Redirection and Restoration Trump Recovery

March 3, 2009 by David Eggleton

The vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce recently told the Wall Street Journal that federal regulation of carbon dioxide "would completely shut the country down." Does he agree with John Edwards that there are two Americas? Was he speaking of the one he's single-minded about? Does he want to scare people into clinging to failed arrangements? I think so. Despite their record, the elites who drove us into this multifaceted crisis clearly intend to stay on top during anything resembling a recovery.

Fossil fuels have fostered arrangements for making money and poor development choices that un-make the living life support system on which everyone depends. It is life affirming and responsible to reduce our emissions and implement and devise additional ways to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. If our life support system abruptly reconfigures itself under extreme stress, then, and only then, the country might shut down.

Until then, if not longer, there are many people with spirit, conscience and imagination who can foster arrangements to coexist sustainably in locales. They are overlooked and ignored by the elites who have thrived on their disempowerment and invisibility.

To make and establish new economic arrangements is redirection and restoration, not completely shutting the country down.