Originally Posted by
uneverno
http:///forum/post/3052835
Crap, I can't figure out how to post multiple quotes. I used to know how...
Anyweigh,
Reefraf, and stdreb27, I agree w/ both of you.
And reef - I'll take the semantic differentiation between environmentalist and conservationist. I think we're on the same page on that one, and I prefer to think of myself as the latter, partly for the sake of cost effectiveness and partly out of a sense of environmental responsibility, but not entirely for either reason.
Ducks Unlimited (just as one example) is a far more conservationist organization than the Sierra Club (again, for example). They (DU) go about their business quietly and independently and have done more to preserve wetlands than the causeheads could conceive of themselves, but because of that little hunting thing, the proverbial baby gets thrown out with the bath water. It's ridiculous.
The Sierra Club, meantime, gets causehead attention and money, but has become a largely political/lobbyist (i.e. ineffective) organization. They talk a good talk, but they accomplish little because they've been co-opted by the system.
I don't get it on either count.
By the same token, I do believe that there need to be watchdog organizations which oversee corporate abuse of the system as well, such as Monsanto's dumping of PVC waste into local water systems, Love Canal type situations, Intel and other chip manufacturers creating 20+ superfund sites in the Silicon Valley (where we have the highest rate of pet cancer in the nation), etc.
The trouble there ends up being a fox guarding the henhouse situation where we have (again, for example) the former CEO of Goldman Sachs presiding over the meltdown of OUR Treasury to his former employer's advantage...
I've given it a lot of thought, and this is a conundrum I have yet to figure out myself.
The problem is, in politics you no longer have people standing up to serve the country. You have people going in to serve themselves. I don't think there are very many politicians in power, that had they been in Washington's shoes, would have stepped down after 2 terms.
And that is why, I hold in such high value the original intent of the constitution. Because if it were rewritten today, it would fail like most other countries constitution's that get rewritten every couple of decades. Because people would not set aside their own personal agenda for the good of the country.
