Presidential advisor Stephen Miller thinks all the “elderly hippies” out protesting should go home and take a nap. We have news for him.
The world that Miller wants to make isn’t the legacy we elders want to leave. Instead, we will protest and organize and campaign with all the strength and wisdom we can muster – and that’s a lot!
Miller had better lament our pouring into the streets. Most of us weren’t actually hippies. But we weren’t born yesterday and we know to follow the money. We have wisdom accumulated from decades of participation in our democracy, experience honed in major leadership jobs, and rage triggered by the self-aggrandizing greed, racism and misogyny of this moment. Yes, we are a threat.
Trump is doing us a favor. He’s giving us an opportunity to create a whole new democracy – one built on empathy, justice, mercy and empowerment. One that values diversity, and builds economic as well as political democracy. One that values immigrants and people of all stations of life. One that refuses to exploit the Earth and its resources and turns instead to renewable sources of energy that can be harnessed instead of burned.
We in Third Act CT are a movement of Connecticut elders standing up for democracy and for effective and strategic engagement with climate issues. We stand irrefutably against the oligarchic autocracy now under construction. We are elders, yes, but elders who have a vision of a different nation and a different world. We are protesters, yes, but we are also people of hope. We don’t just protest. We also build the future through our movement, our leadership and our example – for instance, Sun Day CT, to be held on Sunday, September 21 from 12 noon to 4 p.m. at Central CT State University in New Britain. On that day, we invite all Connecticut peoplke to join us for a free Festival of the Sun – setting the pace for the future of our state together.
The sun, after all, shines on all of us. It offers its energy, its light and its power to everyone regardless of status. From its power comes wind and other thermal gradient sources – and we are already harnessing it without depleting it! Over 102,000 solar installations grace Connecticut now. Imagine a future in which giant utilities don’t control your access to electricity and heat! If there were ever a non-oligarchic source of energy, it’s the sun.
Yes, Miller, we “elderly hippies” have designs on the future – a completely different future than the one you are attempting to engineer. We call on our fellow Connecticut residents to join us in creating that new future, and hope you’ll start by joining us for Sun Day with great music, an environmental magician, gifted speakers, and a ton of activities for all ages – to learn about and support Connecticut’s move to full renewable energy as fast as possible.
In the face of Miller and his henchmen who are trying to avert that future, we “elderly hippies,” joined with millions of others, are not going home. We are going to campaign, protest, organize and build hope anew across our state and our country.
Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree is a member of Third Act CT and co-leader with Lynn Stoddard of Sun Day Connecticut.