Seen but Not Heard

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights  - United States Declaration of Independence

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.  - U.S. Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment

Have you ever heard of Claudette Colvin?  How about Barbara Johns?  No?
     Let's try again.  Have you ever heard of Rosa Parks?  How about Brown v. Board of Education?  You have?  Of course you have.
     So I'll tell you the story of Claudette Colvin.  She was born in Montgomery, Alabama.  In 1955, she was 15 years old.  It was in that year that she defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her bus seat for a white passenger.  She was arrested; civil rights leaders did nothing.
     Rosa Parks was in fact following Colvin's example when she did the same thing, in the same town, nine months later; Parks then led a boycott of the Montgomery bus system.  Meanwhile, Colvin became one of four plaintiffs in a lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle.  One of the attorneys later stated that Claudette Colvin was the "star witness" in the case, which found the bus segregation unconstitutional and put it to an end.

     Now let's rewind a few years, to 1951, and I'll tell you about the first dramatic step forward in the civil rights movement.  Barbara Johns, 16 years old, was a student in an underfunded, unintegrated "black" high school, and she was having none of it.  Johns, along with a few courageous followers, took over the school and physically removed the administrators and teachers from the premises.  The students organized a strike, and convinced the NAACP to file a lawsuit to end school segregation, which became Brown v. Board of Education.

     You've heard of Paul Revere and his "midnight ride," but have you heard of Sybil Ludington, whose midnight ride was more than twice as long, and took place in pouring rain…when Ludington was 16 years old?
     You've heard of the Braille writing system for the blind, but did you know that its inventor, Louis Braille, was 15 years old when he created the system?  Braille was at the time attending a school for the blind, and the administrators immediately banned the Braille writing system - but, even under threat of severe punishment, Braille continued to spread knowledge of his system.

     There is a pattern here: young people can and do make meaningful contributions to society, but their work is often overlooked or even suppressed, just because of their age.  Young people have no voice: a sixteen-year-old cannot vote, hold public office, sign a contract, or even refuse dangerous medical procedures.  In many places across America, a sixteen-year-old cannot so much as leave their house at night.  A thirteen-year-old cannot drive or have a job.  Even a twenty-year-old, old enough to be required to register for the ongoing draft program, still cannot walk into a bar, and would be criminally charged for ordering a glass of wine.
     Those injustices not mandated by law are often perpetrated by schools.  In most public schools, a student can be punished for just about any exercise of free speech you care to name.  The "offenses" can be as obvious as peaceful protests or using certain words, or as insignificant as wearing a baseball cap to school.  A girl in Pennsylvania was suspended for refusing to take off a bracelet supporting breast cancer awareness.  A boy in Texas was suspended from preschool for growing out his hair, in order to donate it to cancer victims.  The same problem was faced by a high school student, a registered donor to Locks of Love, who was forced to cut his hair in order to return to school.
     Unless their parents have the time and resources to homeschool their children, or the money to afford better private schools, every young person in America is required by law to attend these public schools and be subject to these injustices.  Even if we put aside the 1st Amendment issues for the time being, we all know that public schools across the country are failing to fulfill their alleged purpose anyway.  Falling SAT scores and increased dropouts tell us that compulsory education is a failure.  As one rather intelligent person said:

It is...nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreak and ruin. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.  - Albert Einstein

Young people everywhere know this, but nobody listens, because youth have no voice.
     This governmental discrimination is just one facet of a much broader problem: pervasive societal bigotry.  Yes, I said bigotry.  And its name is ageism.
     Ageism is embedded in almost every aspect of society.  Children are alternately treated as nuisances or property.  Teenagers are subject to an assortment of cruel stereotypes.  Perhaps worst of all, young people are expected to live in their own world, their own "youth culture," not entering the "real world" until after they graduate from college.  That way, adults can go about their lives without being disturbed by the one demographic against which they are still allowed to hold prejudice.  That way, children can be seen but not heard.  And this, dear readers, is segregation.

     Young people do not lack a voice because they are incapable of speaking.  They lack a voice because their tongues have been cut out.

