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| 3/11/2009 10:25:00 AM Email this article • Print this article |
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Dominic Frongillo, who organized 160 students from Tompkins County to attend last weekend’s Power Shift conference in Washington, D.C., stands in the conference convention center. (Photo Provided) |
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Local youth sound off
Taryn Thompson
Reporter
Being designated leader of a group to lobby senators on Capitol Hill doesn't happen very often - especially when you're in high school and have no prior experience.
But when you're a high-schooler from Ithaca's Lehman Alternative Community School, it's not improbable.
That was the case for LACS junior Lucas Friga when he joined the Central New York delegation in Washington D.C. during last weekend's Power Shift conference. Friga was the one who introduced the group representing Tompkins County to legislative assistants and their respective senators.
"I was chosen to lead the meeting with Senator Michael Schumer's legislative assistant, but I'd say I was more of a facilitator than a leader," Friga said.
Power Shift, in its second year, is an entirely youth-run movement with the intention of holding elected officials accountable for rebuilding the economy and investing in the environment through climate and clean energy policy. The goal is to demand that the government create green jobs, invest in a clean energy economy, cut global warming pollution, and end the U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.
Dominic Frongillo was the driving force behind Ithaca's contingent in the national youth summit, spending more than two months of his own time and personal resources preparing for the big weekend.
A Caroline town councilman and deputy supervisor, Frongillo took it upon himself to coordinate what he called the Central New York Delegation for this year's Power Shift.
"There were 12,000 young people from around the country lobbying congress, fighting climate change, ensuring 5 million new jobs," Frongillo said.
"To fit 11,000 or 12,000 people in one room, they had to book the largest conference center in DC," Friga added.
New York had the most participants of any state (almost 1,000), and of 60-something counties, Tompkins blew the others out of the pool. There were 160 kids from Tompkins County, and almost two dozen came from LACS. There were also 10 from other area high schools and about 100 from Cornell University, Ithaca College and Wells College.
"It is a very new movement and vast majority are young people," Frongillo said. "It's put on by Energy Action Coalition, a collection of youth environmental organizations from around country, but it's the youth that run it and set it up."
Frongillo said there were workshops, panels, activities and rallies. There were several speeches from leaders in green jobs and climate change, such as social entrepreneurs and people in government.
"We heard a speech from Van Jones who is spearheading a movement connecting environmental justice that says it's not fair to put a coal plant in inner city neighborhoods because kids are dying, to climate change and saying that the only way we can solve climate change and lift people out of poverty is by creating millions of new green jobs, training kids in poor areas, putting up solar panels and wind turbines to put us on a path toward energy independence," Frongillo said.
He added that there was also a rally on Capitol Hill with several thousand people where Nancy Pelosi spoke.
"It was the largest lobby day on climate change in history," Frongillo said. "We put on green hard hats, went to the halls of Congress, and met with over 350 congressional delegates," he said.
Frongillo added that Bill McKidden, a premier climate change activist who runs 350.org, an international climate change awareness campaign, led a march on a coal plant that is located in D.C.
"It was right when Power Shift ended," Frongillo said, "and it was the largest civil disobedience march in front of a coal plant. They shut it down for 5 hours."
According the Frongillo, the plant had been running since 1910.
"There were 2,500 people who marched around the coal plant and sat down at the five different entrances," he said. "It sent a really powerful message."
But the plant was prepared.
"Four days before we showed up, they declared they would be closing. They knew we were coming. The fact that people were there says a lot," Frongillo said.
"Twenty-four million Americans voted in the historic 2008 election. We're not going away - we're only organizing and getting stronger," he added.
Representing Ithaca College was junior Bryan Davis, a communications major.
"It was great to see how many people care about the environment and our country," Davis said. "That's often downplayed. It's been that underdog cause, but it was really empowering to see 12 thousand students there rallying, lobbying. It was quite humbling to see that this is a larger movement than I had previously imagined," he said.
"It's not merely just global warming," Davis added. "The environment involves literally every other aspect of our lives: the economy, social justice. There's a way to wrap everything up in that common thread."
He said that it was an intense learning experience because several speakers highlighted aspects of the environment that he hadn't identified in the past.
"The first few days were devoted to workshops that focused on getting people tools to be more active to create grassroots movements in their own communities so that they could return with concrete info and knowledge to organize things like letting writing and how to lobby your congressman or woman," Friga said. "They were training people to get back to where they're from and start their own movement in their own town.
Monday was lobby day, when everyone who could lobbied their Congressional representatives to support climate legislation in 2009.
"On Sunday, we had training on how to lead a meeting like that and learned about different roles we could play in a meeting. On Monday we went and had meetings that were already prearranged," Friga said.
A core group of six people from Friga's contingent met before the meeting to decide what role each member would play. Friga said that the woman his group met with was very engaging and helpful, listening closely and asking what was important to them.
"Overall it was a great experience," he said. "I had a lot of fun."
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Suicide has recently come to Ithaca in a very public, and at times controversial, way. This past academic year, after three years with no suicides, Cornell experienced what is known in the scientific community as a "suicide cluster." OK, so maybe you're like me and you thought this whole JetBlue flight attendant story was good for maybe one news cycle.  |
