John Kerry, Part 1: Making America America.

John Kerry starts out by invoking the poem of the great Black poet, Langston Hughes, "Making America America again."

Here are the lyrics:

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!

America started out not as a country, but as an ideal -- the ideal that any one of us could become successful through hard work and industry. But time and time again, that ideal has become a myth -- trampled down by those in power. And there is a common theme in both the struggles of those who seek equality and those who fight against the vice of corporate welfare -- the struggle against those who both have unlimited power and who would abuse it by exploiting people for their greedy, selfish ends.

This unbridled lust for power by the right has brought us to where we are today -- with a clash between a right-wing power machine trying to turn this country into an empire and who would control everything everyone does -- even people's bodies and thoughts.

But now, the American people are fighting back -- demanding that our leaders in Congress stop the madness that is taking over our government and which is turning this country into a monster only bent on getting as much as possible before an apocalyse that they think will bring about the Second Coming of Jesus and the New Millenium.

The modern right-wing movement is no longer relevant to our problems today. Any good political system or movement relies on things that actually are -- also known as reality. But from an environmental standpoint, the Republican Party is increasingly relying on junk science to defend corporate abuse of power -- the right of corporations to pollute under the guise of "freedom from government regulation." A good example Channel 4's junk science hit piece on Global Warming, discussed here.

And their attacks on the environment are just one claw of the hand of Republican Party -- the Party of Corporate Welfare. The corporate exploitation of workers, the "Clean Skies Initiative," and the plan to abolish the Minimum Wage are just a few more examples of how the Republican Party shows a reckless disregard for any kind of life. Prime examples range from the plan by the Bush administration to allow the shooting of wolves from planes in Alaska to the killing of 600,000 civilians in Iraq to their reckless disregard for the lives of Katrina survivors. And if the earth is a living being as some suggest, they are showing a reckless disregard for her well-being as well.

John Kerry in his book makes the point that the Republican Party used to be an environmentalist party from Teddy Roosevelt to Nixon, who signed many of our environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act. While environmentalists for a long time had a home in the Republican Party, I would beg to differ that was representative of the party as a whole. While there was a strong environmental streak within the Republican Party, fueled by admirerers of Teddy Roosevelt and the New England Republicans, as a whole, the GOP has always been a party of corporate welfare.

For example, their reckless policies of the 1920's enabled the rampant greed and wild speculation that led to the Great Depression and the cycle of boom and bust. And before Teddy Roosevelt, it was their policies that led to the rise of the Robber Barons, who preyed on smaller businesses and forced them to sell out or close down. Many of these companies and their spiritual descendants are the ones preying on our environment today.

And from Nixon onwards, the Republican Party has had a constant culture of corruption that has undermined enforcement of our nation's laws. The ideology that government is the problem and not the solution led to the weakening in enforcement of our environmental laws. After all, if I think that government is the problem, then why should I act to stop every little nitpicky little violation of environmental law? I would be creating more problems than I solve. Or, I might think that it is someone else's problem, such as the private sector.

Many right-wingers throw up a smokescreen at this point and claim that government is the biggest polluter. But it is not government that makes all these pollution factories such as coal-fired plants. Or decides to build a Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO). Or decides that Americans would love an SUV. All this is a smokescreen to distract from the real issues. If we elect people who care about the environment, then the government pollution problem will take care of itself.

Kerry talks about the right-wing smears against the Environment:

--Too Elitist. That argument is not credible since the Republican Party has been a party by the rich and for the rich since the 1920's, when they allowed corporate greed to go unchecked.

--Anti-growth. Actually, solar plants, light rail, wind farms, and alternative fuel research are good ways to create jobs.

--Impractical. As John Kerry will show, changes that are improving our environment are already happening.

--Overly White. That is a bizzare criticism to say the least. If they mean that we are somehow too self-righteous, then that is a simple ad homenim attack. If they are saying that to drive a wedge between environmentalists and the Balck community, then that is typical of their attempts to divide various communities so that they do not unite against the real oppressors -- the right-wing power structure that has run unchecked in government for the last six years.

--Alarmist. This is not credible, coming from the same party that ran a whole campaign on alarmism over Saddam, terrorism, and lately, supposed hordes of illegal immigrants swarming across the border to overrun this country.

--Costly. Taking care of our environment is not costly when you compare it to the threat to human existance, amply documented by Al Gore.

--Irrationally uncompromising. That criticism smells of Broderism, where we are all supposed to be all nice and bipartisan. But the whole basis for our party and our movement is that we cannot compromise when it comes to reality. We cannot compromise and claim that Saddam might have had WMD's in the name of "bipartisanship." We cannot compromise with Giuliani by claiming that Iran had something to do with 9/11 because it would look "too divisive" not to do so. And we cannot compromise when it comes to the fact of human-induced climate change.

