Editor:
Since I became a mother of a four-year-old child, I often imagine his future. His adulthood will probably be more challenging due to the escalation of climate change, oil prices, issues of water and landfill, the housing crisis and poverty. Someday, our children or grandchildren may ask us, “Mom/Dad (Grandma/Grandpa), what were you doing when our community was dealing with problems such as …? You had more choices, more time and resources than us.” Today, I feel more pressure than ever regarding my accountability as an adult who cares about my child and his future. This leads to a question: “What can we do to ensure our children’s (grandchildren’s) future?”
Their future could be hopeful if we had people with the courage to ask a question: “Am I doing the right thing?” Right things are not for short-term profit. They are not an easy fix or misleading about real problems. Furthermore, they are not an excuse for saying we are too busy. It’s worth it to take a moment to ask this question because we all know that, to a certain extent, our children and grandchildren could have to live in a much more devastating environment than ours, due to the consequences of our actions – and especially inaction.
I notice there are many grassroots community groups that have been doing what they can to make some changes, instead of doing nothing about these overwhelming problems. They are like the hummingbird from an Indigenous story that brought water to the burning fire one drop at a time and continued to do so, instead of abandoning the forest, the overwhelming reality. It is time to start asking the question and to protect our seven generations.
Yoshiko Beauchesne, Gibsons
