lives with growing your economy is wrong. The growing economy is the problem. Why don’t you grow a garden? Grow your schools? Grow your solar panels? Grow your arts? There are a lot of things you can grow while economies and populations shrink.
“Nobody has to suffer at all. Nobody in the Maldives wants anyone else to suffer. Nobody has to make a trade. We just have to stop letting oil and gas and coal companies run our lives. Or the Maldive islands will sink into the sea.”
Travis and Wesley were amazed at how Hallie was talking, but not nearly as amazed as everyone else. Finally, one of the men running the meeting said, “Thank you, young lady, for sharing your views. Now we have an agenda.”
“No you don’t,” said a man walking up the aisle together with two other men and two women. “The world has an agenda more important than yours.” He spoke with the same accent Eva had spoken with. “Please continue,” he said to Hallie.
By this time a couple of guards had come into the room and were moving to block the five men and women from reaching the stage. The guards seemed unsure what to do about the children in bathing suits.
“If I’m not mistaken,” said Hallie, “these people are from the Maldives. It is their islands that will be lost. It is their 300,000 people that will have to ask the rest of you for a place to live. I believe they have a right to speak to this meeting.”
Hallie took a deep breath. Then she said: “If you agree with me, stand up.”
Hallie, Travis, and Wesley, looked around the room. Wesley was afraid nobody would stand up. But a few did. Then a few more. They heard a chair scrape the floor behind them. One of the speakers seated on the stage stood up. Then another. Then half the room was standing. And more. And they were clapping. The guards backed away. The men and women from the Maldives stepped up onto the stage, greeted by loud applause.
When the cheering stopped, Hallie introduced each of the men and women by name. This amazed them, since they’d never seen her before. Hallie picked up a bottle of water off a table on the stage. “Imagine,” she said, “if you couldn’t drink this because the ocean had filled it with salt. Imagine living on an island like that. Listen to these people who have come from the Maldives, and do what they tell you. This is your responsibility.”
And with that, Hallie and Wesley and Travis left the stage and the room, feeling very hungry, very tired, and very good about the trip they’d taken. A number of people wanted to talk to them further, but they needed to hurry off to find a swimming pool. And fast!
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