     But now young people have found their voice…and its name is the National Youth Rights Association. With over 10,000 members of all ages, NYRA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to fighting ageism and advocating for the civil and human rights of young people.
     NYRA campaigns to lower the voting age, lower the drinking age, repeal curfew laws, close abusive 'behavior modification facilities,' protect free speech and students' rights, and dispel the myths behind age discrimination with history and science.  One of NYRA's priorities is "empowering young people to participate in the democratic process and self-determination."
     I could rant for pages and pages about how important this cause is, but you don't have to take my word for it.  Here's what psychologist Richard Farson has to say about NYRA:

Most of us tend to view childhood as a time of carefree pleasure. Those of us who have looked at the real condition of children in America, however, see a very different picture--one in which children are victims of terrible discrimination, prejudice, and abuse. They need protection. But the protection they need most is to have the protection of civil rights, so that they can be regarded as full persons under the law. The organization leading that effort, with research, discussion and effective action, is the National Youth Rights Association. Supporting it supports children and youth in the most important way possible.

So what can you do to support youth rights?  Well, to start with, join the movement!  Make a $10 donation and become a member of NYRA.
     The organization, though already effective, could do a lot more - gathering much greater national attention - with more funding.  If you can afford to make a financial contribution, please remember that every donation counts.
     Even better than donations of money are donations of your time.  Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper - or a politician.  Find the nearest NYRA chapter, and, if there isn't one nearby, start your own.
     All that is great, but the #1 best thing you can do for the youth rights movement is to spread the word.  Tell everyone you know.  E-mail them a link to this blog post, if you like.  Send them this URL, too: http://www.youthrights.org/
     Well, I think I've said enough for now, so I'll close with one last quote, and a song.

If 16-year-olds are old enough to drink the water polluted by the industries that you regulate, if 16-year-olds are old enough to breathe the air ruined by garbage burners that government built, if 16-year-olds are old enough to walk on the streets made unsafe by terrible drugs and crime policies, if 16-year-olds are old enough to live in poverty in the richest country in the world, if 16-year-olds are old enough to get sick in a country with the worst public health-care programs in the world, and if 16-year-olds are old enough to attend school districts that you underfund, than 16-year-olds are old enough to play a part in making them better.  - Rebeca Tilsen, 14 years old, given as testimony to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1991

 Note: This blog is not endorsed by the National Youth Rights Association. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author.

A Special Day

     Sunday, May 22, two weeks from today, has been proclaimed the United Nations' International Day for Biological Diversity.  According to a report published several years ago by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Earth is currently experiencing a biodiversity crisis that has already become the worst mass extinction event since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.  Many factors have been cited as contributing to this ongoing disaster - poaching, overfishing, habitat destruction, and so on - but one key factor always towers over the rest in the public view.  That factor is pollution.
     The attention that pollution gets is mainly because of global warming, which is caused by the greenhouse effect, which is triggered by pollution of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.  These gases build up in the atmosphere over a long period of time.  There are, however, other kinds of pollution, some very fast-acting and lethal.  Specifically, a kind of fast-acting poison that humans routinely dump into animals' homes.  I refer to pesticides.
     All pesticides are created for the sole purpose of killing things.  They are poured onto farmland; then, when the crops are watered, the pesticide residues run off with the water into little channels, which run into streams, which run into rivers (or storm drains), which run downstream to the ocean…and, at every step along the way, these lethal toxins kill whatever they pass, both in the water and out of it.
     These pesticides have all kinds of unintended (though not really unexpected) effects on all kinds of wildlife, bringing many species to the brink of extinction, and wiping some out completely.  This has got to stop.

     Some of the most dangerous pesticides in existence are aldrin, dieldrin, and endrin, three related insecticides that cause serious nervous system failure in animals including humans, with young children the most vulnerable group.  Rachel Carson described the dangers of these and other chemicals in her 1962 book Silent Spring, often credited for singlehandedly starting the environmentalist movement.  Many pesticides were banned over the following decades, thanks to Carson's efforts.
     Silent Spring opens with "A Fable For Tomorrow," which describes a hypothetical town in the countryside, surrounded with stunning natural beauty.  Carson paints a portrait of serene animal and plant life, the people living every day with the enchanting sights and sounds of nature.
     Then along comes a certain "white granular powder"…and suddenly, the scene dissolves.  The livestock die, the birdsong disappears, the wildlife is devastated by this deadly pesticide.  The fable ends with these chilling words: "No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world.  The people had done it themselves."


