Building Political Power

The Will Steger Foundation was a proud partner in the Forward on Climate rally held in Washington DC on Feb 2013. We sent four delegates from our YEA! MN high school program, including this blog’s author, with the unwavering belief that even youth too young to vote have a powerful role to play in the climate movement.

Ever since I had first heard Bill McKibben mention the event that would become the Forward on Climate Rally at his Do The Math tour stop in Minneapolis last November, it lingered in the back of my head as something I wanted to be a part of. An opportunity for tens of thousands of citizens with a common concern for the climate to come together in our nation’s capital doesn’t come along every day. And with a critical decision about the Keystone XL oil pipeline hanging in the balance, it was especially vital that people of all ages and backgrounds turn out to demonstrate their opposition in solidarity. Other young people I talked to also indicated restless wishes of attending the rally, which gave me the impression that Forward on Climate was something bigger that had the potential to be a truly significant, even historic, event. With this in mind, I was unbelievably excited to be given the opportunity to travel to Washington DC with Youth Environmental Activists Minnesota (YEA! MN - a program of the Will Steger Foundation), an experience that proved to be both challenging and inspiring in a number of vivid ways.

By now, hopefully you've heard about the environmental attacks coming from Virginia's state capitol this session. From Governor McDonnell's transportation bill aimed at deincentivizing more efficient cars like hybrid and electric vehicles, to the backroom deals between Dominion and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to kill clean energy in Virginia, we've got a lot to stand up for.

What do Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and the Koch Brothers have in common? Unfortunately for those of us who want wind and solar energy, more than we feared. A few days ago, Cuccinelli, a famous climate-denier, teamed up with Dominion Power, the biggest polluter in the state, to release a bill that would effectively kill the only broad clean energy law we have in Virginia. This back room deal isn't surprising, as Cuccinelli received a $50,000 campaign contribution from the Koch Brothers, and has ties to Koch Industries.

I've had a very hard road to get to where I am now, but I can see that what is coming ahead is even harder.

I grew up in a household of social and environmental activists, and I have to admit that I found it very difficult as a child. I was quiet and shy and my mother expected me to be up with her hoisting signs and shouting. She didn't understand why it was difficult for me, and it was her fondest wish that I would grow up to be an activist like her.
 

She wasn't a very nice person. In fact, I've described her as a 'brass-bound bitch' in the past.