Why I walk
By George Lakey
I walk because I want the twelve-year-old great-grandson who lives with me to know I’m “all in” for his future.
I walk because I’ve seen members of my family suffer when they were jobless, and I know that PECO could bring more good-paying jobs by building for solar instead of fossil fuels.
I walk because PECO and other utilities have been given a pass by us customers despite the fact that PECO’s irresponsible use of our money means more poverty in a warming planet. Of course company executives appreciate our naïve trust in them, if that’s what it is. We need to raise our expectations and demand that they be responsible just as we expect ourselves to be.
I walk because it’s time we gave up racism in my country, and racism is embedded in the poverty-making policies that PECO supports. PECO must end its participation in the historic neglect of people of color, and do its part for racial and economic justice.
I walk because my conducting “business as usual” encourages the utility to conduct “business as usual.” I need to set an example, going out of my way even when it hurts in the short run, to remind its executives that passivity in the midst of climate crisis is no longer acceptable.
I walk because I distrust a science-based business, which PECO is, whose leaders flagrantly refuse to act on the findings of science with regard to climate change. If they believe scientists regarding transmission of electricity, why do they refuse to believe scientists regarding the impact of carbon emissions?
I walk because EQAT is making a reasonable demand – 20% rooftop solar by 2025. Does PECO think it will be easier a decade from now to set things right, when coastal cities are flooded and disasters reveal them as perpetrators? Is that the plan? Do they have a plan?
I walk because Quakers and others have walked for centuries to call each other back to integrity. We are in such a time. I walk to ask people of Southeast Pennsylvania to join a great tradition, empowering ourselves to act for justice.
