I like to tell stories here. I think they tell who I am and what I think. We are getting to be a lazy nation. Oh let me explain below the fold. Mini-rant!
In an election, and I live in southern IL BTW, we voted 57% for McCain. In same election, 63% to raise our property taxes to build a $60M new high school. We built it in under a year. We just voted again, and well we are building a new primary school.
After the Stimulus Bill passed we found out a way to ask for money, and got $750,000 from the Federal government to wire every public building with fiber optics. Took us less than a month. Done. We are now thinking of wiring every business and offering free WIFI to the public, cause well we have a backbone of fiber running through our town.
But my favorite story. We get our power through a co-op of other small rural towns. They told us we needed to upgrade our power lines/infrastructure.
I get I don't live in NYC or Chicago. But we upgraded all our power lines in three months. There wasn't a day I could walk around town and not see new utility poles being shoved into the ground. New lines being pulled.
We didn't bitch. We didn't moan. We just got it done.
Let me say this again, maybe fossil fuels, but we rewired our entire town in three months.
I recall I was stunned to learn we built the Empire State building in a year. I watch as it takes a decade plus to rebuilt the World Trade Centers. I hear folks say it is too hard to go solar. Or do this or that. I want to grab them by their necks and shake them.
No it isn't too hard. You can do shit. You just have to try.