Ordinary Hero: Abigail Borah, her COP 17 plea heard round the world

Screen shot of Abigail Borah speaking out at COP 17
Democracy Now! video

This week in Durban, South Africa, the United Nations concluded its seventeenth conference on climate change. Abigail Borah, a Middlebury College Student, flew to Copenhagen to attend the talks, along with many other youth concerned about their future.

Disturbed by the failure of the United States and other nations to address the immediacy of the situation, Abigail penned a short statement, stood up, and "with trembling hands," read it to the assembly.

2020 is too late to wait

The conference chair told her "No one is listening to you." Todd Stern, the United States delegate about to address the assembly waited with rather a condescending pose. (I want to believe he was secretly glad for her stand.) Abigail, an ordinary person who could not and would not be afforded an officially sanctioned microphone at these talks, persevered, determined to be heard. Here is her statement.

I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot. The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious, and legally binding treaty. You must take responsibility to act now, or you will threaten the lives of youth and the world's most vulnerable. You must set aside partisan politics and let science dictate decisions. You must pledge ambitious targets to lower emissions, not expectations. 2020 is too late to wait.

Why I stood up and spoke out

Despite the ultimate failure of the talks to take action now, it gives me some small ray of hope that the audience applauded Abigail as she was led from the hall.

Immediately after Abigail's impromptu speech, Todd Stern hastened to call a press conference, where he refuted Abigail's assertions regarding the US do-nothing approach.  In this Democracy Now! video titled, "I'm Scared For My Future": Student Disrupts Speech By US Climate Envoy Todd Stern in Durban" (7.3 minutes), watch and hear Abigail read her statement, followed by an excerpt from Stern's press conference.



It is important to note that one day following Stern's assertion that the United States was not standing in the way of a legally binding agreement, the State Department issued a statement saying otherwise.

You can read the whole story, in Abigail's eloquent words, here, in Why I stood up and spoke out.

Ordinary Heroes Award
© L Kathryn Grace

Abigail Borah, in speaking out as you did, you risked arrest, potentially putting your reputation and your future in jeopardy, yet you acted. Rather than become immobilized by fear, you used your fear to take a dramatic stand and to power your voice--a voice literally heard round the world.

For your courage, for your commitment to making change, for speaking for millions who feel as you do, for being one of the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands working to create a better world, a good world, you are an Ordinary Hero and my hero. I bow to you in deepest gratitude.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Ordinary Hero: Teen Emma Sullivan who stood up for her right to free speech

Image credit: Olivia Sullivan

Google "Emma Sullivan" and you'll get pages of articles on her story. She's the eighteen year old high school senior who sent an unflattering tweet about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback a couple of weeks ago.

According to Think Progress, Brownback's staff fired off a complaint to Sullivan's principal, who then ordered Sullivan to apologize to the governor. She refused.

The other day, in an email exchange, I asked Sullivan about her stand. My first question, how long did it take her to make such a potentially far-reaching decision? Here's what she said.

It took a couple of days, I at first was going to write it [the apology] because I didn't want to get in trouble, but with the support of others and my family, I realized that I didn't have to write it and that I shouldn't write things [that] are insincere.

Don't you love it? Imagine a world in which our politicians resisted the urge to make insincere apologies, or worse, lie about their activities and intentions. Where might we be today?

I also asked Sullivan her reasons for choosing not to write the apology and what consequences she feared. Again, in her own words:

I was hoping there would be no consequences because if the school would have punished me then the media would have made it an even bigger deal. I didn't want to write it because I don't feel like I did anything wrong and I strongly believe in my rights to tweet what I want. I also thought it would be a lose lose situation if I wrote the letter, the public would have scrutinized it, people would have told me I caved into the governor's pressure. When you agree to apologize because someone has asked you to, then you have lost the power of your words. 

Wisdom from the heart and mouth of one so young, I must repeat it.

When you agree to apologize because someone has asked you to,
then you have lost the power of your words.

It takes courage to stand your ground in the middle of a fray. So often we are told to "calm down," "back down," "let it go," "it's not that important." Emma Sullivan newly adult in age, still a teenager, understands the power of her words.

My last question to Emma was this: What advice would you give to others about censoring ourselves before writing what we see as the truth online? She wrote her response in a larger font and bold type.

If you want to say it then say it. Just stand by what you said, no matter what the wording is or what it is about. 

Ordinary Heroes Award
© L Kathryn Grace

Emma Sullivan, for speaking your truth and sticking to it when challenged, for holding our public officials accountable, for standing up for your Constitutional right to free speech, for caring enough to make a decision that potentially packed a lot of heat and being willing to take it, and for being unafraid to let your wisdom shine, you are my Ordinary Hero. I bow in gratitude and with hope for the future. With youth of your caliber coming up to replace us, we who have all too often felt we were tilting at windmills take heart.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.