Forty years ago today, on April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King had come to Memphis, Tennessee, to aid striking sanitation workers. The preeminent civil rights leader of his time, he was only 39 years old.
Four decades have passed since that fateful day. As of this month, Dr. King has been gone from us longer than he was ever here. As we pass this milestone in history, we gather in Memphis to remind ourselves and the world that a bullet killed the dreamer -- but not the dream.
Dr. King had a vision of an America as good as its promise, and a world at peace with itself. That vision lives on in the hearts of hundreds of millions -- including two generations of adults and a rising generation of teenagers, all of whom have been born since Dr. King's passing.
The time has come for us to step forward. We must take full responsibility to advance the cause of justice, opportunity and peace in a new century.
And yet it must be said that we are stepping onto history's stage at a frightening time -- a time of global warming and global war. A time when "the Market" is free, and the people are not. A time of mass incarceration of people, and mass extinction of species. A time of "no rules" for the rich, and "no rights" for the poor. A time of increasing profits for the few, and decreasing options for the many. A time of buyouts and bailouts for the powerful and convictions and evictions for the powerless.
And yet, inside the United States, the tide has begun to turn. The GOP juggernaut that carried the nation to the brink of destruction has begun to run out of gas. Ordinary Americans today are longing for a leader, not a cowboy-in-chief. Some are rethinking consumerism, seeking healthier choices for their families, worrying about oil prices and even the climate crisis.
And just three years after George W. Bush's re-election, the mighty political party that Karl Rove thought would rule America for generations appears to be falling apart at the seams.
Something has shifted -- profoundly. Unfortunately, all the old political figures, outdated modes of discourse and stodgy institutions are still with us. But you can feel something exciting beginning to stir -- and break loose -- underneath.
The future is getting restless. We are on the brink of something promising and new. And for the first time in more than a generation, those of us who value living beings over dead products have a chance to offer real leadership to the country.
Our post-King generations must embrace the example Dr. King set. And we must reimagine it, to meet new challenges.
For example: in his time, Dr. King worked for equal protection and equal opportunity. We, too, must adopt that agenda. But ours is an age of both social crisis and ecological peril. Therefore, we must insist that vulnerable communities get equal protection from racial discrimination -- and from the floods, storms, droughts, plagues and fires that global warming is causing. Equal protection today means: no more Katrinas!
Ours is also an age of positive economic transformation: billions of dollars are pouring into the solar, wind, geothermal and other clean industries. This so-called "green economy" will generate thousands of business opportunities -- and millions of new jobs. We must guarantee equal opportunity in this growing green, clean and renewable economy. We must insist that the coming "green wave" lift ALL boats. Those low-income communities that were locked out of the pollution-based economy must be locked into the clean and green economy. Our communities -- and especially our children -- deserve "green-collar jobs, not jails."
Dr. King -- and many others -- fought, bled and died to racially integrate a pollution-based economy. Today, America is creating a new, clean and green economy. From the start, we must design it to have a dignified place for everyone.
Dr. King linked the solutions of civil rights, peace and economic opportunity. We must link the solutions of social justice, peace and ecological sanity. Our new dream must uplift the people -- and the planet, too. This is the calling of our time.
And so today, four decades later, we seek new fuel to meet new challenges. We seek a world society wherein we use clean, alternative energy sources to fuel our machines... healthy, organic and local food to fuel our bodies ... and hope, solidarity and love to fuel our movements for change.
Because to win over a wounded and frightened nation, our cause itself must become irresistibly beautiful, vital, healing and sustainable. Success will come when our networks are practical enough to "organize" hundreds of thousands -- and soulful enough to "magnetize" tens of millions. So let us dare to imagine: a healthy, joyous, self-confident liberation movement. A movement that celebrates more than it condemns ... inspires more than it critiques ... and solution-izes more than it problem-atizes.
Imagine a movement for justice -- with its arms wide open.
In these "difficult days," we have a duty to do more than curse the darkness. We must, ourselves, shine a new light.
That is what Dr. King did. And 40 years later, new generations have come to Memphis -- bearing lanterns of our own. Through the new organization, Green For All, I am proud to help sponsor one of the major MLK celebrations in this city today.
Here and now, we boldly, proudly and loudly declare The Dream ... REBORN.
Van Jones
Founder
Green For All
Carbon dioxide is a fertilizer and we are in a natural warming trend. Those who believe the IPCC are blinded by false "peer review" and haven't taken the time to review the data for themselves. Warmth means fewer cold weather deaths and the need for cheaper fuels for air conditioning (the single greatest savior in heat related deaths on the planet). The planet's temperature has dropped 0.8 deg in the last year, even though CO2 "might" be increasing. Check the satellite data.
