The Sink or Swim Project

I’m a teenager, a soon to be graduating high school senior but I am not yet old enough to vote. I am, however, a young woman that’s been raised to be humble and respectful but also strong enough to speak my mind and stand up for myself and my beliefs. I care deeply about equality, diversity and the environment but what I care the most about is the truth.

What I see and hear in important places like my state capital in Tallahassee or our nation’s capital in Washington makes me sad. And it makes me angry.

Florida’s Governor has essentially outlawed the use of phrases such as ‘global warming’, ‘climate change’ and ‘sea level rise’ by his Administration, yet science shows us that much of South Florida faces extinction from these things without intelligent action. And when it comes to what’s happening in Washington these past three months, how the truth is being assaulted and hidden so that special interests, antiquated behaviors and politics can be placed ahead of science, the environment, and our future is morally wrong.

Our government’s attempts to silence scientists and science is unacceptable and so when I learned about the March for Science that will take place on Earth Day, April 22nd in Washington, D. C. I immediately knew that we had to have our own march in support of science right here in Miami. Science is, after-all, the foundation upon which we will protect and save South Florida from the global climate change crisis and especially from sea level rise.

Marching together this Saturday allows us to celebrate scientists and the important work that they do for our society, work that’s all too often performed quietly and without fanfare. The time has come for us to march in support of facts and the scientists who discover them in labs all over our community and country.

And marching also allows us to thank science teachers for the incredible work they do in inspiring the next generation of scientists, inventors and problem solvers. Students, like myself, who have been inspired to pursue an education in the marine sciences.

Marching allows us to support children and our future. We must march for every little boy and girl that looks up at the night’s sky and becomes inspired to discover, to seek out the truth, to learn and to dream. Children studying STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, architecture, and math), should be embraced by their communities and our government because we represent a future where science and technology will matter more than ever before in the history of mankind.

So, if you love science I hope you will join us on Saturday. And if you are not in Miami then I hope you will join one of the nearly 500 satellite renewals all over the world or, for that matter, the one in D.C. Collectively we will all be marching for mankind’s quest to unravel the mysteries of our planet that is hidden in every atom and molecule.

And we will be marching to make our voices loudly heard and to make it clear that we want decisions related to our future to be based on science, facts, and especially the truth.

And, perhaps most importantly, we will be marching to make clear that science must always trump politics.