The same beltway pundits that are bleating "bipartisanship" are the ones who have claimed many times in the past that environmentalism is dead as a movement. But the central thesis of John Kerry's book is that not only is it not dead, but it is alive and well because it has gone local. People who never would have bought into hugging a tree or the old "Save the Whales" campaigns are taking stands on local issues.

Environmentalism is different things to different people. One local area might be dealing with the CAFO that might be moving into the area and stinking up a whole area within a 10-mile radius. Others might be dealing with the sewer smell from the sound that is just half a mile away and wondering what is causing the stink. Others might be concerned about the ugly sight of mountaintop removal scaring away tourism. The local mayor might not want people having a mud run too close to the city well because he does not want to take the slightest chance of contaminating the city well and ruining the city water supply. Over in Washington, Native Americans might be concerned with the impact of the Grand Coulee Dam on the local fish population.

Kerry writes about a common right-wing tactic in the introduction of playing off different groups of people. Environmentalists are accused of caring less about the following issues:

--National security. But a Pentagon Report has talked about the apocalyptic consequences of a global freeze, where everyone is fighting for survival and getting nukes to protect their ever-dwindling supply of foods.

--Economy. Light rail, however, is a form of economic development. Not only that, rail service could revive the economies of small towns; one could live in a small town and commute to work 50 miles away without using extensive gas mileage. Or it could be a cheaper alternative to flight.

--Health care. But environmentalism is a form of preventative health care. For instance, if there is a disproportional number of cancer cases within a 30-mile radius of a plant, wouldn't it make sense to investigate that plant's impact on the environment?

--Family. But given the example above, why should I spend time on my back porch with my family grilling barbeque if there is a constant smell of hog odor coming from the CAFO plant 2 miles away?

--Education. If I am a teacher, why should I take my kids out to recess if they are allergic to the odor in the air? I was student teaching a couple of years ago, and one of the kids I was with asked about the odor that was in the air -- it was from a CAFO several miles away.

--Profit. But if there is mercury in the rivers, then that is not profitable for the Native Americans who live off the fish in the rivers.

--Community. But as I mentioned above, why should I go and tour some community if there are a bunch of unsightly blights caused by mountaintop removal?

The whole purpose of sound environmental policy should be to give communities the resources they need to exercise local control over what comes in. Communities should have every right to say no to a CAFO that wants to move into the area. It is not just a matter of federal mandates, although that is important as well. It is a matter of giving local communities the resources they need to ensure a high quality of life for their town.

Kerry writes that the Republican Party and the right-wing power establishment puts forth a false choice between environmentalism and economic development. But the fact of the matter is that environmentalism IS economic development:

--Allowing people to pay more so that the company can order and plant trees (carbon offsets for computers) is one such form; it provides more jobs for tree-growers, for instance.
--As I mention for the third time, wind farms, solar plants, and light rail all create jobs. And incidentally, many of these jobs are not easy to outsource like many jobs are today.
--Nobody wants to live near a place that has mountains removed or that is deforested. So, if I am a business wanting to locate somewhere, why should I locate to a town that has such an unsightly view?
--And why should I locate to a place which smells of CAFO hog odor all the time?

More and more people are starting to grow increasingly uncomfortable with the rising threat of global warming and the loss of connection with nature that people are feeling. Even if they cannot put their fingers on it, people are sensing something missing -- something that was lost. People do not normally change unless something happens to them that takes them out of their comfort zones. Lifelong smokers might never want another cigarette if they get a heart attack, for instance.

For example,
Richard Louv, a long-time advocate of connecting people to the natural world, addressed a normally hostile audience -- developers who wanted to build cities. But this time was different -- these developers wanted to know how they could build cities, towns, and neighborhoods in a way that kept people connected to nature. The US Climate Action Partnership is a group of environmental groups and companies dedicated to developing solutions for the environment that are both environmentally sound and business-friendly. DuPont, of all people, is a member of that coalition.

And even here at home, people sense that something is missing. A city council is stubbornly sticking with a plan to develop a nature trail for their city in the face of heavy opposition and ridicule and having already spent $14,000 on the project. The local school has built an outdoor classroom to educate their children. And there are plenty of people that are interested in stopping CAFO's from coming in, including the local Republican Party chairwoman.

Somehow, something is missing -- we as a race are starting to sense that we have lost our connection with nature and want to get it back. And the Democratic Party is the party of innovation, ready to put the best and the brightest ideas into practice to reverse the threat of global warming and bring us into the 21st century with policies that both bring us back to the record economic growth of the Clinton years and which does it in a way that is safe for the environment.