 This is a slam poem that I wrote called Metamorphosis of a Nation. America, land of the free, the new world, the revolution. Enjoying our youth for over 200 years, we are stuck in perpetual motion, building factories, roads, bridges, connections, leaving in our wake fractured habitats and polluted waters. America, land of the free, where everyone has a voice. Five amendments to our Constitution about voting. Our politicians are still guided by money over ballots. Corporations pull the strings and pull another natural wonder out of our world. Dump waste into another wetland, corner another species into extinction. Our country was born out of an expanse of wilderness. We are another civilization carpeting the land of the mother we have neglected. We have carved through her figure with construction sites, drilled deep to pull fuel from the depths of the soil, studded the landscape with power lines, flushed the water with the byproducts of our creations, sparked fires and unleashed storms and droughts. We have changed her climate with our reckless emissions, but our mother still supports us. Our eyes are open now to the pain we have caused in every stride forward. We are making different trails now, step by step across these green hills we are marching for her. This is the voice of the children and we demand justice. We insist on innovation. We have seen a future where the waters run out, our descendants will be ghosts of our prominence and we refuse to accept the excuse of our own short timelines. It is never too late to choose action. Every single one of you is critical to systematic change, to fight the choices of our nation's past. America, land of the free, come stand with me. Each one of you is here because you believe in a movement greater than yourself. Each one of you is here despite and because of your individual stories. Each one of you is here, a collection of young pioneers. We are reshaping an entire culture. Our lives will not be built around stuff. They will be constructed with conscience for the mother we share. America, land of the free, the new world, the revolution, here today in all of us. Oh wow, that was awesome. Okay, so next we have another student from CDU. Her name is Julia Grant, so if you could give her a welcome. I'd like to start by thanking you all for showing up today. It's because of people like all of you that change can and will occur. After all, we are inhabitants of a planet that survives because of its ability to adapt. We can see examples of this in our seasons, the most basic form of change. When the once green leaves adorning the trees around us turn various shades of red, orange, yellow, and eventually brown. When the same trees grow and shed their leaves to welcome a new season, this seems to be merely a fact, but when we look deeper within this normalcy, it is here we can learn that change is expected and necessary. Growth is vital to our well-being. We are surrounded by lessons like these that are embedded in nature every single day, yet few take the time to recognize them. We continually fail to listen to the voice of nature even though it has already taught us so much. If people would only listen to the signs surrounding us, more would know that currently we are facing one of the largest environmental crises this planet has ever seen. And 97% of climate scientists agreed is our fault. Our greed, our need for more, our thirst for bigger and better technology, and an abundance of disposable resources. There are still people who have chosen to ignore its existence altogether and refuse to accept the harsh reality of this problem. But how can one deny the authenticity of climate change and environmental damage when it is agreed upon by our most trustworthy scientific sources? According to NASA, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%. As told by National Geographic, the number of climate-related disasters has more than tripled since 1980, and 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris litter our precious oceans. 5.25 trillion. We cannot keep pretending this isn't a problem. As said by English author Robert Swan, the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. I hope that all of us can learn to take responsibility for our part in environmental relief efforts. We need to be the voice for the silent. I challenge all of you to think about the choices you make every day and to speak loudly about the things that matter most to you. We need to teach the place that has taught us so much that we can take care of it. And it starts with you. Thank you. Alright, nice job, Emma. So... Alright, now we're going to have Emma and Nadia from Montpelier High School. And they're going to do another speech, so... At Montpelier High School. People can make a difference in societies around the globe. Gun legislation. The persistence and impassioned dedication of Vermont youth to the gun safety debate made Governor Scott dance on gun safety. Inspired the Vermont legislature to enact three gun safety bills which were signed into law just yesterday by Governor Phil Scott on these... There's to change gun legislation and... Be the change you wish to see in the world. Justice for this planet starts from the ground up. Change we wish to see. Change for the planet starts with you. It begins with each of us. It begins with the decision to care. To care about the earth. About the global community. Safety and the future of the planet. We... Students and the next generation of leaders to hold those in positions of power responsible for their lack of action in dealing with climate change. We politicians, musicians and explorers of the future. And our children and their children and the next seven generations and more will... In which our leaders are not politically passive. We expect our leaders not to pander to big oil and other polluting industries. This future is attainable and it is not just our opportunity to fight for the future that we desire but it is our responsibility to ensure that future generations never endure the struggle for clean water, clean air and resources that are vital to our sustainability as humans. It is attainable because our generation is full of young people in pioneering new technology that allows for more sustainable ways of living. We are leaders that recognize that we must all make change in our every mental policy change in order