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Is Greta Thunberg "The Samantha Smith for the 2020s"?

posted 3 years ago by TheMan18 (12700)
4 replies | jump to latest

Is anyone in here old enough, or otherwise, to even *remember* Samantha Smith?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith
A young girl child who in the 80s was herself a peace activist and who was quite well known especially in the Soviet Union as she worked on trying to understand and lessen the political tensions between USSR and USA in the 80s, Smith herself died in a plane crash at the age of 13 in 1985. She even personally wrote a letter to Mikhayil Gorbachev and maybe even met him.

Even though Thunberg is a teen at the time and now a young adult around 17 or so, do you see any similarities between her and Samantha Smith and do the two figures have anything in common, what do you think, thanks.

P.S. What little I learned of Samantha Smith was from the popular Russian show "Namedni" with Leonid Parfenov (pronounced surname Parfyonov), the word means "Lately" in Russian and the year in question I believe was 1985.

[–] BigMom (1978) 3 years ago

Maybe,hopefully she will live way longer (already lived longer,and thats good,but of course i wish her to live even longer)

[–] TheMan18 (12700) 3 years ago

2 BigMom, so you have heard of Samantha Smith? In the 80s in the Soviet Union, she was for a while quite a popular figure.

[–] gcarras (2737) 3 years ago

Samantha Smith wasn't obnoxious or divisive,though...

[–] ebhaynz (3616) 3 years ago

I remember Samantha Smith she was popular here in the U.S. as a peace activist. Samantha wrote the Soviet premier a letter asking why there was a cold war between the U.S. and Soviet Union..incredibly she got a reply from either Gorbachev or Andropov, explaining the Soviet view of the tensions. I think she even traveled to the Soviet Union it was a big deal in the media.

I think there are similarities between Samantha and Greta as they both are young, teenage girl activists in the media spotlight. Maybe one big difference between these two is that Samantha was more of an inquisitive activist who wanted to make peace by listening, understanding, and a smile. Greta isn't an activist who asks questions, she's demanding action be taken based on her belief that global climate change is a very serious threat to both humanity and the earth's ecosystems. They both have certainly made an impact that's for sure.