Sent on
June 23, 2015
by
Jim Hatch
Send Your Own Message

What can I say?

I have tried to be a good steward and to set a good example, but clearly it hasn’t been anywhere near enough. I was an environmental activist back at the first Earth Day; I learned to garden and spent a number of years teaching environmental education. But life moved on and I had a family to support and somewhere along the line I lost that 70’s zeal, and as I watched how the capitalist greed ran rough shod over everything I got cynical. Now I look to you with the youthful energy and idealism to help me get more focused, to help find ways to do things that may actually make a difference. Sure, I drive a Prius and try to eat local, I turn off the lights and recycle. We belong to lots of environmental organizations, but mostly we just send a check every year. Your mother and I have been volunteering for local candidates and knocking on doors to get out the vote, but the direction of the country is moving to the right and it is very discouraging. Lots of days I feel like it is too late, that the world will have to do through a mass extinction that includes the end of homo sapiens and then start the process over again. But I love the natural world too much to give up. Hopefully I can spend the time I have left finding ways to make a real difference so that you will still have a world full of bird song after my generation is gone.

Share on:
 
Send Your Own Message

More Messages to the Future

 

Dear Sander,

I pray that you are having a happy life and that you have contributed each year of your life into helping to make our planet healthy, cleaner, thriving and greener- a better place for all people and animals to live.
 

To my beloved granddaughters, Margaret and Caroline,

Growing up in Germany, I often wondered what my parents had done to oppose the Nazi regime in the 1930’s that led to WWII.  I was so disappointed when I found out how passive they had been. For me, this was formative.
 

To the People in my Future Life,

Anytime I’m at the crossroads of life, I pray that I, or anyone else in the same position, will keep you in mind, and try to shape a world that’s the best possible for you.
 

Dear Grandchildren,

So here we are. In 2022 millions of people are suffering from the climate catastrophes, killing pollution and pandemic, not mentioning about poverty, gender and social injustice, racism, wars and dictatorships that can go on as long as bad people in power are allowed to grab our natural resources.
 

Dear Samuel, Willa, and Ben,

To the core of my being, and only through the power of community, I will honor the voices of the youth who are pleading, “Don’t burn my future.” Samuel, Willa, and Ben, your little voices I know, will join that chorus soon enough.
 

I want to tell you a story. Yes, another one.

Mankind has always been able to deal with the greatest challenges it’s faced and this will not be the exception. My message to you is: find that passion and give it your all. ‘Till your legs give out.
 

Dear Tomorrow,

I will encourage composting at work.
 

Dear future Child or Grandchild,

Climate is undeniably changing but it is not top priority.
 

To my children,

If there is one thing that I taught you it is to be honest in your decisions as they pertain to yourselves and the earth in which you live.
 

Dear Future

My hope is for all who live in your time to still know the joy of swimming in the ocean, walking through the woods, and hiking in the mountains.
 

To My Children,

Is the world really polluted?
 

Dear Children and Grandchildren,

I see a world full of hope fueled by the desire for change.
View All Messages

Send Your Own Message