to combat this environmental crisis. Recognize the destruction of the environment directly contributes to the destruction of human rights. Most importantly, we are leaders that... Something so massive as climate change can seem to be a daunting, almost impossible task collective reservation or anything in between. If you don't know where to begin but you want to be involved continue to seek opportunities like this one. Join students by testifying for carbon pricing plans clean water and clean air policies. It is not just our desire to protect and defend the environment on which we depend, it is our vital necessity. And we can do this! And Alyssa from Randolph, so let's give them a round of applause. Alright, we're both seniors at Randolph. Okay, so we just had like a very quick speech that we wanted to give you about what we feel is the most powerful thing involved in activism and how we can all kind of take hold of that and use it powerfully today. So, earlier this year our school participated in the nationwide walkout in protest of school violence. How many of you were involved in that movement? Students were part of organizing that. We found while planning that our community, small though it may be, reflects our country right now. Division. Everyone has a different idea about how to solve the issue of school violence. So we kept the walkout free of politics and instead made the focus safety and solidarity. We wanted to emphasize that the purpose of the walkout was to unify the conversation in our school. And we were amazed by the diversity of opinion that showed up when we advertised it that way. The reason we wanted to emphasize unity was because we feel that productivity is halted by division. When we unified and had a diverse range of opinions represented at our walkout, then we were able to have open conversations with each other. Moving forward, this has been invaluable in our efforts in creating a safe school community. The same goes for enacting climate justice. If we want to make true and effective change, it's necessary to listen to each other, to educate each other, and to encourage and collaborate with each other. This rally exactly reflects that. And you're all here, which is amazing. Vermont's pretty tiny, but we've got such a range of opinions and especially youth voice is super, super important. So let's take advantage of that and set the example for our lawmakers and talk with people who have different opinions today. And if you look around and you don't find anybody with radically different ideas, find them when you go home or tomorrow at school. Start a dialogue. When you're talking to people who might have a different idea about the causes or even existence of climate change, let's not immediately dismiss what they're saying. It's wild how easy it is to say but how ineffective it is to be like, no, you're wrong, even if you like really, really feel that. You should listen to them fully and in a respectful way and try to understand why they feel the way that they do. Learning to respect the opinions of others is one of the first things we are taught in school, but it feels like our country is lacking in that area right now. And it's because of this divide that we are not progressing. Let's show them how it's done. Let's engage with each other and work to understand everyone's needs so that we can accomplish effective change. Thank you very much. That was amazing. Up next, we have Ori and Anna from Harwood. That ends us that our government, both local and federal, are taking baby steps towards putting an end to climate change. With Trump in office, we've taken steps backwards, pulling out of the Paris Agreement, taking away policies set in place under the Obama administration to protect our futures. Even in Vermont, very little is getting done when it comes to climate change policy. There were only three bills related to climate change in this year's legislator. Leisure. Three bills. We are one of the most progressive states in the country, and yet we are not paving the way for a cleaner future. This is why we rally. We are sick and tired of watching the grown-ups in the room mess with our lives and our planet. Climate change is intertwined with so many issues. It sometimes astounds me when someone says it's not a problem, or that they know it's real, but there are other issues at hand, or even worse, saying it's too late to make a change. Climate change impacts us here in the U.S. with fluctuation in weather patterns, but communities around the world are often affected much worse. Here in the U.S., we have recently seen extreme heat waves, heavy downpours and flooding that destroys human infrastructure as well as the land. While these are devastating towards our country, we are overall a nation that has the money and the infrastructure to help these people in need. Developing countries around the world will be hit the hardest because they do not have the resources to address these impacts. Wouldn't we rather be known as the country who created a better future for everyone than the country who stood by while the world around it crumbled? The United Nations is warning that we are now on a course of such significant effects of global warming that it will ultimately redraw the map of the world. The truth is, in Vermont, our safe haven, we will be affected by climate change, but other places that are on the world will be hit even harder. People who are living in poverty don't release as many emissions as people in our country, and yet they will be affected the most by it. That doesn't seem fair. When places more vulnerable like Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Florida get destroyed from mass hurricanes, we send our condolences and try to get a plane ticket refund. We could go on and on with places around the world that are being greatly affected. The Amazon, which provides a habitat for many species, is in a source of carbon sequestration being cut down. The polar ice caps that are melting at an alarming rate and making sea levels rise. Alps, which are suffering from increasing temperatures. Venice, a historical site is drowning. The Great Barrier Reef, which is suffering from coral bleaching. The Maldives is at risk of completely sinking. And even our Florida Keys are at risk of going under. What will affect us here in our home, we will feel temperatures increase and more