For the Love of Rivers and Grandchildren: Why I Stand with Kamala Harris

Robin Wall Kimmerer, plant ecologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass, on why she stands with Kamala Harris.

I’ve been spending this beautiful summer week with my three grandchildren, paddling on a wild Adirondack river and thinking about my responsibilities to their future. And when I find myself growing into elderhood, the question I think a lot about is, what does it mean to become a good ancestor? It seems to me that part of that is to lift up new leaders to support them in defending our values and what we love, and contributing our gifts to the flourishing of the next generations. 

And as I watched my kids fall in love with the wild river, it brought tears to my eyes because there’s nothing I want more than a world which is whole and healthy and green for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren, for the grandchildren of pine trees. And with the ascendance of Kamala Harris, I’m so excited to be for something, to be inspired by the affirmative energy, not just recoiling in disgust from the specter of a Trump presidency, but energized to help create a positive future for all of our grandchildren. And in this time of hyperpolarization, we’re all looking for common ground to bring people together for a common purpose.

And Kamala Harris represents that. If we’re looking for common ground, we need look no further than the ground itself. Regardless of the party, we all need clean air and pure water and healthy soils and the nourishment that comes from wild places. After all, a river doesn’t ask for your party affiliation before offering you a drink.

And the truth is that without a livable climate, everything else falls away. The Biden-Harris administration stands behind the strongest U.S. climate policies to date. We need to unite behind Kamala Harris’s ongoing climate leadership in the transition to a new, green economy. And we have seen this wonderful recent outpouring of support for her candidacy, reflecting the excitement that we all feel tonight. I’ve loved to tune in to Teachers for Kamala, Farm Workers for Kamala, Black Women for Kamala, White Women for Kamala, White Dudes for Kamala, Cat Ladies for Kamala, and tonight, we join as Elders for Kamala. 

And I think we could imagine a similar enthusiasm from our more than human relatives too as she works on their behalf. If anybody bothered to pull them, I suspect we’d see Pollinators for Kamala, Rivers for Kamala, Forests for Kamala, Climate for Kamala. And I will stand with them. And as I travel around the country, I am inspired by folks sitting at the edge of their seats just waiting to be asked to make a difference. And the actions that are proposed here by Third Act tonight are wonderful invitations to do exactly that.

And Kamala Harris’ candidacy ignites that in people. It’s exciting to imagine how she is rallying the forces to defeat the monstrosity of the MAGA extremists and ushering in a new political climate that reaches for just and verdant future. She will restore and protect reproductive rights, restore voting rights, and surround herself with other visionary leaders. I’m thinking about the hope for continuity for Secretary of the Interior Deb Holland and her revolutionary work for indigenous land rights. 

And in my culture, we speak of a warrior. A warrior is someone who puts the good of the people ahead of themselves who inspires others to do the same. And it is time. It is time for a fierce woman leader, compassionate and smart, who believes in the rule of law, who uses science, who uses evidence and reason, who can speak a sentence that is not only coherent and complete but send shivers down your spine, who puts principle ahead of power country ahead of corporations and who will be fiercely protective of justice for all in reciprocity for the gifts of freedom and democracy, of wild rivers, of living in this beautiful homeland.

I want to offer my gifts in return in financial support in advocacy and energy in postcard and phone banking on behalf of this warrior woman, Kamala Harris and on behalf of our country. I hope you will too. 

Paid for by GrayPAC. Not authorized by any candidates or candidates’ committees.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals.