When scrolling through the news this morning, I happened upon a rather infuriating video. This video showed a meeting between students of the Sunrise Movement where the kids, teens and parents were all pleading with Senator Feinstein for her to vote yes on the Green New Deal by firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Ocasio-Cortez plans to tackle climate change by starting several government programs dedicated towards clean energy, by establishing jobs and infrastructure as well as revamping the energy sector and our entire economy. The Green New Deal aims to decrease and ideally stop our huge reliance on carbon to stop the downwards plummet we have been on.
It is not the only plan currently available to comprehensively combat climate change, but it is the only one feasibly able to hit key milestones in protecting our environment if fully funded.
One of the main issues Feinstein has with the Green New Deal is the supposed cost.
At the current moment, there are no solid estimates as to how much the Green New Deal will cost. However, whatever the cost may be, we need to enact these changes in order to save the environment, our future.
What I ask Senator Feinstein is, why did you agree to allocate $670 billion (read: $670,000,000,000) in defense spending? If we supposedly don't have the money to save the earth we walk on? In that case, then we certainly do not have enough money to feed our already extremely bloated and gassy military budget.
No one ever asks where we get the money to pay for our military, even though it is larger than the next 14 biggest countries' military budgets combined.
No one ever asks where we get the money to pay for the arms deals we make with Saudi Arabia that go directly to the bombing and resources deprivation of women, children and innocent civilians in Yemen.
No one ever asks where we get the money to pay for our eight (yes eight) different current military conflicts, to not even mention the 800 military outposts we have on a global scale or the shadow war currently being fought in Africa.
As the nation with the biggest and most expensive military to ever exist on this Earth, we have the money to fund a Green New Deal in order to simply not kill this Earth. If we can afford to starve our education budget and to dehydrate our health care system, then we can afford to allocate the needed funds towards not being a complete detriment to the planet.
Senator Feinstein has voted to give funds to our military en masse so we can kill (largely) innocent brown people overseas.
We have absolutely no choice but to save the planet and sustain the environment. It absolutely should work where we, as the richest nation currently existing and to have ever existed, can do our part to save Earth. If the European Union can invest $1 trillion over the next seven years in climate change prevention, then we as the supposed top nation, as the supposed best nation, should follow suit and heavily invest into our planet's longevity.
Feinstein repeatedly in broken record fashion deferred any complaints about her lack of action to her own proposal, allegedly more likely to pass presumably because it would be able to convince Republicans.
Any version of the Green New Deal that waters it down means it's far too little, far too late. We need drastic change, and we need it now before we reach a point of no return where nothing can restore our dying (see: humans murdering via suffocation) planet. Because Feinstein knows that as of right now the Green New Deal has no Republican backing, she refuses to take a bold stance in supporting this impactful legislation.
In the face of our planet rapidly descending in a downward spiral towards apocalypse, the very last thing we need at the current moment is for supposed "Democrats" to be watering bills down to make them more agreeable to Republicans, of which are beholden to their big fossil fuel companies and their climate change-denier president.
We need radical change. We needed it 200 years ago.
As the young generation of this great nation, we are going to vet candidates (yes, even incumbents such as yourself) who refuse to take a solid, definitive and meaningful stance on climate change. If you do not vote for this bill, rest assured you will not have a seat in your next election, and you will be usurped by another Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-esque candidate.
The only current right foot is to take drastic leaps towards correcting our course in terms of influencing climate change.
We, as Americans, create the second most carbon emissions right behind China who, as you might recall, has over a billion people. This means per capita, we produce the most carbon emissions in the world. The right foot is to put a halt and immediate reversal of this current rabbit hole we have been diving into headfirst since the Industrial Revolution.
Senator Feinstein is just as (if not more harmful) than climate change deniers because she thinks that she can get away with advocating for minimal change and still thinks she is on "the right foot." As a supposed Democrat, she needs to vote for this Democratic issue-oriented bill.
It should also not matter the age of the people that she spoke to. She should look out for the interests of not only those who voted for her but also of the ones who can't yet vote as well as those who chose not to. Yes, I know, it's a foreign concept to everyone to think that politicians should be advocating for those who voted against.
She should be aiming to protect the interests of each and every Californian.
Additionally, do you realize what is upon us? Election season!
I'm not sure the exact age of the 16-year-old you spoke to, Senator, but I know that as a fellow 16-year-old, I have the privilege of being old enough to vote in 2020!
Climate change is perhaps one of if not the biggest issue we have on our plates, since it literally affects our ability to live down the line. Feinstein should be very concerned about the disillusionment of youth, as some see people like her and are driven away from the party or heavens forbid, are apathetic towards politics altogether.
Their way, our way, your constituents' way, should be your way.
Feinstein, as an elected official, says that she won't respond to the pleas of future voters and current voters. This is the least Democratic thing I have seen, and I say this while we are currently under a Trump presidency.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, you are a loathsome human being to look at several young faces concerned with the ever looming thoughts of their distant futures and tell them that they are being selfish for simply wanting their planet to not be killed by the likes of you.
You should be ashamed.
Go look yourself in the mirror and face the despicable dictator-demeanor "Senator" you have become, you disgraceful public elected official. The absolute only restitution you could give your Californians and future voters across the nation is to vote yes on the Green New Deal.
If you are as enraged by this situation as I am, then you can email the Senator, call her local offices and call her DC office to make your voice heard. Alternatively you can Tweet her or see her Facebook page.