drastic weather events. We all remember Irene and how it affected our lives and our communities. Do we really want to go through another devastation like that? Our ski industry will be hit in our maple industry. We have to remember that we may not be as hit as hard as other places, more vulnerable regions around the world, but we need to stand in solidarity with those communities that are being affected by climate change and it's everyone's fight. We are so proud of everyone who came today and it shows you care and it shows the strength of the youth and the impact we can make. When the Parkland students came together and united the youth of America, it showed just how powerful we really are. We are fed up and we are angry at the mistreatment of our planet. We are starting a movement here in Vermont and we must make ourselves heard until something changes. Not only here, but across the globe. This is our future. This is the future for us as youth and for our children and generations to come. Keep doing what you came here for. Challenge our politicians and our leaders. Most of us cannot vote, but we can lobby and we can rally and we can organize. So never, please, never lose your passion for climate justice because we can make a difference in the world. Up next we have Eric from U32. So I wrote this last night and I lost some sleep to it, but I felt like I had something important to say. What we need is a little bit of justice for Mother Earth. For too long have we ignored the suffering of ourselves whoever that may be while ignoring the suffering of the rest of the people on what you could call the being of this planet. What has been forgotten is the wisdom of our mother and ourselves. We must remember that we are one with the mother each other and ourselves causing a hurt to the whole planet and all the various beings found here. I will proceed to ask a series of questions for all of us to ponder together throughout my expression of how suffering affects our great mother. Blacks were stolen from Africa. I refuse to use the phrase African American until the rest of our language properly reflects this history meaning that white people would be called European Americans. I will not stand for the forgetting of the story of history, a history that remembers how this land was stolen by imperialism, a ground purified by native blood we walk on than as our foundation of our economy we stole immigrants from Africa. Europeans are but immigrants as well. These stolen people had been subjected to numerous injustices by the degree of murder by slaveholders. Not a single time has there been justice or accountability to the murder of this slave. When this authoritarianism is risen up against there has been full justification of the white assaulting party murdering when a hand is raised in self-defense. Slavery has morphed into the new Jim Crow and mass incarceration. Only now the privatized prisons are the slave owners. The black skin in our society is still a justification for death. So what is the answer to solve the issue of race? In addition to this what is the answer to the Kurdish question? Kurdistan is an area of 450,000 square kilometers found in the fertile crescent of the Middle East. The Middle East as educated peoples know is dominated by numerous conflicts. This is also true of the Kurdish question to the most complex and bloody fields of conflict in the Middle East that still awaits a solution. These Kurdish peoples have been fighting authoritarian colonization or conquest by foreign powers since time in memorial. The question of peace in Kurdistan did not come out of the blue. It is a product of the long historical process. Not in our name should our government bomb innocent civilians, kill children and provide funding or weaponry for the annihilation of families on foreign soil and we must always ponder a solution to the raping of our mother in society. An answer to this product of separation that has been maintained through authoritarianism coming from an unbalance and polarity. How can we change this current patriarchal system? This systematic system this systematic slavery first started when we created the concept of the state 5000 years ago. First examples of patriarchal systems are found in the first civilization, Sumeria. There is endless examples of how this system manifests sexism across the world. No longer will I dance with the devil. We must hear loud and clear the cry of the Mitsu movement. No longer can powerful men get away with harassment, assault and rape. Men themselves are also suffering in the patriarchal or authoritarian world society. As Hayward Burns would say quote, ours is a government of men, not laws. It has been that way from the beginning. In fact, it is not even a government of men, it is a government of some men. It has always been those who have been excluded from the decisions that intimately affect their lives the poor, the non-white women. This results in a game of power that exists of men over men. End quote. Privilege does not make one happy because happiness is a completely connected to a mental reality or psychological process. People are suffering in third world countries and people are also suffering greatly in first world countries. This is clear when you realize that for every 100,000 people roughly 13 commit suicide annually in the US. Also let's not forget the deaths of mass shootings and drug use like that of opioids. Our language reflects our culture and our culture reflects our language. The illusion of separation is very prevalent in English and every other Latin derived language. Consequence being our current relationship with Mother Earth who is really us because no matter how many labels our language believes there are there is no separation. We are the youth waking up and we can be an expression of what Abdul Oklan, the leader of the Kurdish movement states as his vision for a liberating change how quote what has been constructed by the human hand can be demolished by the human hand and quote we are the next generation and sincerely the last hope before in my opinion humans continue on their dystopian path of patriarchal authoritarianism and the enforcement of this repeating cycle of ever increasing suffering that the whole biosphere of the planet can feel a suffering that can lead to death and extinction we are the peoples of Mother Earth and our lifestyle