Dear Future President...

Dear Future President,

Congratulations! You are about to become a permanent figure in American history. Children in elementary schools will memorize your name in catchy songs, and read summarized paragraphs about the impact you had on the world while in office. You’ve got four, maybe eight years to do as much good as you can for these kids, so that their futures can actually be as bright as the ones we promised them. Now I know you’re very busy, what with inauguration and your first hundred days and decorating the Oval Office and all, but bear with me while I describe to you the nation these kids deserve.

In this nation, the air is crisp and clean. The water that runs from the tap is, too. Families have access to fresh, locally grown produce, and every community — regardless of income level — has access to transportation and parks with trees and space to play. Renewable energy has phased out fossil fuels in an equitable transition, and regenerative agriculture has reinvigorated the crop yield. In this nation, indigenous leaders pave the way to a better understanding of coexisting with the land, teaching adults and kids alike how to live healthily and respectfully. Classrooms are filled with drawings of favorite animals that live in abundance, and students learn about ecosystems that have regained balance. This nation leads the world in treating both its citizens and the earth upon which they stand fairly. This nation has resurrected the word hope through years of courage and hard work. This nation is just.

And then there’s our nation, today.

Our current nation is one where children of color are ten times more likely to die from asthma than white children because they’ve been brought up in areas designed in close proximity to refineries, coal plants and chemical factories. A nation that throws more money at war than communities that have not had drinkable water for the better part of a decade. A nation that opens some of the last remaining natural land to drilling for profit, while ignoring the cries of the most vulnerable, and where indigenous girls and women are more likely to be murdered than to graduate college. Our nation relies on plastic that is clogging our water ways, killing our marine sources of income and nutrition, and building up in our own bodies. When kids in our nation speak of their favorite animals, their speech is twinged with nostalgic sadness for a species decimated. Ours is a nation where elected officials debate the existence of a phenomenon that has already begun killing their constituents in front of them. Our nation is broken.

We the people need a lot of healing, in a lot of ways. But how can we heal our systems if we don’t have clean water to drink, food to eat, or air to breathe? And how can we move forward if our people are already dying from heat stroke, chemical poisoning, and preventable cancer? Now is the time to realize that every issue you’ve debated on that stage and addressed in your rallies relates back to the earth. Just like our rapidly decaying ecosystem, these problems are all interconnected.

We’ve got ten years before our impact on the planet becomes irreversible. In ten years, these kids will have just reached adulthood. They will have their whole lives either to look forward to, or to fear. Right now, young people already are forfeiting their own “American Dreams” to fight for their right to live healthily until old age—something that we have taken for granted in past generations. They have passions and ambitions of their own, derailed by a sickening realization that their adulthood will not be anything like they wrote in their yearbooks. Because what is the American dream if no one is alive to chase it?

What lies ahead of them rides on you. Climate change is the defining crisis of our generation. What a time to be alive. What a time to be in power! You have the opportunity to usher our nation into a just, equitable society that ensures each one of those elementary school kids will have something to look forward to. no pressure.

The beautiful thing is that you are not alone. The whole world is waiting for us to join them in this paradigm shift, and there are so many good, capable people developing solutions that they just can’t wait for you to see. There are already tons of communities that are way ahead of you in their investments in a sustainable future, but I’m sure they’d trade some of their knowledge for, you know, government support.

So, what will it be, ol prezzy ol pal? Will you stand with the future and allow your grandkids to live to see it? Or will you stand with the past, and watch every living creature becomes things of it? When those kids look you in the eye and ask what you are doing to fight for them, what will you say?