The whole "green" idea (as it now stands) is fear mongering that kills families and dooms poor countries to a longer road to prosperity and the longevity that goes with it. Just like greenies desire to ban DDT has ended in millions of deaths, you will have these too resting on your shoulders. I will fight you with knowledge and professional courtesy every step of the way. I look forward to the fight.
2 trillion dollars. current cost for solar 8$ per average watt, 2.5*10^11 watt.
current electric USA use: 2.3*10^11 watts.
Wind is much cheaper.
Nano Solar is offering new panels at 2$/watt.
So All electricity could be generated for 500M USD we have already burned in the desert.
Solar is cheaper the OIL.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U
Corporate entities have been excellent at painting environmental interests as an elitist issue, not unlike their successes to fool the nation that deregulation, tax cuts for the very wealthy, and corporate welfare are fiscally sound approaches to our economy.
Certainly if King were still alive today by now, he would have seen the connection between environmental issues and race, class, human well being. That there are people who still maunder around in the idea that this is junk science or some anti prosperity nonsense of the save the cockroach crowd only demonstrates that a fool on a ship of fools cannot tell the difference between a squall and a perfect storm when the captains of corporate enterprise and government repeatedly a la Bagdhad Bob tell them so..
It is important to frame the debate in terms of DECENTRALIZED, local renewable energy solutions which are grid-tied (such as small wind, rooftop solar, conservation) and make sure our leaders are clear that another 19th century model of remote, wilderness-killing, Big Corporate owned power plants will destroy this dream. Aside from killing millions of acres of OUR environment, it will yank thousands and thousands of people from their homes via eminent domain for massive power lines, will create one-off construction gigs, then will raise rates on the most vulnerable. It's already starting.
Energy INDEPENDENCE - and participation in the electricity generation markets - is central to any boat that wants to truly float, rather than be propped up by dependence on Big Corpa or Big Government. Let's do this!
Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly would have been doing daily squinty-eyed tight-lipped rants about how he should wake up from his DREAM and do something for his OWN people; instead of just giving SPEECHES.
Therefore Dr. King's original message and life ambitions would have still been needed today 40 years later.
As for your bumper sticker problem -- I would, of course, encourage you to lead from the front on that issue, but I understand your hesitancy. May I suggest that you and your wife write letters to your local reps, the DNC and Gov. Rendell letting them know that as public figures and community leaders you expect them to address these things publicly, loudly and with unequivocal words -- racism and prejudice have no place in OUR America. Creating an environment in which bigotry and intimidation are socially unacceptable is absolutely the job of every citizen, and certainly that of our elected officials. If we don't hold our elected reps responsible for that, and do our parts individually, how can we ever expect there to be progress on this issue? It took millions marching in support of Civil Rights to make them a reality, and it will take millions speaking out to root out the last bits of bigotry that exist in our communities. It sounds like you guys happen to be on a "frontier" in that respect. Keep fighting the ignorance with love and education.
The IPCC has nothing to do with Green for All organizationally, so I'm not clear what YOUR agenda is here -- trying to make the case for a global conspiracy? And the end game of this conspiracy is what? To ensure that all humans have clean healthy food, homes and environments to live in? That businesses aren't allowed to create environmental catastrophes at the cost of the biosphere? To re-imagine human impact on the environment in a way that is sustainable? Why don't you dig deeper and clarify so there can be real debate on the issue instead of leaving reductionist, circular statements with no support or logical reasoning.
After all, the man-made global warming fairytale is now heavily and widely discredited in the scientific community. (That still doesn't stop fanatics like Al Gore it seems.)
I'm sure Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have listened to the scientists and not the IPCC politicians.
http://ellabakercenter.org
http://www.dreamreborn.org
"Green" and the hysteria based on bad science that surrounds it is just another way for government to get into the lives of all Americans and make it harder to live the American dream.
I am a small business owner and employer for 10 families. I know EXACTLY what I am talking about.
I weep for American children's chances of living the American dream unfettered by government bureaucracy (as our founding fathers dreamed).
In Japan, auto manufacturing CEOs credit unions for their success, as they rightfully should. The people doing the work are part of the economy too, and have every right to freely associate.
Your entire post sounds like you get your education from Sean Hannity, and you're here parroting it and some version of Bizarro MLK--trying to steal his message for your own benefit.
You entirely mis-read the Civil Rights by attempting to link Dr. King with the hippies. Hippies were disaffected middle-class White children who had chosen to reject their own culture. This Green for All campaign is about equipping people from disenfranchised communities with the knowledge and know-how to be relevant in the upcoming green tech economy.