Tomorrow is the schoolies' world climate strike.
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Shock jocks, politicians and social media immoderates will be out in force telling them to stick to their books and butt out of secret grownups business. Some will even hint at violence along the lines of "In my day, I'd have been given a whack for wagging school" or "If my kids did that, they'd be grounded".
I am saddened and often at a loss at the venom some people show towards young people who speak their minds and place themselves on the frontline of their causes. We see the same hostility to the youngsters who do the climate change school strikes and extinction rebellion, and those who marched for gun law reform in the USA.
And yet, their "elders and betters" have not done a very good job at managing things this century (or earlier for that matter).
In recent footage from Hong Kong airport, a middle-aged Australian couple who'd been held up by the young people taking their stand against an a cruel and authoritarian regime commented that they ought to "get a job". I used to hear that all the time when I'd march in demonstrations way back in the day - along with "get a haircut!". Strangely, we still get these comments today. Which says a lot about the intergenerational misanthropy of the naysayers - and their lack of vituperative imagination.
Meanwhile, a lot of the appeal of young US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the other young women of "The Squad", for example, and of teenage climate warrior Greta Thundberg is that they look young, fresh, fashionable, and indeed telegenic - in contrast to the often old, grumpy, sour-faced, overweight white men in suits and uniforms who disparage them, and who have not exactly covered themselves in political or economic glory.
Is it jealousy? Is it more a yearning for lost youth and innocence, passion and earnestness? A bitterness rooted in regret for the lost days when they themselves were, young and gorgeous, and like the great Walt Whitman "Afoot and light-hearted" they'd taken "to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose".
Young people want and should be given a say about their future. To quote The Who, who rose to fame long ago "talking 'bout my generation": "The kids are alright!"
In Bellingen, people are gathering in Maam Gaduying Park at 12.30pm. Students are hoping many, many adults will show solidarity by joining them.