The Greening of Jack Daniels

Sipping bourbon in Louisville, Kentucky, I realized that I'd never foreseen Jack Daniels as a major player at an interfaith conference on the environment. But here they were, in the form of their parent company, Brown-Forman, serving "slow food" at their corporate cafeteria to the wildly diverse group of religious voices and environmental advocates who had planned Louisville's 11th Festival of Faiths. Brown-Forman is family-owned, which helps. Owsley Brown II hangs out with folks like Wendell Berry, and his wife Christy was a sparkplug behind the recent election of new Congressman John Yarmuth, who upset Dirty Dozen incumbent Anne Northup.

They're both also deeply involved in supporting the Festival of Faiths, which featured a forum this year on mountaintop removal, a form of coal mining so loathsome that, as speaker after speaker said, "It is a sin." Bob Edwards, who for years woke me up on Morning Edition, now has his own show on XM satellite radio, but he startled the panel by saying that on mountain removal he wanted a new kind of journalism. "I'm still a journalist," he said, "but I don't believe that you put a lie on the air to balance the truth. There are some stories -- not many, perhaps, but this is one of them -- on which truth is on one side, and we shouldn't be afraid to let that show." Edwards has produced a fabulous radio narrative called "Exploding Heritage."

The conversation focused on the linkage between new energy solutions and economic development. To the north of Kentucky, Ohio is the economic powerhouse, and Ohio's new Governor Ted Strickland has made it clear that he is going to turn the state around 180 degrees and make new energy ideas and jobs the centerpiece of his revitalization strategy for the economy. I urged folks here: "If an express train is leaving for the 21st century just across the river, why should Kentucky remain stuck in the 19th?"

The panels were intense, but you could sense a new spirit moving. People were turned on by last Tuesday's results and there was hope in the air. I think The Economist got it right in an editorial: "A bipartisan push on energy and the environment is another possibility: American politics is greening at a rapid rate, not just in California, which has led the way in seeking to impose caps on carbon emissions, but even in such oil-addicted places as Texas, where astute businessmen increasingly see the potential of windpower, biofuels and photocells." And look at the headline the magazine splashed on its front cover: "The Incredible Shrinking Presidency."

Well, today the President is going to meet with the Big Three (now more properly called the Detroit Three, because Toyota is now one of the Big Three automakers). The word is, though, that the Presidency -- as well as the Detroit Three's market share -- will continue shrinking. Leadership it appears, has been considered for a few days and rejected.

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