A quick note this morning – I'm chairing a Senate Small Business committee business meeting this morning and running around between votes - but I'll check back in the afternoon to read and respond.
But before I go -- netroots, we need you to meet the ‘new environmentalists.’
Over the last two years, I thought a lot about the political process – about how to make issues voting issues. It’s been a ‘back to basics’ approach for me. I came into politics as an activist – Earth Day 1970 and then full time in the movement to end the Vietnam War.
And when I thought of the environment, it hit me that even more dangerous about this administration’s assault on the environment is the assumption on which that assault relies: they think people don’t care. They’ve gotten away with dismissing the environmental movement as “elitist” ... or do-gooder ... “tree-hugging.”
That’s why Teresa and I spent the last year working on our new book. We want to show the true face of the new environmentalism. We talked to a ton of people who are fighting for a clean, safe, healthy environment. They may not label themselves environmentalists or activists but labels aren’t important. What is important is that we’re all fighting for the same thing: a clean, safe healthy environment.
Their stories moved us. And so we decided to collect them, along with our own reflections, in a book: This Moment on Earth. More Americans than ever before are realizing that we now face a crisis, a crisis that links ranchers and biologists, mothers and chemists, city planners, fishermen and even late-night talk show hosts . (I hope)
No doubt, we in politics must work to solve the problems at 30,000 feet—with bold new ideas for energy independence—but this movement will only succeed if it’s more about you than us – if Americans get out there to protect the ground beneath their own two feet.
No doubt the right wing is going to pile on. We’ve seen what they‘ve done to our friend Al Gore, and as an old friend of mine used to say “it is what it is.” But I hope you’ll step in and fight their cynicism. This book isn’t about us.
I hope you’ll go online and write a review. Don’t defend us. Defend the ranchers out West who are tired of watching their cows die. Defend the evangelicals who are partnering with others to make “creation care” their great cause. Defend people you know who are the every-day environmentalists making changes in their lives to make a bigger change in the world. Defend yourself, the every-day activist and tell your own story. All of you are the heroes of This Moment on Earth. They and you are the face of the new environmentalism and it’s going to take all of us to get the job done.
Cross-posted at JohnKerry.com Blog
update: I've got a minute or two, and I should have some more time later. I'll start responding to comments ...
update 2: I had a bit more time, so I tried to answer some more comments ... thanks for all of your comments.