It’s been quite a year.
As we look back on all that has happened since last November, one thing is clear: While Donald Trump and his administration engaged in a corporate take over of our democracy, you stood strong. Time and again, you jumped into action with your friends, neighbors, and strangers across the country.
And together, we achieved important victories for democracy, for people, and for our planet.
It began even before day one, when tens of thousands of you succeeded in moving Obama to release half a billion dollars to support climate justice before he left office.
As Trump began to fill his cabinet with CEOs and billionaires, you took action to ensure that the CEO of a fast food corporation with a history of labor abuses did not get to be labor secretary.
In the face of a climate-change-denying, isolationist White House, and an EPA bent on dismantling environmental protections, you turned out on the streets by the thousands to send a clear message: The people of the U.S. demand environmental justice and bold action on climate.
Just weeks later, you helped ensure that the issue of the fossil fuel industry’s conflict of interest in climate policy took center stage at the U.N. climate treaty meetings. And you helped land a front-page New York Times article on the topic.
And when the Trump administration rescinded the policy that outlines how parks can go bottled water free (which happened right after Trump’s deputy secretary of the interior — who has ties to water-bottling-giant Nestlé — was confirmed), you helped make sure the world knew about this polluting, backwards maneuver. It paid off: Last month, forward-thinking members of Congress introduced a new bill that would reinstate our national parks’ policy for bucking the bottle.
No doubt: The years ahead aren’t going to be any easier. Human rights, our democracy, democratic control of essential resources like water and more — are all under threat by this administration and its corporate cronies.
But this year has shown that when we join together in bold action, we win. When you show up — as you did in a big way this year — it makes a difference. Together, we can move mountains.
