A Soapbox Moment

Reading accounts of now former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's "Statement on the Current Health Care Debate," I am reminded of an issue that plagues the current political climate in the U.S. (and, personally, really really frustrates me). This post is not about the merits of health care reform, advocating for or against either side of the health care debate, or proving the validity of either side's claims.

Rather, this post is about honesty, integrity, ethics, responsibility. It is both an admonishment and a plea directed to our public figures in the media and in politics. We all, including yourselves, are granted a great freedom to speak our minds and publish our thoughts with little limit. However, that right must be exercised with integrity and responsibility. You must speak and write with a mind toward ethical responsibility and personal accountability. For politicians and legislators, it means carefully choosing words that express your opinions and accurately inform your constituency without misleading. For media persons, it means refusing to promote and encourage such behavior by latching onto firestorm lingo and exaggerated terminology. The public relies on each of you. We rely on you to formulate viable solutions. We rely on you to help educate us about the important debates engrossing our nation. Extreme behavior fulfills neither of these duties. Rather, such self-promoting conduct stands as a stubborn obstacle to any progress for the citizens of the United States.

In sum - Please debate. Please encourage honest and fruitful discussion of issues, great and small. Please listen. Please respond. But in doing all of these, please keep in mind the roles you occupy in our society and the members of that society that rely upon you. After all, you are here for our collective well being, not for your own ambitions.

A Few Thoughts on Sustainability

To kick off this effort, I would like to put some of my ideas about "sustainability" on paper. I do not intend for this blog to become one purely or even primarily dedicated to sustainability. However, I do hope sustainability will be one of the considerations by which to weigh some of the ideas, policies, and decisions that will be discussed herein. In other words, I plan to consider the ramifications of a particular policy or action on the sustainability of the affected community and the sustainability of individuals' lifestyles within that community.

Now, what do I mean by "sustainability," a term that has quickly become a prevalent buzzword in today's culture. I think sustainability is too often linked to modifiers like "eco-" and "green"; by such use, its scope is unfairly limited. Dictionary definitions define the root word, sustain, more generally in terms of longevity, prolonging, or keeping up. With this denotation, sustainability becomes an evaluator with much broader application, and with that tool, we can examine each action, idea, and policy with an eye toward each's long-term value and applicability. This is no doubt the type of analysis conducted by shrewd executives and investors in evaluating proposed deals with significant financial stakes.

It seems intuitive, then, that this same analysis should be forefront in the minds of elected officials, public deciders, and policy makers who have our communities' and citizens' futures at stake. However, these persons must act and react within a fast-food life context - instant gratification and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately. Thus, decisions are driven by this short-term, quick-fix attitude, and such decisions do not often stand the test of time. I would be unfair if I did not require the elector to shoulder equal blame as the elected. After all, finger-pointing is not my aim. Rather, I want us collectively to recognize the foundational problem at hand and, by doing so, take the first step to rectifying it. Thus, I believe that each issue, no matter the subject, deserves a sustainability analysis in terms of the longevity of its benefits, consequences, and relevance. Questions of economic policy, healthcare reform, transportation goals - for each we should ask how this decision will help each of us prolong a viable lifestyle that benefits and upholds our community as an economic unit, social group, and geographic environment.

A final word about sustainability. Sustainability will not just happen. Nor will a top-down type scheme really do the trick. Sustainability builds from everyday decisions of everyday persons. Not to make it appear black and white, but each decision we make in our daily lives often has a more sustainable and less sustainable option. Some of these I hope to address with some thought here on this blog. Others might pop up as tweets as I confront them myself here in Denver. To make my intended point, a sustainable lifestyle requires some measure of individual responsibility, with a mind toward the social impact of that individual responsibility. I am currently reading a Wendell Berry commentary in which one of the main themes discussed is his idea of defining the individual in terms of his community. I hope as I get a better grasp on Berry's philosophy, perhaps I will be able to incorporate it in my musings here, as one of my aims in these writings is to explore how we each fit into our present communities and the reciprocal relationship in establishing and sustaining the viability of each.