I am a retired 4J and Bethel Elementary School counselor. I worked with a first grader who blew the head off of their 2-year-old neighbor, showing them “Dad’s gun.” The surviving child is traumatized. Now another school shooting. All school age children are traumatized by a school shooting, anywhere. The suicide rates of children between 5 and 10 years old is on the rise.

Have you spoken with a college-age kid recently? They are terrified by their scientific understanding of the climate catastrophe and the dark future they are headed for. Some are anxious, depressed or addicted.

Those of us who consider ourselves to be adults have created and allowed unsafe behaviors by corporations to put their profits over the health and safety of us all. The gun lobby. The fossil fuel industry. If evil exists, it must be how we prioritize self interest over the deaths of millions.

We have to vote. And we have to get in the streets to disrupt BAU: The golden calf of Business as Usual. We must lead the needed changes from below.

Appreciation to the mayor and Eugene City Council for moving middle housing forward. Now let’s electrify all new building construction and stop digging the hole of climate collapse.

Debra McGee

Eugene