Truth: The Power of Greta Thunberg
Greta can handle the truth. She wants the world to handle it too.
“You can’t handle the truth!”
Lieutenant Coffey (played by Jack Nicholson) screams that iconic line in the famous courtroom scene of A Few Good Men as he spars with Colonel Jessup (played by Tom Cruise).
That line was used in a military context; a lieutenant with a decade of hard-fought experience was schooling a newcomer. Lieutenant Coffey put on his “adult in the room” hat and made it loud and clear who possessed the moral authority in that courtroom.
A Few Good Men comes to mind when I think about a Swedish girl who in 2018 stood in front of the Swedish Parliament in an act of protest, demanding her government act on climate change. Her solo act of indignation quickly gained attention, and before she knew it, this 15-year-old Swedish girl became the face of a millions-strong global movement.
About a year after her activist journey began, that same girl stood in front of the United Nations General Assembly — full of suit-clad adults who wished they could command a room like Lieutenant Coffey — and unleashed a tour de force befitting of A Few Good Men. She made it loud and clear who possessed the moral authority in that room.
