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Dear Friend of SSV,
As a non-profit "think & do tank," Sustainable Silicon Valley strives to assure a prosperous, equitable and sustainable life for all in the Bay Area through our work in water, air quality, mobility and decarbonization. For the past 20 years, we have been fighting to dismantle the carbon legacy of the fossil-fueled Industrial Age. The execution of our vision requires a just, civil society and good, responsive, transparent government. But right now nowhere are these health impacts greater than in communities of color, where the institutionalized racism of past planning and investment neglect combine with an unacceptable reality of police violence. Black Lives Matter. We will never be free until we are all free.
Brand consultant Larry Light writes in Forbes about a special research team at advertising conglomerate McCann that interviewed 7,000 16-30 year olds across seven countries in 2011. Alongside somewhat predictable opinions about innate technology comfort levels, their Truth About Youth survey identified a key driving force. McCann labeled it "justice reimagined." The standout factors across the global youth demographic was a strong sense of right and wrong, a heightened concern for “personal and social justice” and a "desire to change the world in a positive way," using available tools like phones and social media. The revolution might not be televised but it will be streamed and available on-demand.
SSV celebrates the bittersweet legacy of Juneteenth and supports its establishment as a national holiday. Denver Post/Getty
Fast forward nine years. 100 days and counting of shelter-in-place. Mandatory masks in public. The fabric of our lives torn asunder by a virus an eighth of a micron. Those 16-30 year olds are now in their mid-twenties and late-thirties. Many researchers have corroborated the Truth About Youth assessment and polls now document a major tectonic attitude shift across the entire population towards recognizing systemic racism, questioning the role and limits of policing, debating public health standards, scrutinizing government action and challenging failures to act. The ground has shifted. Streets in cities and small towns are full of peaceful protesters and, unfortunately, some ominous exemplars of what the protesting is about. There is no band-aid big enough for all these thorny, interrelated problems; effective solutions will require big structural changes.
Visible Proof of Possibility
SSV Board Chair Drew Clark puts it all together: "The COVID Crisis has generated "visible proof" that it is possible to rid ourselves of the pollution we can clearly "see" before us, including criteria pollutants SO2, NO2, CO and particulates. But even as we speak, fire season is coming and levels are beginning to creep back up. The return to business brings diesel-burning trucks and cars back to the roads, and coal-fired power plants back online to meet the burgeoning demand. We need to fix both our criminal and environmental justice systems and triple-down on cleaning our energy and transit grids that so we all can finally breathe freely. Clean energy is even cheaper right now!"
 The Juneteenth flag, marking the end of slavery in the US, from 1619 to 6/19/1865. Lisa Herendeen/BANG
So this year and every year forward, let's celebrate Juneteenth and the abolition of slavery, America's Original Sin, as strongly we do the 4th of July. Along with the food and fun, let's be mindful of our troubled history and vow to fix it and work together for a better future for all.
Post-Juneteenth Action Items
Happy Juneteenth,
 
Jennifer Thompson & Dennis Murphy
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