Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth picked up an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song Sunday night. Tuesday morning, our local metropolitan paper runs a report that the former Vice President's house is hardly the green haven one would expect. I will leave you to read the story (the story pans over any power consumed in the process of renovating as being a likely culprit in the high electric bills), but one forum poster had this to add:
So Al Gore's big enviro-friendly mansion costs money to run; duh, most large homes have larger utility bills than small ones. Now that we've covered that, & Al finally won something that can't be taken away from him, will someone please show him the door? He's not even a native Tennessean (born in DC, graduated from high school there, went to Harvard) & didn't even win his "home" state when he ran for President. Enough already.
The "native Tennessean" remark is one that caught my attention. It is a growing trend in Tennessee politics to bring a person's residency history into the debate. Even in recent the US Senate race, the radio ad that received the most airtime leading up the November elections drove home the point that Harold Ford, Jr. had not spent all of his formative years in Tennessee. Let's consider this argument.
This poster, and those who think along the same line, have come to agree that in order for a man or woman to effectively represent the Volunteer State, they must have been born here, gone to K-12 school here, gone to college here and ran a business or have held some other occupation here. I have a lot of pride in my home state (I meet all of the preceding requirements), but it is disingenuous to assume that the locals are the superior species. For starters, the local comes from a state that has consistently finished at or near the bottom in education for several years running (we trade places with Mississippi it seems every third year or so). Our agriculture-based economy has experienced quite a bit of growing pains (pardon the pun) as the metropolitan areas continue to sprawl further into the rural regions. Our state's educators, the backbone of society, are hastily trained and poorly compensated.
While I take personal pride in where I call home, I also recognize the need to hear many voices on some of our key issues facing our country. Rather than questioning whether a person hums "Rocky Top" in their sleep, why not wake up and listen to what they have to say? Al Gore is a polarizing figure only because we make him out to be. The simple message of living in a manner that can be sustained is bigger than any one person.
It really comes down to what you want to hear. Aside from being aptly titled, it comes as no surprise that so many write off the concept of human-related global climate change as nothing more than a political stunt. It is not Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy or any other concept that you can hold a child-like belief in. You do not have to "believe in" global warming to take action to make the world a better place for the next generation.
Curbing our greenhouse emissions is simply the responsible thing to do. You just have care enough to see that like our body is our temple, our planet is the only one we shall ever receive. Somehow we must start seeing the way we treat our environment as an extension of how we treat one another.
We are all "from around here," after all.