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Yesterday was Earth Day 2021.
Apropos, perhaps to honor and celebrate it, a documentary was aired on PBS/TV on the activism of Greta Tintin Eleanora Emman Thunberg, aka Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish environmental activist. I viewed it with not a little interest.
She is only 18.
Small (4’11”) and still with girlish figure, her growth may have been stunted by an eating disorder during formative years. Or not.
She was diagnosed as having Asperger’s syndrome, part of the spectrum of autism. In addition, she has OCD and selective mutism. The latter means she only speaks when necessary. When she does speak, she chooses her words carefully and does not mince them.
Her candor is appealing.
So, what makes her so special?
Why is she not just another Scandinavian schoolgirl?
For reasons not entirely clear to her, when she speaks, people listen. So she tells them not necessarily what they want to hear, but what she thinks they should hear.
American writer H L Mencken (1880–1956) said the job of journalists was to “comfort the afflicted and afflict…
