Kids are smart. We were kids. We were smart. Right?
“Smart” doesn’t mean quoting what someone else wrote or finding our way to Tahlequah. Smart means thinking on our feet, making sensitive, sensible decisions, and understanding well enough to explain.
Smart means understanding that when our air, land and water are not well, neither are we. Smart is providing our knowledge so life is whopping great for the next 25 generations, about 500 years.
In 2014, New Zealand granted legal personhood to a forest. In 2017, they did the same for a river. That means any assault on that forest or river is illegal and punishable.
In this country, we anoint corporations with personhood, making it easier for them to be protected by the government while having casual access to capital. Corporations insist they are good for humanity because they provide jobs and retirement plans. They are not required to be ethical.
Drilling for oil on public lands in the Alaskan Arctic is not smart, it’s hostile and invasive and yesterday’s thinking.
Kids know this. They told us.
Why don’t presidents know this?
Pic by yellowblade67 via creativecommons.org