Nebraska educator, and fellow Pipeline Fighter, Amy Himes attended the National Education Association (NEA) annual meeting in Denver, CO over the July 4th weekend. She introduced a new business item #82 that read in part “the NEA shall support the development of clean energy education in our schools.”
The item passed on July 6, 2014 in Denver, CO. The rationale of the item included the mention of tar sands:
“Whereas our young people need to learn about clean energy and the risks of tar sands on our land and water. Whereas our country’s schools need to expand our students’ ability to work in high-tech clean energy industries that is the base of future economies.”
Amy is a cousin with the Harrington sisters. If you are a Pipeline Fighter, you know their smiles and heard their welcoming words at many of the events like the raising of the Build Our Energy Barn on their land.
As an educator, Amy knows the importance of leading on issues that affect our kids now and in the future.
Amy’s speech from the floor of the NEA convention was nothing short of inspirational, filled with common sense. Please send her a note on Facebook or Twitter thanking her for strong leadership in protecting our land and water.
“My name is Amy Himes, Nebraska State Education Association, and I would like to move the adoption of New Business Item #82.
The NEA SHALL support the development of clean energy education in our schools.
Rationale for NBI 82 is simple:
- NBI-82 is about teaching and learning
- NBI-82 is visionary
- NBI-82 is about the future
- NBI-82 is about preserving and protecting our history
- NBI-82 is a good idea
We must make the transition TO balanced energy AND clean energy is something that must be taught in our schools.
Our kids learn from us because we are their leaders. Teachers need the support of the NEA to address climate change in specific ways and without political bias.
I am the descendent of Nebraska Homesteaders. As a child, I spent summers and holidays with family on farms near Falls City, York, and Wausau, Nebraska. I fed calves from bottles, gathered eggs, built forts, dissected a frog, chased hogs, and enjoyed slow tractor rides down gravel roads to the mailbox.
In contrast to those vivid childhood memories, TODAY, my four cousins – the Harrington sisters – Terri, Abbi, Heidi, and Jenni – are fighting a battle with a foreign corporation, TransCanada. If approved, the Keystone XL Pipeline will bring dirty tarsands oil, through my cousins’ land in York County, Nebraska – some of the best farmland and purest water in the breadbasket of the United States of America.
Two years ago, cousin Abbi risked arrest while protesting in DC – she is a teacher, a farmer, and mother of four sons.
Last summer, cousin Terri constructed a solar and wind powered energy barn on her land and directly in the path of the KXL pipeline. Today, the barn is used for education, community gatherings, and social justice activism in York County.
My Cousin Jenni spoke in opposition to the KXL pipeline at the Cowboy Indian Alliance event this past April in Washington D.C.
The four sisters are also descendants of Nebraska homesteaders and they are self-taught clean energy advocates. Initiation by Fire.
Teachers are ready – Teachers need the NEA to support this readiness by providing the teacher resources and information needed to create interdisciplinary curricula to teach the WHOLE CHILD about clean energy as we move forward in the 21at century.”
Thank you Amy!
