“As a military spouse, I’ve learned what it means to show up and to sacrifice—even in the face of uncertainty and constant change,” writes Moms’ Liz Hurtado in the Hartford Courant. “But service doesn’t only happen on the battlefield. It happens in the everyday choices we make to care for one another. It happens in how we fight for our children and the future they deserve.”
This Veterans Day, while our military families and federal civil servants endure the longest government shutdown in history, we at Moms are reflecting on what it means to serve our country today. In her op-ed in the Hartford Courant, Liz, Moms’ Senior Manager for Field Engagement and Partnerships, draws unique parallels between her advocacy to protect children from air and climate pollution and her husband’s two decades of service in the U.S. Marines: “While my husband serves our country in the scarlet, gold and blue colors of the Marines’ uniform, I wear Moms’ signature red to carry out my own mission: advocating for strong policies that protect our kids from pollution and pushing for bold investments in clean, renewable energy.”
Tell Congress: Defend EPA’s Ability to Protect Human Health and the Environment
She continues, “As a military family, we understand the importance of national security. But we also know that true security begins at home—with clean air, safe neighborhoods, and a stable climate.” This security at home is under multiple threats during a shutdown, when the families of more than a million furloughed federal workers lose wages, SNAP benefits are withheld, disaster relief is delayed, and enforcement of EPA regulations stops, leading to potentially deadly spikes in air pollution. But Liz is keenly aware from her own work that her family’s security at home has already been at risk since the beginning of this Trump administration, with its deep, far-reaching cuts to EPA’s staff and budget and efforts to weaken existing air pollution safeguards.
“The consequences of these cuts … fall hardest on communities of color who are already bearing the brunt of pollution, systemic neglect, and climate impacts,” notes Liz, who leads Moms’ Latino engagement program, EcoMadres. “Research shows that Black and Latino populations in the U.S. are more likely to live near highways, power plants, and other sources of harmful emissions—even though they contribute less to the pollution causing climate change.”
Liz worries about Trump administration policies that prioritize dirty energy sources and the corporate status quo—policies that will inevitably lead to more pollution, more sickness, and higher utility bills in communities like hers. She is “deeply concerned about where our country is headed, especially when it comes to the air our children breathe and the planet they’re inheriting. Will they grow up with the same freedoms and joys we have cherished?”
Liz and her husband are both working to ensure that they do. “My husband carries the weight of our democracy on his shoulders; we Moms carry the weight of our children’s future on ours,” she writes. “He and I both put others first. Just like my husband, I have chosen to serve. And just like him, I do so with purpose, resilience, and the hope that the legacy we leave behind will be one our children can be proud of.”
Read the full op-ed in the Hartford Courant.
Tell Congress: Defend EPA’s Ability to Protect Human Health and the Environment