Rodney Lynn was wrong

Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations last week in another attempt to call the world's attention to global warming and climate change. I didn't agree with Thunberg's statements or the tactics used by whatever sponsors that brought her to the United States to give the speech. My opposition to Thunberg herself, however, starts and ends with that.

My opposition doesn't go as far as Rodney Lynn, a principal of an Australian private school principal who called Thunberg "a little girl with self-declared... problems." In an earlier post, I called on environmental protestors to refrain from demonstrating and vociferously spreading messages about the environment with megaphones and chanting. The environment would be better served if people just acted and did their part to make sure Earth remains a livable habitat.

That doesn't mean a child, or anyone for that matter should be slandered. How bad have things gotten that a school official needs to publicly insult a teenager? Someone whose duty it is to guide and educate other children has used that position to refer to opinions about the Environment as "Doomsday waffle talk," in a letter sent out to parents last week. Lynn went on to say the World's fate would be up to God and God alone.

Lynn's ignorance is dangerous. Professing belief in God and saying the world's fate is up to him is one thing but to insult someone, adult or child, is something completely different. Again, I don't believe in the context of Thurnberg's statements or in the tactics leading up to her speech but I certainly don't agree with mud-slinging either. At the very least, Lynn owes Thunberg an apology and it should be just as public as the verbal attack.