Show me what democracy looks like!

There is a sense of something one gets from walking amongst a crowd of young strangers, all crowned in green hardhats, and all chanting for environmental justice to the quizzical looks of stranded on-lookers. Is it a sense of pride? Of community? Of success? For me, it was a sense of action. Last Monday's march against big business at Power Shift fanned a spark inside my nature-loving soul that had been yearning for new life! The passion of the protestors, the contagions of the chants, and the energy of excitement that filled Washington DC that afternoon infected me like a bug that I am willing to incubate. Being only a freshman, a mere novice student of the Earth, attending a rally as big as that threw me into a world on an entirely different level, and I loved every second of it! There is NOTHING more invigorating and hopeful than witnessing a movement of the youth, fighting for a brighter future, and even as a part of it, I still felt like just a tiny figure in the bigger picture of climate justice reform. Coming back from an experience like that strengthened my ideals, and made me want to take more action to further green my life. I couldn't wait to get home and just talk about how critical this movement is for our generation, to teach others about what I had learned at Power Shift. To those who challenge me, who say things like "it can't be done" and "no one is listening," I say to look around, and witness democracy in motion. Being apart of Monday's march proved to me that it is the people who hold the power of change, not the government or the businesses. It is only if we scream our hearts out, chant as one until someone hears us, that our world can be saved. Truly, this is what democracy looks like.