On April 22, returning from a clean-up of the Newton Centre Playground, Newton South High School’s Green Student Movement, Key Club, and UNICEF chapters attended the Newton Democratic City Committee Earth Day rally on the Newton Centre Green.
Although their appearance was unplanned, club leaders and participants said that attending the event was gratifying. Key Club President Matthew Zeng said that in doing so, he was able to experience firsthand the type of advocacy he had only been able to perceive at a distance.
“A lot of times, like on TV, we’re seeing the federal government pass things like the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the biggest climate bill in history, but we don’t really get to hear about what’s actually happening on the local level,” he said. “Attending the rally and seeing the leadership from both the federal government and from the state and local government [gave us] insight on what’s actually happening at the local level and what we as citizens and residents of Newton can do to try to mitigate the impacts we have on the environment.”
The Newton Dems hosted student orators representing Newton South High School to speak about the experiences pertaining to environmental activism. Key Club Vice President and UNICEF member Bella Frankhauser said that along with being able to see activism on a larger scale, she was also proud to see students also play a large role in these efforts.
“As a kid, you can still have a voice,” she said. “Sometimes [we] forget that and sometimes [we] may not, but it’s important to use [it], and that’s what they did that day. They were using their voices, and they did something really great. It got the attention of a congressman, it got the attention of the people that were at the rally, and it was getting the message out there.”
Frankhauser said that although all groups of activism are significant, environmental advocacy is particularly important for young people to be involved in because they will be most directly affected by its consequences.
“Specifically for environmentalism, it’s a really important issue. … seeing students or people who are on the younger side care about such [an] extreme issue is an even more important message than seeing some of our world leaders caring about it.” she said. “It’s one thing when it’s someone who’s already in that reality like this, that’s their life, and it’s [another] thing to see someone who’s younger, who’s going to be the future of where we live.”
Green Student Movement and Key Club member Ethan Cheng said that students ought to maximize the opportunities they have in order to create the change they seek.
“If young people can get involved when it comes to being politically active, given an avenue to do so, it’s one of the only ways we have, as people that can’t vote and have very limited abilities, to actually create political change outside of school rallies and stuff. [It’s beneficial to give a] platform to people to talk about issues that matter to them, and to an audience that they normally wouldn’t be able to.”
Zeng said that the rally itself, along with the student and youth presence within it, proves the larger idea of Newton coming together under a similar goal.
“[The rally] shows the community that while we can call on policymakers to implement change, we ourselves also need to have action as well,” he said. “We as citizens also need to take action or this climate change crisis would never get fixed. We can’t tell our policymakers to do this and do that, we ourselves also need to do what is necessary as well.”
Bella Ishanyan, a junior at Newton South High School, is Editor-in-Chief of the Lion’s Roar.
