Every time I see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's name on the news I want to get up and giving her a standing ovation. No like literally, sometimes I have to stop myself from clapping at my TV or computer cause I realize she can't see or hear me.
There's a long list of reasons why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is incredible, but let's just start off by how she made history by becoming the youngest woman to be elected in the US House of Representatives. She is vocal. She is passionate. She is empathetic. She demands that her voice is heard in issues that matter. And she is powerful.
With stereotypes that circulate when it comes to politics, like "Oh, she's too young and naive" or "Oh, she's just a girl, what does she know" or "Oh, her views are too liberal" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has proven her adversaries wrong.
She has never been afraid to unapologetically speak her mind and express her concerns. She refuses to let stereotypes silence her or her views and instead insistently and passionately voices her beliefs.
In a two minute video, where AOC eloquently and passionately voices her concern on the day that the Senate rejected the "Green New Deal" I literally caught myself hyping her up through my laptop screen. Each second of the video is incredibly spot on and captures the urgency and concern that we should all feel when discussing climate change and the detrimental impact it is currently having and is going to have on the generations below us.
"When we talk about the concern for the environment as an elitist concern, one year ago I was waitressing in a taco shop in downtown Manhattan. I just got health insurance for the first time a month ago. This is not an elitist issue. This is a quality of life issue. You want to tell people that their concern and their desire for clean air and clean water is elitist? Tell that to the kids in the South Bronx which are suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Tell that to the families in Flint whose kids, their blood is ascending in lead levels, their brains are damaged for the rest of their lives. Call them elitist. You're telling them that those kids are trying to get on a plane to Davos? People are dying!"— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
With her words, she is able to draw a picture and evoke emotion towards these real-life scenarios. There are people suffering from the negligence of politicians and the negligence we have as a nation when it comes to climate change. Her stories and concerns are authentic and the examples she makes people angry and upset and strive for change.
There are children suffering in places like New York and Flint, Michigan because of the lack of clean air and clean water — things that we should all consider human necessities and dangers that the government should be concerned with.
We all live on the same Earth and should be working together to protect it.
Only 29 years old, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is making a difference because she is vocal, passionate and unafraid to speak her mind.
Like she said herself, "Change takes courage."
And she is striving for positive and necessary change, the same way we all should.