     Easily the most infamous pesticide of all is DDT, which builds up in the fat tissues of fish.  When a bigger fish eats two smaller fish, the bigger fish picks up the DDT collections from both of them.  Thus a tiny amount of DDT drifting down to the ocean can become a significant concentration as it travels up the food chain.
     The top of the ocean food chain is the birds that eat the big fish.  Ocean-feeding birds would collect a relatively large amount of DDT.  This means birds such as the brown pelican (pictured), the peregrine falcon, and the bald eagle.
     Some people say that the only thing someone can do to you that is worse than killing you is to kill your children.  Well, DDT doesn't usually kill the birds that pick it up.  Rather, it makes their eggshells so weak that, before being ready to hatch, the eggs actually collapse under their own weight, destroying the unborn bird inside.  This tragic disorder decimated the brown pelican population, and wiped out peregrine falcons on the east coast…and, if you live in America, you probably know just how common it is to see our national bird, the bald eagle, flying around…


     Fortunately, all of the pesticides I have named so far are now banned in much of the world.  Unfortunately, there will always be other, newer pesticides, that can do further damage to wildlife.  There is currently a controversy revolving around the herbicide atrazine, which has been banned in the European Union - which includes the country (Switzerland) in which its manufacturer is based.  It is, however, still widely used in America…hence the controversy.
     Seriously harmful effects of atrazine have been recorded in frogs at an atrazine level equal to approximately one-thirtieth of the concentration that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows in drinking water.  With that tiny amount of atrazine, male frogs have suffered "severe sexual deformities," and that is all I'm going to say about that.  The point is that, if you live in America, you could be drinking thirty times that concentration every day, and the government would do nothing about it…so, to make you feel even better, I'm going to add that employees at the atrazine manufacturer have shown an elevated level of certain cancers.  Just saying.


     So, the pesticides have to go.  The thing is, the chemical manufacturers have a lucrative business going, producing these toxins, and the farmers have a better profit margin, too, when they use pesticides. Both of those industries have an abundance of lobbyists.
     Some companies think that they can produce better pesticides, with fewer harmful effects.  Some people say that it doesn't matter, anyway: we shouldn't be worrying about these animals in the first place.
     First of all, there are plenty of organic farmers who are doing perfectly good business without using pesticides.  As far as the pesticide companies are concerned, I'm sure they could find work in a much healthier field of chemical production - medication, perhaps.  They simply cannot be allowed to continue disintegrating our world.
     As far as 'safe' pesticides are concerned, I contend that there is no such thing.  A chemical produced for the sole purpose of killing cannot possibly be a safe thing to have running into our water.  Finally, if you think we shouldn't protect animals because we're superior to them, consider this: the world's ecosystem is a delicate balance, and a tangled web.  When one species goes extinct, it has an effect on everything else that lives in the area.  This can turn into a chain reaction that would result in the loss of financially relevant resources.  Even if you cannot accept that, I have provided above several examples of pesticides directly harming humans.  Endrin kills children; atrazine may provoke cancer.  These are hardly the only cases - search the Internet if you want more examples.


     Now back to the International Day for Biological Diversity.  On May 22, try biking or carpooling instead of your usual drive.  Recycle.  Buy organic.  Tell some people about the dangers of commercial pesticides…and the great thing is, if you can do that on May 22, then you can do it on May 23, too…and May 24…believe it or not, every day is a good day to bike or carpool, recycle, buy organic, and spread the word.
     Once a species goes extinct, there's no getting it back.  As I said at the beginning of this, we are smack in the middle of the most devastating mass extinction in 65 million years.  We may not hear about all of them, but more species are going extinct every day.  Let's do what we can to end this crisis before it gets any further.


Sources:
http://www.cbd.int/idb/
http://www.livescience.com/652-humans-fuel-worst-extinction-dinosaurs.html
http://www.chesapeakebay.net/news_pesticides09.aspx?menuitem=43119
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001395.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Spring-Rachel-Carson/dp/0618249060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304852343&sr=8-1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72825507@N00/2205729974/
http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/DDT_and_Birds.html

http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/atrazine.html