This Memorial Day, a six-year-old is giving us all something to think about at our cookouts

A couple of strange things happen when you become a parent. (Actually, a million strange things happen, but this post isn’t about the many different shades of baby poop.)

When you have kids, your happiness and health and well-being suddenly takes a backseat to your kid’s. Sometimes, this reveals itself in small ways, like when you let your five-year-old have the last Girl Scout cookie. And sometimes it reveals itself in larger ways, like when you realize you may be leaving your children a doomed planet.

Or when they realize it, like little Henry Marr.

According to Buzzfeed, Henry is a six-year-old from Mount Vernon, Washington who has embraced his family’s passion for environmentalism. Emphasis on passion.

He’s really upset about the state of the planet, and he minces no words when it comes to who he thinks is to blame. After watching a video in school about the harmful impact human beings have on the environment, Henry got fired up. His mom recorded his rant against people who are “being rude” to Mother Earth, and “wrecking” it, by “throwing trash on the ground” and “making forests into places.”

He’s not wrong, though it’s a little more complicated than that (despite what many science-denying Republicans try to tell you.) But what can any of us little people do except our part, which is what has led Henry to litter his home with messages about conserving water and protecting animals. (He also got enraged by a video of animals eating plastic trash.) The messages, which contain the adorable misspellings of a first grader, seem funny at first, but Henry’s passion is not. Nor is the plight of the planet.

All of our kids are learning about this stuff in school, and we should feel bad about what we’ve done to Mother Earth. We deserve the guilt we get when our kids come home from school with flyers about Earth Day and information about recycling and global warming and fossil fuels. It probably wouldn’t be a bad thing if more of them were as passionate as Henry Marr!

So you’ve got to hand it to this six-year-old, who is on his way to becoming quite the little activist. The video already has 2.2 million views, and if just a fraction of those viewers take his message to heart, maybe things will get a little better, for Henry, your children, and even Henry’s kids. Memorial Day, with its cookouts and beach parties, is a perfect time to start.

You don’t want Henry to cry more, do you? CLEAN UP YOUR PICNIC TABLE!