It's No Mystery, We're Making History.

It's this week, in fact just a couple of days away; The People's Climate March in Miami. This Wednesday, October 14th, people from across South Florida will be gathering at 5 PM at the Government Center on Flagler Street for our march for Climate Justice. The march itself will start right around 6 PM. Along with people in cities all across the country we will be part of a national day of action demanding meaningful and responsible action by government and business to deal with the impacts of climate change and sea level rise that we are already seeing on our streets today. Put it on your calendar. Block out the time as 'busy'. This is the date and this is the time that we make history in South Florida. It will be the date when a broad based, multi-lingual, multi-racial, multi-generational, gender equal movement for Climate Justice was born in South Florida. Or it will be the date when good people stayed home and did nothing, letting others decide their fate.

Climate Justice, what does that really mean? As I write this, two recent pieces in the Miami Herald come to mind. One was titled "People are tired of flooded streets" and the other was an editorial titled "Confronting Climate Change." Yes, right now some people on Miami Beach are tired (already) of streets that are closed off and flooded whenever it rains or the tide is high. But the truth is, it's going to get worse; much worse. Far worse than the inconvenience of flooded streets will be the devastating impact on property values all across the peninsula. Working class and poor people will be the first to be hit and the most likely to be displaced. These South Floridians will be the first US climate refugees.

This brings us to the second Herald piece, “Confronting Climate Change." Climate change cannot be confronted. There is no Moses to hold back the water and there is no Little Dutch Boy to put his finger in the dike to keep the ocean out. The only thing that can be 'confronted' is the political process that will determine how we, as a people, deal with it. That is Climate Justice; making sure that everyone is protected and assisted, not just the powerful wealthy few with access to the government process. That is the only thing that we can control. That is what a movement for Climate Justice must do. Yes, we can and must take dramatic actions now to slow the rate of climate change, but no matter what we do, the oceans will rise because of the damage that's already been done. We can't fight nature; Nature Always Wins. But we can and must fight for Climate Justice.

Make no mistake; while good, hard working people like you are busy working, or looking for work, struggling to take care of your families and loved ones or maybe just relaxing and having fun, other people are busy deploying legal teams, false leaders and lobbyists in schemes to enhance their fortune from your misfortune. That's what politics is all about; who wins and who loses. If you're not involved, you lose by default.

Climate Justice is about making sure that doesn't happen. That's why you need to join us and hundreds, maybe thousands of other South Floridians in a show of strength and determination that says to government, business and media that this time we won't get fooled again. We're in the game. And, as the poet John Giorno says, "We bought it. We built it. We paid for it. It's ours." Our land, our homes, our environment and our democracy.

Will we see you on Wednesday? I hope so. It's the date we make history, one way or the other.

When: Wednesday, October 14, 5 p.m. 
Where: Miami-Dade County, Stephen P. Clark Government Center. 111 NW 1st St., Miami.
How to get there: Public Transit. Trolley, Metrobus, Metromover, Metrorail, TriRail.
Why: Because if we don’t, others will.

Stephen Malagodi, President
350 South Florida.