The Moline Dispatch this morning ran a column by retired judge John Donald O'Shea of Moline.
How would you like to live in a 900-square-foot mud hut of a standardized design approved by the United Nations? Drive a two-door subcompact car with specifications approved by the European Union? Subsist on a diet of fish and rice "OKed" by the people of Pakistan and Bangladesh? Be required to keep your thermostat at 60 degrees during the winter, and 85 degrees during the summer, to please the people of Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia?
On May 19, Barack Obama told voters in Oregon, "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say 'OK.' That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."
Okay, so what is "leadership?" Is leadership moving into mud huts because the people of Sudan live in a mud huts? Is "leadership" driving a 1952 Chevrolet like the people of Cuba? Is it eating mud cookies because there are starving people in Africa who eat salted mud to fend off starvation? If North Koreans are willing to work for a dollar a day, should American labor "lead" by agreeing to have their wages cut to a dollar a day?
I think that is wonderful! I hope we hear a great deal more from Judge O'Shea and other McCain supporters with views such as this between now and November.
Everyone knows that because of global warming, the rising price of oil and many other factors Americans are going to have to change the way they live, drive and consume energy. There is no alternative – we must decrease our consumption of fossil fuels. The necessary changes to our lives here in America need not involve a great deal of hardship and suffering with the proper planning, attitude and leadership.
What sort of leadership do John McCain and the Republicans offer on this issue? Readers of Judge O'Shea's column could easily conclude that all they have to offer are fear-mongering, prejudice and xenophobia
2 comments:
The Republicans offer that we can continue our accustomed lifestyle by repressing the rest of the world. They don't say it that way, though, they couch it in patriotic and flowery terms, and I think it is unwise to dismiss the attraction a significant number of people have to that offer.
lyrl,
Even a large percentage of Evangelical Christians now understand that we have to be better stewards of the Earth. There is a broad plurality that understands the need to reduce our carbon footprint and is willing to do so. Judge O'Shea is part of a shrinking minority in this country. There is no need to argue with them. They have lost the debate.
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