Editor’s note: The following is Hillary Gordon’s testimony delivered to Indy’s City County-Council Public Works Committee on Feb. 9, 2017, to encourage adoption of a climate recovery resolution for the city of Indianapolis. The resolution passed the committee, unanimously; the resolution was adopted on Feb. 27, 20-4.
everyone knows what it’s like to value someone. be it your best friend, your sibling, or even your partner, you know what it’s like to enjoy someone’s presence. on the other hand, we all know the heaviness of silence when they’re gone.
today, we are asking you to listen because we are not comfortable with having to carry the weight of another catastrophe clicking around on a “global warming and extreme weather” page as if the effects are not of the world i’m living in
as if the chart that lists hurricanes with a column for the number of deaths is not going to expand
with those bodies having weight on our shoulders
notice that i forget they are people.
we’re turning ourselves into bodies
and we’re turning our ecosystems into corpses
and we’re turning the world into literally a hot mess
please understand that we are trying to make a baby step into a world that doesn’t get worse from here
the idea is to take enough small steps into making a large difference
to say that we are better than making these global effects worse
to take a step back and say that we don’t deserve to put this much weight on the next generations
to take a step forward and say we are willing to devote time and energy into something bigger than us
as children, this is our step
our feet are tiny
but our motivation is unbelievable
we are asking for you all to push us even further
we’re asking you to make a decision and take a chance
to make our words sound less like a long moment of silence for the world we won’t be able to live in
and more like a glimmer of hope