A Thanksgiving Gift: Kids Smarter than Us

Image by stuartpilbrow via Flickr

As a single father raising a two-year-old girl, I learned an important lesson years ago.

It was this: Kids should be seen. And heard. And, not infrequently, followed.

I know this advice is guaranteed to draw criticism — especially from holdouts of our recent “Father Knows Best, Part 2″ era. I remain convinced, however, that kids bring a special kind of wisdom to the table, untainted by years of indoctrination, rationalization, obfuscation and faux intellectual sophistication (If an image of George Will’s face popped into your mind while reading that last item on the preceding list, you understand exactly what I’m talking about).

I won’t subject you to stories about my own brilliant kids, although all three of them are far smarter than me. (A low bar, perhaps, but still.) I do want to introduce you to Alec Loorz, a 15-year-old who has been quite busy working to save the planet for the past three years.

When he was 12, Alec was deeply moved by Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Later he discovered that many of his peers considered global warming a hoax, as did many “leaders.”

Many adults, upon finding that the world is composed of a large number of wankers, throw their hands up in despair and look for a way to keep their heads down on the march to the abyss.

Alec, being a smart kid, decided to try a different approach. Since the stakes were high (i.e., the end of the world as we know it), he reckoned he should get busy and, well, save the world.

Only a kid could be so naive.

On the other hand, perhaps only that kind of naivete can actually save the world.

Alec studied the scientific arguments on climate change. Since he is also an avid student of American history, Alec mashed-up the two disciplines to produce his Big Idea.

Last July4th, he unveiled The Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels, modeled on the original American document penned by Thomas Jefferson.

And last week, Alec presented the Declaration to the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. It was signed by Alec and 10,000 other school kids. Another 30,000 have signed online.

Will it make a difference? It’s impossible to say at this point. But, look at it this way: It’s also impossible, even now, to single out one of the eighty-five Federalist Papers as the tipping point that turned the fractious American colonies into the United States of America, bound by the Constitution. Like the Nation it helped create, the Papers are indivisible.

If nations are able to agree on a framework that restores a climate driven by nature and not human pollution, then Alec’s efforts will be a part of that success.

That’s what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving: kids, like Alec, who are smarter than most of the previous generations that got us into the mess in the first place.