“Show me what democracy looks like” echoes as a rallying cry from a new student climate justice group at Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg campus.
Picture a world where housing, energy and transportation are affordable and accessible; where everyone has guaranteed access to education and health care; where jobs are plentiful and work-life balance is prioritized. Imagine a world where all people are treated equally, regardless of their background or identity.
The Sunrise Movement is a youth-led American advocacy organization that fights for legislative change to address the ongoing climate crisis and challenges societal practices that promote racial and class inequality. The organization urges Americans of all ages to push for substantial, systemic change from federal government laws that negatively affect their everyday lives.
A student group representing the Sunrise Movement has recently emerged on CU-Bloomsburg’s campus, campaigning for planet-saving policies and protesting social injustice from federal administration, government officials and large corporations. Despite the group’s denied status as a CGA-affiliated campus club, it has amassed several active members in its two-month existence.
“Students are the country’s future representatives,” says Ell Adams, founder and president of the Sunrise Bloomsburg campus group. “We are the politicians of tomorrow.”
The group protested alongside more than 200 other people at a street corner rally on Saturday, April 5, from 12:30-5:30 p.m. at Third and Market streets in Williamsport, calling for action from U.S. Reps. Dan Meuser and Glenn Thompson. The peaceful protest featured a performer playing bagpipes and an individual wearing an inflatable T-Rex costume. Both young and old Pennsylvanians participated in the rally.
Meuser, a fourth-term Pennsylvania congressman in the 9th Congressional District, is a strong supporter of the current federal administration. He supports cuts to education and health care, and promotes raising the Social Security retirement age.
“There was a lot of age diversity at the protest,” says Lilliana Drosnock, a junior communications studies major with a focus in leadership and public advocacy, and member of the Sunrise Movement group. “A lot of stuff older people rely on is on the chopping block.”
Advocacy doesn’t fit into one box, nor should it be performed solely by a particular type of person. The Sunrise campus group calls students to remember that a country comprises individuals, and every contribution to discouraging social injustice matters.
“Not everyone agrees with each other, or with every protest,” Adams says. “But Sunrise speaks for the youth.”
Lydia Price, another member of the Sunrise group on campus, encourages students especially to express their beliefs, as they are members of American democracy just as non-university adults are. Like Drosnock, Price is also a communications studies major with a focus in leadership and public advocacy.
“All people have power. They have a voice,” says Elijah Borda, Sunrise campus group secretary and first-year anthropology major.
In addition to protesting social progressive causes, the nationwide Sunrise Movement also promotes a Green New Deal to stop world pollution. The Green New Deal would guarantee clean air and water, protection from natural disasters, union jobs with living wages, access to healthy food and a “livable future to all,” as stated on the organization’s website.
The Sunrise campus group performed its second official protest last Saturday at the Market Square Fountain in downtown Bloomsburg. The march drew 200 protesters and lasted two hours.
The Bloomsburg campus Sunrise group meets every Thursday at 5 p.m. in Kehr Union, Room 411. For more information about the Sunrise Movement or on how to join, contact Ell Adams at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or visit its website at [sunrisemovement.org](http://sunrisemovement.org/).