth4Climate conference? Bea and I think she’s magnificent:

We love that she gave her keynote address wearing a T-shirt with a hoodie tied around her waist. We love that she calls out world leaders’ hollow promises with “blah blah blah.” (I enticed Bea to watch with me by asking her if she wants to see a young person telling adults “blah blah blah”).

This Times of India article is an interesting look at the ages of elected leaders around the globe—the average age of world leaders is 62. If you scroll down, there’s a map of the G20 nations that shows the difference between the average age of citizens and the age of the current leader (Biden is incorrectly labeled at 68—he’s 78, making him 40 years older than the average American). Fewer than 15% of world leaders are women. These are the world leaders Thunberg is blasting, the ones who have not listened. The ones who will be dead when the &%@# hits the fan.

I appreciate that Thunberg, who begins her speech in mockery, still tells us she has hope:

We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible. We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah, blah, blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people.

I don’t know how much hope I have, but I agree that it can only come from telling the truth, and acting on that truth.

I’m struck by how little we’re doing for young people, what few accommodations we’re making for their safety and futures. My hope deficit comes from watching the way American adults making absolutely wrong choices about Covid-19 are being accommodated—allowed to skirt vaccine mandates, to “make their choices,” to keep their vaccination status private (while bars and music venues easily and responsibly ask people to show cards).

And, increasingly, people are allowed to go maskless indoors, even though we have high transmission rates and no vaccine for kids under 12. I saw it today at the Lowes grocery store in Chatham Crossing—several people not wearing masks. I brightly said, as I occasionally must at school, “excuse me, you forgot your mask!” which quickly turned into arguments. One guy made the wanking off gesture at me, another said you’re wrong you’re wrong you’re wrong you’re not my mother (yes, the unmasked men of Chatham have issues.) Some other guy yelled “enough!” to me and the guy whose mother I am not, because clearly what the situation called for was more male energy. (Okay, I may or may not have yelled, “grow your own food if you don’t want to wear a mask!”) And, even after I explained that I had unvaccinated kids at home, the manager apologized to the maskless dude.

Anyway. Wearing a mask is not hard. It’s a lot easier to than giving up meat (although I also think this isn’t hard) or phasing out fossil fuel consumption. And yet, the people in charge are afraid to offend the most selfish people. For the same reasons as our world leaders. Money.

I came home and wrote a letter to Lowes, and then adapted a general one that you can send, if you like, whenever you find a business not enforcing mask guidelines—or laws, if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with a mandate. (Chatham has no mask mandate but “recommends” masks indoors—a lot of businesses try to have it both ways by “requesting” that customers wear masks, then doing nothing.)

Hello,

I am writing as a loyal customer of _______ for ___ years. I love your ____________ and appreciate how hard your employees work to serve the community.

I noticed on a recent visit, however, that your store is not enforcing the mask policy clearly marked on the door. I counted ___ unmasked customers, and found it difficult to shop while trying to avoid them.

The CDC recommends the following:

To reduce the risk of being infected with the Delta variant and possibly spreading it to others, wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission.

Our community’s current transmission is high. There are ____ elementary schools within five miles of your school, and the children at those schools are too young to get vaccines. Some parents have to take their kids with them when they shop, and your store is currently not a safe place for them. I hope you consider it a community responsibility to protect these kids, and to reduce the transmission of Covid-19 in our community and among your employees.

Responsible businesses like ________ are enforcing their mask rules. How do you plan to address this important safety concern? If your plan is simply a sign that people are free to ignore, I will take my business to ______________.

Sincerely,

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being held captive by the fear of offending people with bad intentions and ideas in the first place. It reminds me of the Bush administration, how after 9/11 you weren’t allowed to criticize the president or his warmongering. (And where did that get us?)

In other news, the woods are full of mushrooms. None edible that we have found (so far), but one of my students found a type called shrimp of the woods that she cooked in a coconut curry. We’re going to look today.