Dear Farm Diary,
It’s Nia here! I’m writing to you today to talk about my experience at the People’s Climate March, which happened on April 29th, 2017.
Now you may be asking yourself ‘what is the People’s Climate March?’ The People’s Climate March is an event for people who feel like climate change really affects them and their environment to come out and advocate for global action. It was a big protest that happened in Washington DC and all around the country and across the globe where more than 200,000 came together to take a stand for what we believe in.
This was part of my reasoning for attending the People’s Climate March. I viewed it as me being part of a movement that’s main purpose was to, or is to, bring about changes that would help the people living on this earth right now and new people to come in the future. My second reason for attending the People’s Climate March was because it was going to be the first march I’ve ever been to!! My third reasoning for attending the People’s Climate March was to learn about new and/or more factors that has resulted from climate changes and to expand my general knowledge of the People’s Climate Movement.
Now let me take you back in time to the morning of the march….
The morning started off with Corey, Thomas, Anthony, and I meeting at 5am and loading snack bags, posters, bottles of water and probably an emergency bag into an Uber during a surprise thunderstorm! We took the Uber from Red Hook to the coach bus at Borough Hall. The bus ride to Washington D.C. was quiet and kind of warm because everyone was mostly sleep or just kept to themselves.
When we arrived at the march along other organizations that went (East New York Farms, The Friends Of The Highline, NEBHDCo, and many more!!) we (Added Value) discussed what the day was going to look like for us, which was marching, short and simple. Before Corey and I took the steps to joining the march we saw this cart filled with hats, buttons, etc pertaining to the People’s Climate March, the Women’s March and Donald Trump. Corey and I were so excited over the SWAG that we forgot that the other half of our group had gotten caught up in the march already and we had to leave the cart behind and join the rest of our group.
During the march I saw cool and different posters filled with different ideas and perspectives about people’s feelings towards Climate Change and how it affects them. One poster that stood out to me was this poster that these two older women were holding captioned with “We’re marching for our grandkids.” This poster stood out to me because it made me come to this realization of how the generations to come also needs an earth to call home and how this earth is like the only earth we have and how we really need to protect it, keep it in shape, and make it still suitable for life to still go on. Throughout the March I got to lead in the group chant “Cook organic not the planet” which was pretty cool and loud.
We ended off the day and the march by taking pictures of the White House, the Washington Monument, hearing people voice out their opinions about Donald Trump, and more. Then we met up with East New York Farms and Friends of the Highline to do a debrief about the day. Then we ate pizza & ice cream before getting on the bus back to Brooklyn. We got home around 10pm and had our closing circle where we talked about what we learned and took away from the People’s Climate March.
If you were wondering, we still didn’t get our hats because the man with the cart was nowhere to be found.