THIS is What Democracy Looks Like

In my last blog post after Copenhagen, I declared my commitment to this movement.  Shortly afterward, I starting brainstorming with a few people I met in Copenhagen, and we decided that what this country needs to pass progressive climate legislation is a massive groundswell of support targeted directly at our elected officials.  For the past month, we have been developing a campaign to do just that.  Below is our first blog post on the U.S. youth climate movement's community blog:

Crossposted from IGHIH

Written by Moey Newbold, Kalen Pruss, Rob Friedman and Blaine O’Neill

“Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!”

As we’ve fought for our clean energy future, we’ve passionately chanted these words again and again, asserting that citizen action is what truly drives political change.   With the growth of our movement, we’ve all engaged in amazing citizen actions, pressuring our elected officials to solve the climate crisis in every way we know how.

Despite our continued efforts, Copenhagen was a flop, and our elected officials are falling victim to big oil and big coal.  We can’t afford to watch this happen.  It is time for us to ramp up the action.  We need to take democracy back.

After witnessing the devastating effects of U.S. inaction in Copenhagen, we created the Show Me Democracy campaign.  We aim to pull our generation together to demand that the United States step it up dramatically before the next major international climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico this December.  But this time, we are going to do more than just send emails and write petitions.  We are going to consistently engage our elected representatives, storming Senate field offices across the country with a simple, united message: take immediate action to halt global warming at home… and then go to Mexico in December with a serious plan for an international climate change agreement.

We recognize that policy decisions are heavily influenced by industry lobbyists who will do anything to kill a domestic climate bill.  They have billions of dollars at their disposal and thousands of professional lobbyists who descend on Washington every day to make back-door deals that put our future in jeopardy.  But we have something stronger.  We have an army of young people who know that this fight is about our future; we know that there are millions of Americans who need clean energy jobs, and millions more who want to pass on a better world to their children and grandchildren.

This spring, we are going to mobilize this army, building teams across the country to lead sustained, localized campaigns in support of domestic climate change legislation. Show Me Democracy will empower these teams to form community partnerships that bring local clean energy initiatives, agriculture, business, manufacturing, and religious groups together with climate activist networks already on the ground to demand a clean energy future. We’re going to take these diverse voices to our Senators’ offices–and we’re going to keep going back until our Senators listen, and pass an effective, equitable climate bill.  After all, we elected them to do just that.

Show Me Democracy is not just a campaign; it is a call to action. And we’re beginning this call tomorrow, January 27th, at 8:00 p.m. EST. Join us as we launch our campaign; dial in to participate in our first nationwide conference call; and then get involved to help us take democracy back.

By inspiring our generation to unite and engage in our democracy, we will pass climate legislation that cuts carbon dramatically and immediately, creates a robust green economy, powers our future with renewable energy, and leads the world to a clean and equitable future.  But we need your help! Dial in, log on, and sign up.

Love,

The Show Me Democracy Team

Show Me Democracy Kick-off Call

Wednesday, January 27th, 8:00 PM EST (5:00 PM PST)

Call in number: (517) 417-5200

Secret passcode: 517935

Facebook Event

Visit www.showmedemocracy.com for more information.