[From Dick Robertson,2000.12.15.3205CST]
I'd like to share a brief passage from Thos. L. Friedman's, "The Lexus
and the Olive Tree" (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1999) that helped confirm
why I felt like weeping the other day. The book is about the tension
between globalization as a force for world development and its threat to
human survival on this earth.
(P. 241ff.) "While all these filters for protecting culture and
environment make sense in theory, you need them all working at once to
have any hope of making an impact.The rain forest park alone will never
pay enough to eliminate all logging; bureaucrats alone will never have
enough political will to apply all environmental laws; green
corporations alone will never be enough to slow the pace of
degradation....That is why I hope, and I acually believe...someone, or
some party, is going to build their politics around the notion of making
all of these filters work together....The good news is that this
politics already has a name--"the livability issue." In America Vice
President Al Gore has started to lay cliaim to this issue. Livability,
he argues, requires... politicians to to build a set of laws, incentives
and initiatives that can get all the filters working together. A key
element of [his] strategy is the creation of "Better America Bonds."
[That would be used] to buy up still-green open space, restore decayed
parks and refurbish areas, particularly inner cities, where the
environment has been destroyed but can be reclaimed [etc.]."
I'm holding my breath.
Best, Dick R.