One of the important functions that elders play in human societies is teaching young people how we live. In American society this includes petitioning the government for the redress of grievances. One of the biggest and most fraught political issues here in Upstate New York is “fracking.”

If you’re not familiar with the process, fracking is:

a form of methane gas extraction that uses toxic cocktails of high pressure chemicals and water to fracture underground formations of shale gas, allowing the trapped gas to escape – some of which ends up being pumped out as fuel, and the remainder leaking out into the surrounding environment.

There are, of course, citizens on both sides of the issue. Jude and I are anti-fracking and recently our participation in the issue has connected us to some middle school students who share our view. They have formed their own group – New York Youth Against Fracking.

Before we knew it, there was a song, “You’ve been fracked” and an appointment at Ithaca’s Rep Studio to record the song with the students. With some fancy editing and some excellent sound engineering by Nate Richardson we soon had a video. No matter where you stand on the issue, you might enjoy the inter-generational collaboration that made this “redress of grievances” possible.

Enjoy.

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3. #ProAging: Which US Cities Offer The Best Lifestyle To Their Older Citizens?