Cross-posted on WattHead
Today Barack Obama took the oath of office and became the 44th President of the United States of America. He identified grave challenges our nation faces and called on all of us to unite in facing them.
George Bush is moving back to Texas, Henry Waxman (D-CA) is the chair of the House Energy and Commerce committee and our movement is stronger than ever. What are we going to do with it? Now is the critical time to make big plans, build the movement and make all the changes that have been out of reach for eight years a reality.
President Obama explicitly referenced harnessing “the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories,” but the message I heard is that we must harness a new American energy – the energy of an awakened citizenry sensing the urgency of this moment – to power a global transition to a more just and prosperous clean energy future.
We are that energy. Here are three things you can do today to harness it:
- Register now for Power Shift 2009 Feb. 27 – Mar. 2 in Washington, DC, get ten friends to come with you and visit your representatives in Congress where they work.
- Call your representatives in Congress today and tell them the stimulus package must include green jobs. Congressional Switchboard: (202) 225-3121. You can also send an email through MoveOn, 1Sky or Green For All.
- Start organizing a town hall on energy as a part of Focus the Nation 2009, a nationwide event to focus on our energy future on April 18th. Get your campus, your community and your representatives in Congress together and turn our national conversation on energy into action. Contact your regional organizer to find out more.
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In all the hubbub in our movement over messaging and talking points, inspiration versus fear-mongering, deaths of environmentalism’s and rebuttals, speaking to people where they’re at or where they should be, etc., etc., Obama just inspired millions of people to do what’s needed to take on the climate crisis and a host of other issues: sacrifice. That dirty word, and its sister, “responsibility,” may have just been lifted from the rhetorical dust-heap. Let’s keep talking about opportunity, green jobs, and more, but also remember that sometimes, as Obama showed this morning, it’s good to speak to the better angels of peoples’ nature. Sacrifice will never be as sexy as solar, but it’s just as necessary.