‘Your generation should be out in the streets.” It’s something my father started saying to me just about 20 years ago, at the start of the Iraq war. Or maybe it was a few years earlier, when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.

He had a point about protesting, and some experience on the topic. The baby boom generation marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. My dad himself was a conscientious objector and did two years of service instead of going to combat.

However, while I respect this earlier activism, I didn’t think it should absolve him of responsibility to go out and protest ongoing atrocities. Just because his generation would escape the consequences didn’t mean they should evade responsibility.

His words were ringing in my ears as I joined Third Act’s protest against Chase and other big banks that finance fossil fuel projects. Third Act is a group started by Bill McKibben to mobilize older people to take action on the climate. There were about 100 of us gathered in Pulaski Park in Northampton, a few young and some middle age, but mostly folks who looked over 70, many with canes. My dad’s generation.

For far too long young people have been expected to lead protest movements, even as they struggle precariously in an ever harsher world. And yet, they’ve consistently stepped up. Whether it’s Greta Thunberg or folks leading the fight for racial justice, young people find a way to make their voices heard and speak with a clear moral tone that can become obscured with age.

Instead of dividing ourselves by generations, we should look at the real divisions that exist in society — like divisions along wealth lines. Wealth disparity — between communities and between countries — is a root cause of so many of the issues that bring people to the streets.

War and pollution continue, despite popular outrage, because they are profitable. How else to explain the recent IPCC finding that “Public and private finance flows for fossil fuels are still greater than those for climate adaptation and mitigation?”

Given the role of wealth and finance in perpetuating the climate crisis, we should all follow Third Act’s lead and divest from the big banks so that they will divest from fossil fuel projects. Canceling credit cards and bank accounts with these pollution funders (and letting them know that they aren’t welcome in Northampton) is a meaningful way that individuals can take action.

I’m grateful to the baby boomers, who have more time and wealth than many of us younger folks, for leading this protest.

But just because the older generation is stepping up, the rest of us can’t step aside. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said the latest IPCC report was a call for “Everything, everywhere, all at once.” Let’s add “everyone” to that statement — everyone, everything, everywhere, all at once.

Whether you’re young, old or in between: Your generation should be out in the streets, and taking action wherever else you can.

Gretchen Siegchrist lives in Holyoke.]]>