Where the Buck Stops

Attending the University of Oregon Commencement June 18, where my daughter was graduating, I was surprised and pleased to hear President Michael Schill admit, “My generation has royally screwed up.”  

But I was hugely disappointed in his next line: “It is up to your generation to fix it.”  

No. His next line should have been: “I am so sorry, and I will be dedicating the rest of my life to fixing it.”  

This is something we all should have learned in kindergarten: You clean up your own mess. Sure, we could blame our parents’ generation for the mess we inherited, but most of us benefited financially from the continuing destruction of our climate and our ecosystems during our adulthood, so it is incumbent upon us to spend that profit on cleaning up our mess, to use the power and influence we have achieved to change the system so that it is no longer making the future worse for our children. 

The bucks stops here, President Schill. You can start by implementing a comprehensive aggressive carbon reduction plan at the UO immediately, as the students have been imploring you to do.

Sharon Blick

Eugene