Founder of Fairness 4

Mike Zoltowski

For the past ten years, I’ve been on a relentless search to find fairness—for people, for our planet, and for the future we leave behind. What I’ve learned is sobering: We already have the knowledge and tools Yet too often; our leadership chooses to do nothing.  Not because the solutions don’t exist—but because accepting them requires a paradigm shift.

At just 17, I was challenged to write a letter to the President as part of my college entrance essay.

Dear Mr. President,

Perhaps you are aware; perhaps you aren't of the downtrodden in our country, in our world.

"I picked up the newspaper recently and discovered that our oceans are polluted and dyeing, our earth and air is dirty, our atmosphere is rancid, my food is contaminated.

One year ago, there was a race riot on my street, and there was a boy my age found overdosed in his bedroom on heroine.

An acre of forest is being lost each minute.

And this dreadful disease, AIDS, is killing my friends and some of my family members.

I am crying. Not only for myself, but for the fate of my unborn children. I am seventeen years old. I am preparing for the rest of my life upon graduating high school in the spring. I should be feeling idealistic, and hopeful.

Like I can accomplish anything. But I'm not. I'm angry, cynical, and sad. "Why you ask?" At 17 you should feel a power, an energy, and immoral strength. Why should I? What kind of future do I have? One that's filled with racism and hurt, anger and suffering.

A future with no trees, no water, no sky, and no dreams. Why should I even consider reproducing to bring a child into this horrid world?

It's a shame, isn't it? To be young and vital as I and not feeling an ounce of hope." 

I don't blame you. I don't know who to blame really. And finding blame is not important. What I ask is that you put that ounce of hope in me.

Take away my anthropomorphism. Help make my future as bright as yours was for me and the future children of the world. Please take a step out of this selfishness, and try to end the hate, the destruction. 

I'm really not sure how to do this, perhaps through education, perhaps through stricken laws. But I know as a people we can do it. Protect me, protect the children of the world. 

Bring back the innocence, bring back the world and let me hold it and feel its warmth and opportunity, it's freedom, it's sanity. Make me feel it for the first time again.

Decades later  at 50 years old,  I find myself still wrestling with those very same questions about fairness, our environment, and accountability.

That enduring pursuit of answers is what led me to create Fairness 4."