Rep. Justin Jones - TN Green Amendment
Published April 8, 2023; 9:54 p.m.

This year, in addition to standing with youth for meaningful action to address gun violence, Representative Justin Jones proposed passage of a Tennessee Green Amendment that would protect the rights of present and future generations to a clean, safe and healthy environment – Tennessee House Joint Resolution 0050.

Green Amendments Founder Maya van Rossum (environmental protection and social justice activist for 30 years) condemns the actions by elected state legislators to denigrate the democratic right to free speech and to eject Representative Jones from his democratically elected position.

Across our nation we are seeing the right to free speech, to peaceably assemble, to nonviolent civil disobedience punished and even criminalized – we see this abuse of legislative power used against environmental activists just as we see it used against civil rights activists, and those demanding justice against gun violence

Maya challenges the characterization of environmental and social justice defenders as being radical and extreme activists, terrorists, or jihadists (as suggested by FERC Chairman Powelson). According to van Rossum:

“Those standing with youth to defend their lives from gun violence, environmental violence and a bleak economic future driven by outsized student loans and costs of living, should be applauded.

Expulsion of a legislator from elected office for standing in defense of youth and our environment is a repudiation of our U.S. system of democracy but one that is, unfortunately, emblematic of our current society.

While activists in defense of gun ownership -- despite the looming result of deadly gun violence for children and families of all political persuasions and walks of life – are applauded as being defenders of the flag; those standing in defense of civil rights, environmental rights, free speech rights, to bodily autonomy, to marriage equality, and to their own true gender identity are abusively characterized by those on the conservative political spectrum.

It is incredible that Tennessee legislators would condemn remarks defending our youth from gun violence, when the reality of their life experience is the fear of their own blood on the halls of their schools and a climate crisis so devastating they question whether or not they should even consider having children of their own.”