We the people...are responsible for our situation.
I am often forced to educate people on the harsh reality that we, the consumers, are responsible for the situations that we also complain about. Of course there are those of us in this forum who have "seen the light" and are doing what we can to make the future better than the predictions, but we must realize that the true solution lies in changing the mindset of those around us.
The most influencial way to educate people is to lead by example and to not compromise on sustainable practices especially when we're around other people. When my wife and I go to work, we are surrounded by wasteful individuals who may at first think that we are tree-hugging wackos, but it doesn't take long until they start feeling guilty about buying and throwing away bottled water containers, driving their giant SUVs, eating processed foods, and most of all paying huge energy bills.
I'm one of the few people who is happy about the recent increases in energy costs. I understand that since the costs shot up so quickly, and most of the world was unprepared, it's having a terrible effect on the economy, but it's having a wonderful effect on public behavior. There is no better motivator than the mighty dollar and everyone wants to keep as much of their money as possible. I only hope that when we get a better handle on energy prices and supplies that people don't throw away their newly discovered miserly habits.
Do everything you possibly can in your own lives; reduce, reuse, recycle, conserve, buy local, and be green. Once you get started, you'll find it impossible to stop doing and impossible to stop others from catching on.
The most influencial way to educate people is to lead by example and to not compromise on sustainable practices especially when we're around other people. When my wife and I go to work, we are surrounded by wasteful individuals who may at first think that we are tree-hugging wackos, but it doesn't take long until they start feeling guilty about buying and throwing away bottled water containers, driving their giant SUVs, eating processed foods, and most of all paying huge energy bills.
I'm one of the few people who is happy about the recent increases in energy costs. I understand that since the costs shot up so quickly, and most of the world was unprepared, it's having a terrible effect on the economy, but it's having a wonderful effect on public behavior. There is no better motivator than the mighty dollar and everyone wants to keep as much of their money as possible. I only hope that when we get a better handle on energy prices and supplies that people don't throw away their newly discovered miserly habits.
Do everything you possibly can in your own lives; reduce, reuse, recycle, conserve, buy local, and be green. Once you get started, you'll find it impossible to stop doing and impossible to stop others from catching on.
Tags: better, conserve, live, recycle, spread, the, word
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Permalink Reply by SJC on -
If only 1/2 the people vote, then 25% of the people control the other 75%. We could say it is "our" fault, "we" elected Nixon with Watergate, Reagan with Iran/Contra and Dufus with torture, but it is not. It is the will of the minority of conservatives. Sure, more people should vote, but with the special interest lobbyists, they know who controls the country. I vote and I think that it is every citizens duty to vote, but in some ways you can see their point.
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Permalink Reply by DubleDeuce on -
Your headline <<We the people...are responsible for our situation.>> is far greater than even you may imagine. This country is coming up on 232 years of age. Not a long time a nations go, but CERTAINLY a long enough time to see a distinct pattern. I won't bore you with my detailed thesis except to say from the beginning when a flawed Constitution was adopted in 1787, through the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott case, the John Brown incident, the Civil War, the 13th -14th and -15th Amendments, Plessey vs. Ferguson, brown vs Board of Education, the riots of the 60's and the forced busing, on to affirmative action, and the latest Supreme Court decision on quotes in school racial balancing, we as a nation have NEVER stood up to be counted. In each of the aforementioned historical incidents the people of this country have FAILED to stand and profess their moral outrage, preferring to accept the status quo over their own personal code of action.
"Let the politician do it", not "Let Freedom ring" was the REAL rallying cry of this land. Yes. I'm a white southern male, probably guilty of too many racist comments and thoughts, but the facts are the facts and to fail to see them as they are seems to be the hallmark of this nation.
Here we are in a national security mess. We are hobbled by high debt, outstripped fuel supplies, no national plan for going forward, no consensus even on GOING forward. That old stand-by line of "let the politician do it" is being heard loud an clear again.
The politician cannot do for us what needs to be done. What needs to be done is the same thing that needed to be done in each of those historical scenarios outlined above, we need to hear the rational, true, and knowledgeable voice of the people. Not AFTER the fact, when the politician has acted, and we sense a great deal of error on their part, but NOW in a leadership role. Let the politician KNOW where you want to go and THEY will get out of the way and let you get there.
It has taken us 232 years to go from a proud an noble statement that "all men are created equal" to a country that is now trying to formally reconcile that idea with reality. We are hobbled by that same 232 history of letting the politician speak for us. NOT THIS TIME. We KNOW what we need as a GROUP of people who prize above all else, our individuality. No individual ensconced in, and isolated by, the walls of Congress can EVER know what is right for us. They never have.
Let them know how you feel America.
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Permalink Reply by Matt Rosendaul on -
Perhaps I need to expand on my previous discussion about it being "our fault".
Until a few years ago, I was one of the regular working joes. I bought a house, had cars and toys galore, but was totally ignorant when it came to energy. I was what I now call a "bill payer". My energy bill came in the mail, and I paid it. I honestly thought that I was at the whim of the energy suppliers. In my current profession as an energy auditor and educator, I realize why there are so many "bill payers" and so few "educated consumers" of energy.
By the nature of the billing process, energy companies have created a separation between receiving the goods and paying for them. It's a little like the credit card crisis if you think about it. If we were forced to pay cash for energy at the time we use it, our behavior would be very different. Imagine a coin slot or bill acceptor above every outlet like a pop machine. Want to plug in your entertainment center? Please deposit $1.20....Cell phone charger? Please Deposit $0.65. They further push this separation by offering the "budget plan" which evens out your bills to an average every month concealing the big jump in use or price. The ultimate in energy ignorance is then to give them access to your checking account and let them take money every month.
As long as there are people who don't know or don't care about energy costs (including human and environmental costs), there will be companies out there willing to supply. Recently, the automotive companies in the U.S. have come under fire for not offering high mileage vehicles. The finger pointing needs to go to the market however because if there was no demand, there would be no supply. As long as the market will keep buying SUV's, they'll keep making them. There's no law that says we have to buy what they make.
Same goes for the political side. True that much of the market is determined by regulations and tarriffs, but the free-market economy has a marvelous way of supplying what is in demand. We can point fingers all we want, but what we really need is to realize that the power to change the world starts with changing a few things in our own lives. Lead and others will follow.
Matt
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