EAI: Are you ready for the ‘Climate Strike and Week of Action’?

Editor’s note: From the Ethan Allen Institute newsletter

The week of September 20-27 has been designated by a handful of activist and lobbyist groups as a “Global Climate Strike and Week of Actions.” The objective is to encourage people to skip work and, for students, to skip school, go out and block traffic, picket offices and businesses, and generally disrupt people’s ability to function in their daily lives. It is a massive temper tantrum orchestrated to intimidate legislators and citizens into supporting a radical climate change agenda that nobody really supports.

While we fully respect every citizen’s right to speak out, peaceably assemble, and petition government for redress of grievances, this thing (for lack of an adequately descriptive term) raises some questions.

Bruce Parker/TNR

Climate warriors are expected to flood the streets during the Global Climate Strike.

First and foremost, many public schools are actively encouraging and enabling students to participate, even though similar but smaller demonstrations at the Strolling of the Heifers parade and the blocking of traffic in Montpelier earlier this year involved illegal activity by school aged children and young adults.

The organizations pushing the Climate Strike have a clear political agenda and, in the case of VPIRG, for example, lobby on behalf of special interests with a substantial financial stake in the legislation this mob will ostensibly be demanding. So, is this a legitimate educational mission, or is it the systematic political indoctrination and exploitation of young people at the expense of their genuine education? We think the latter.

We also think it adds insult to injury when Vermonters pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, and by some estimates as much as $23,000 per student to attend our public schools, and the schools are using that money to send our kids out on the streets for the express purpose of creating mayhem in our daily lives.

If you as parents and/or taxpayers agree, now is the time to press your local school boards as to what their role and policy is regarding students and the “Climate Strike.” Are your schools encouraging participation? Are they making special allowances for participation? Are teachers involved and in what way? Is taxpayer money being used to facilitate participation? Are students being exposed to arguments on all sides of the issue or just one?

Second, although the strike is being billed as “peaceful” protest, actively blocking traffic and people’s access to buildings and services is not peaceful. Physically stopping someone from going from point A to point B is by its nature an act of force backed by the threat of violence. It is not peaceful.

As noted above, the stopping of traffic in Brattleboro and Montpelier were illegal acts, as was the disruption of State House business back in May. We can expect more illegal acts to take place during the week of the 20th-27th. The Ethan Allen Institute sent a formal letter to Governor Scott, Attorney General T.J. Donovan and every mayor in the state asking if they have plans in place for preventing or minimizing the impact of these actions on the lawful activities of non-participants, and if they are fully prepared to support the arrest and prosecution of persons who break the law.

As of this writing (August 30), we have received no responses after ten days. Maybe they need to hear from you as well.

Read the full letter to Governor Scott, et al here.

Image courtesy of Bruce Parker/TNR

9 thoughts on “EAI: Are you ready for the ‘Climate Strike and Week of Action’?

  1. We hear a lot these days about the benefits of restorative justice over a punitive system of incarceration. What happens to that theory after we condone and encourage behavior in our schools that says its ok to create civil discourse to achieve political goals?

    One of our local Propane retailers in the Rutland area has been running a commercial that illustrates how the average cost to operate a 40 gal. water heater per year with propane is far less than with electricity.
    To close the deal and promote the sale of their propane we learn something contrary to the perception created by climate alarmists and our own state government, the carbon footprint of the propane water heater is far less than that of the electric water heater.

    Are the Climate alarmists who protest the use of propane on the right side of this argument?

    They don’t seem to care because they are being taught activism is the way to get things done. It would not occur to them to question the authority of those leading them to believe the electric water heater produces a smaller carbon foot print as they are not capable of constructive independent thought.

    Perhaps restorative justice wouldn’t mean that much unless we restore our educational system first!

  2. When I was in school years ago, we had truant officers whose job it was to find students who skipped school for no valid reason and bring them in to face the consequences. Not any more, and we wonder what has happened to responsibility and respect for our neighbors. Remember, yea reap as yea sow.

  3. If the school districts allow this to happen and let students miss school for this week, every property tax payer in the state should hold back 1/52 of the amount of their property tax bill. If and when the state or districts try to penalize the tax payers for this deduction in payment, that’s when we, the tax payers, file a class action lawsuit and let the courts decide. If were paying for something and not receiving what we’re paying for, we need not pay for it.

  4. If you want to protest, then protest. But when you deliberately block traffic, well that’s the rub !!

    I don’t like being late to ” Work ” and neither does my employer. It’s nice to have a cause, if these
    ” World Saviours ” have free time because they don’t work, probably on the system.

    But when you have the teaching profession is asking kids to skip school for there agenda, well
    now we have a problem, and they want to be taken seriously………yeah !!

    The Circus will be in town, with plenty of clowns !!

  5. This should be reason for a taxpayer revolt. We should deny a weeks worth of prop tax if the little hitler youths are allowed to skip skool .. and the little twerps should be make to go a extra week in the summer to make up for it payed by the supporters of this indoctrination exercise… will they all be wearing brown shirts with red bandanas?

    The biggest EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO THE NATION IS THE WARMING HOAX LIE.

      • ” public school monopoly.”

        While that is a huge problem along with leftist college indoctrination it’s problems that can be changed, School Choice higher learning via internet. Don’t support the harvards support the online colleges that have to TEACH. Global tardism however will never be displaced as the herd needs it’s false god.

        • “…..problems that can be changed,…”

          Precisely! Start with School Choice and virtually every social and economic dysphoria will change for the better as well.

  6. If we had a governor he should insist that students not take time from school for such a wasteful endeavor and have some sort of punishment in place for any teacher or student taking unpermitted time off. But we don’t in reality.

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