How We Failed Our Children

How We Failed Our Children

Thirty years ago we didn’t have personal computers or fax machines.  What we did have was our energy crises.  Twenty years ago we didn’t have cell phones, the Internet, DVD’s or email.  What we did have was an energy crisis.  Ten years ago we didn’t have high definition television, plasma screens or Google.  What we did have was an energy crisis.  Today we have a full-blown energy catastrophe.  Why?  Because we choose to.

Gas near our home costs $3.35 a gallon.  A fill-up for my daughter’s Honda is $40 bucks.  She spends $60 a week on gas to get to school and get to work.  At her $10/hour wage, it takes her a full day of work to net after taxes a week’s worth of gas!  But the price of gas is not my daughter’s biggest problem.  It’s where the damn stuff comes from.  The financial price of gas is only a fraction of the true cost to our future. 

The engine of modern prosperity runs on oil.  That may have worked in the last century, but it’s a complete and total disaster in this one.  And unless we get to a radical new solution right away, our children will be slaves.  Oil plagues us in every way. It pollutes our air, over heats our atmosphere, funds terrorists, and gives sinister governments enormous power and sophisticated weapons. The people most hurt by this are students and lower paid workers who need a car to get to school or work.  It also hurts small business owners who have little power to raise prices, and no power to reduce fuel costs.

When oil is expensive it determines how warm we can keep our homes or how far we can drive.  It impacts the cost of everything that travels by truck.  Little things like food, clothing, and building supplies.  Other than that, it has no influence over us.

Think about it.  For over 30 years our government and business leaders have led us down a dark slippery path where our way of life and our standard of living would become increasingly dependent on religious fanatics or ruthless despots.  So what have we done?

We’ve darkened our children’s future. We’ve enriched scary countries like Saudi Arabia who support terrorism, Iran who wants to nuke Israel, and Venezuela who is becoming the new Cuba.  Meanwhile, Europe has turned reborn ruthless nuclear Russia into an energy-fueled totalitarian powerhouse.  And it’s only going to get worse.  Why?  World demand is exploding and too few people control the supply of “devil juice.”

There are solutions.  When we’re told there aren’t and that all we can do is conserve, buy a few hybrids, or stuff corn in our fuel tanks, it’s a lie.  We can do much more.  When leaders tell us they want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 20% in 10 years, they are just mouthing the words of the oil-lobby.  Conservation and hybrids help to be sure.  Growing corn for inefficient fuel is like mistaking a Twinkie for a protein bar.  It’s empty calories.  But practical ideas are abundant.

Billions of venture funds are flowing into solutions.  In the near future, we can increase average gas mileage by 50% by buying hybrids, using bio-diesel, and reducing the excessive weight of our biggest vehicles.  We can offer tax credits to buyers to get these cars on the road.  We can radically invest in new technology to create clean renewable fuels.

Sooner than we think we can free ourselves from fossil fuel.  The answers are maybe in new ways to harness hydrogen, waste product conversion, or electricity from the sun, wind, and water (for a great resource on renewable energy click here).  It will undoubtedly come from the radical experience of our imaginations like using chemical proteins we can grow (for more info. visit the J. Craig Ventner Institute).  But none of this will happen without leadership and a united public will.  We have a 13 trillion dollar economy.  Through incentives, tax credits, and direct investment, why can’t we spend one quarter of one percent ($320 billion) a year to find clean, renewable solutions that will create new jobs, hope for a more peaceful world and a future for our children?  If what we were spending on the “war” was spent on freeing ourselves from oil slavery, wouldn’t that be money better spent?

If you think all of this is impractical idealism.  It is only because we think so.  The idea of America was one of the most impractical, idealist concepts in history.  What was different was that we had leaders who were committed to our independence.  Isn’t it time to demand from anyone running for a major public office to have a real plan for energy independence.  Shouldn’t it be standard to be taken seriously?

There are always people who will tell us we can’t achieve our dreams because they profit from the status quo.  When we believe their version of the future we feel powerless and act like we are.  There is not shortage of solutions to solving our energy crisis, only a famine of will.

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The 4th American Revolution

I frequently make people mad. Either by what I say or what I don’t. If I say anything with political overtones that is at odds with certain hardened positions of either the Right or Left, people who hold those positions ask me to not be political. Others, who seem to be very angry with our current political scene chastise me for reminding each of us that no matter what is going on at the national level, we can make a difference by living our own lives in a thoughtful, proactive way. It makes it hard to select topics and words to write about. First off, I probably agree with most of you on most things. But if we agreed on everything, these blogs would not add any value. Second, I don’t support a Left or Right political ideology. We live in a time of leadership failure across all institutions. Third, there is one thing the majority of us do agree on and that is the country is headed in the wrong direction and things need to change.

As a nation, we’ve been here before. Four times in our nation’s history we had to stare reality straight in the eye and say, “This is not working; we can do better.” We had to take strong stands to claim our independence, end slavery, and triumph over economic depression. Each time we had to push beyond life as usual to get to a new life as it should be. We’ve done this successfully. Three times. This is the fourth.

It is time for change that is radically better for everyone—even the rich and privileged as well as the poor and the hopeless. Change that is better for business, education, and government. Change that demands thoughtful, value drenched innovation at levels far beyond our current limitations.

The American Dream Project was founded because, as a society and as individuals, we have reached this time of change. The American Dream Project is YOURS. It does not promote a single ideology, political viewpoint or economic scheme. It is not Right wing or Left wing. It opposes greed, self-interest, deception, and incompetence, whether they are found in Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, labor or management, men or women. It promotes wisdom, common sense, responsibility, compassion, human dignity, fairness and justice. It seeks new solutions to dramatically advance the real American Dream. The Dream that you harbor in your heart, right now.

It is about the freedom to make real choices in the most meaningful dimensions of our lives. Our personal choices do matter. All of them. We must work for worthy employers, start businesses with moral vision, found non-profit organizations that accomplish tangible results, and demand competence and character from our public leaders. So if you are concerned about government corruption, waste and incompetence, do more than just complain to your friends or listen to talk radio. Raise your own voice in emails to your congressman, letters to the editor, or protest in public. Support your candidate, advocate solutions; be a fully engaged citizen. We are not helpless if we are not silent. Above all, if we lead, our leaders will follow. We must set a new standard, and only then will the real American Dream thrive again. The world needs your dreams. Saving it is a big job; it needs all of us.

Happy Independence Day.

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