is intimately influential on the whole planet as intelligent bacteria we must be careful and not forget this relationship how can we solve all of these issues and remember history I apologize but I don't have these answers to these questions but I sure as hell would like to find the answers and I ask for your help if you also see humanity crossing a line with climate change then we must all unite to have a conversation so we can collectively learn and come up with a solution thank you Up next we have one of our first keynote speakers Elizabeth come on up Hi everybody, my name is Elizabeth Morris I'm a little older than a few of you I'm 23 years old and I'm here to speak as a young person who works in politics I'm a member of HRS and Peter Balchist staff and I just want to say that at first hand seeing the impact that youth activism can have on politicians especially in Vermont the youth rallies, the phone calls and emails do matter and he hears every single one of you so I want to say that absolutely can our voices matter so let's keep fighting to keep our voices heard, contact your local legislators, contact Congressman Welch speak up it's absolutely unbelievable that President Trump and some congressional members have ignored overwhelming scientific evidence supporting climate change seems that every month the new administration has got another environmental protection and is moving our nation backwards and in doing so, they're also stifling the economy the solar industry provides over 17,000 jobs in Vermont, those are your jobs you'll be graduating soon and those are things that you might want to pursue and yet Trump stops terrifying them so like I said as a young person who works in politics, keep it up thank you you all are rocking it I'm so honored to be here to have been a part of this event this is my third year coming to Youth Lobby Day I've met amazing students this is one of my favorite things to do so thanks so much for having me to close this out today so I'm an organizer for an organization called Rights and Democracy we're a multi-issue organization that works on issues of justice hearing on the state of Vermont we're currently working on a $15 minimum wage bill up in the state house yeah because people here in Vermont are living in poverty a few months ago I met a woman at an event who told me the story of her family climate refugees from Hurricane Katrina who had resettled in Houston like many others who had been impacted by the storm this year they lost their home once again in Hurricane Harvey they now face the prospect of rebuilding their lives for the second time I carry their story with me it repeats over and over again in the narrative of climate change and climate justice even now though I have been uplifted by the tremendous stories of neighbors and friends and clergy members and ordinary people who have come out who have shown up just like you have done today stories of business owners direct service providers and organizations that are giving food and housing and rescue it is in this deep lesson that I take away that when the going gets tough it's your community that gets going convinced that the most important work that we can be doing right now in the face of climate change and the changing world in general is growing and fostering the resilience of our communities that means better infrastructure for renewable energy electric buses for our schools smart economic solutions towards carbon and putting a stop to all fossil fuel infrastructure in our state it also means we have to work together we need to recognize the power of our collective actions and we need to be questioning questioning the status quo the business as usual practices that got us here in the first place we need to work towards an energy system that is both democratized and decentralized create economies rooted in solidarity not profit collectivism not capitalism in our organizing now we have to make sure we're practicing how to feed people distribute resources make decisions and create a government that works for people in equity I am so convinced that it is you guys here in this crowd today the youth who are singularly able to build a new world in the shell of the old I tell you this now I believe that we are not going to make this world better solely by passing progressive policy after progressive policy it is not how we are going to fix racism dismantle patriarchy or heal one another it's going to happen one handshake and hard conversation at a time it means that as our communities are threatened or under attack we are going to have to address human rights movement generation and Oakland based people of color led organization says this the transition is inevitable justice is not that means that in this world that we all participate in we need to do the work to address cultural oppression of people of color of women of the poor it means building relationships now as opposed to when the hurricane hits if we are ever going to survive the effects of climate change we are going to need to be building vast overlapping networks of justice this is why we need to fight back we need to fight back against a world that is bootstrapping us into thinking we function as individuals and not as friends instead we need to remember that we are only as good as the people who will stand up with us instead we can recognize that this is a deeply relational movement that we are building we need to understand and deepen our understanding about how social ills are connected and socially constructed more importantly how our own compliance our own consent tips the scales from democracy to fascism and we need to do everything this is it we need to do everything we need we need to run for office we need to shut down pipelines we need to party together and to play and keep building those relationships we need to address inequality and oppression I am very hopeful for the leader full movement I see in front of me and for the work that we are all doing together yeah you guys are going to keep doing this work I know that, forever, everyday somebody said earlier today who was speaking earlier Eric he clutched his chest and was like I am going to be doing this for the rest of my life I am excited to grow in the practice of resistance with you all I look forward to reimagining and re-envisioning with you to put it really simply together we win