The greatest achievements of our country have always started with an aspiration.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, at Rice University, Houston, Texas
The Apollo mission was enormously costly and it is estimated that 1 out of every 10 workers during the 60s were involved in some aspect of the build up for the moonshot. However, Apollo spurred the development of foundation technologies in healthcare, defense, communications, data processing and manufacturing that firmly established the United States as an economic dynamo. That cell phone you carry? It contains the grandchildren of tech imagined first for Apollo.
Today our politicians today speak of cutting taxes, gutting domestic services, expanding our military reach, legislating morality, mass deregulation, and building walls. Most Americans are not clear about the end goals for these initiatives or how any of that makes us greater– so we divide and argue among ourselves about what our priorities should be. When Donald Trump says “MAGA,” you just have to use your imagination.
At the same time we face enormous challenges that go unaddressed; climate change, crumbling infrastructure, widening job insecurity and tepid economic growth. The Neo-liberal approach has been to get government out of the way and hope some commercial organization can step in and solve these issues with ‘market-based’ solutions.
But they won’t. Ever. No corporation intentionally adopts disruptive technology that will jeopardize their business model.
A new bill has been submitted by Democrats in Congress that has been dubbed the “Green New Deal” that defines a path to solving these problems and delivers a vision for our country. The proposal is that we refocus our nation’s resources on rebuilding our energy infrastructure and job base by developing and implementing clean, energy efficient technologies to produce a healthier, safer environment for us all.
The Green New Deal echoes and expands on ideas raised during the Obama administration and pro-worker initiatives from the FDR administration. It is collaborative and intended to engage stakeholders across all disciplines, public and private. It transcends generations in that it offers to ensure a new prosperity for us now and far into the future.
Consider our state, Missouri, as a test case. We were a direct beneficiary from the Apollo mission– established a manufacturing and bio-science base that still exists. So we have evidence that well considered national programs have an impact and they can be supported broadly. However, Missouri is still clinging to century-old energy technologies that have left us with a fragile energy grid and more than our fair share of environmental issues. Moreover, we have concentrated employment and economic prosperity in the cities, while having left rural areas to wither. The Green New Deal can bring positive environmental change and new economic and job opportunities in communities throughout the state.
The thing is, Missouri alone could adopt a Green New Deal-like initiative and differentiate our state as a leader in the energy sector but hasn’t. We have the technology building blocks. We have the natural resources and people. We certainly have the need. The question is, “Why not?”
Our state is saddled with leaders with no strategic vision, who prefer to follow the playbook of a political model that favors greed over cooperation. We’re not unique in that respect, but can’t we do better? Aren’t people are moved by a sense they are contributing to something larger than themselves? Shouldn’t we elect representatives that embrace the government’s role in proactively fixing problems while contributing to a more sustainable future for us all?
Consider the Green New Deal as the first airing of an inspirational vision that can be embraced by any voter regardless of party affiliation or economic status. It probably won’t be passed into law in its current form with the current quality of elected officials we have at the state or national level, but it can be a template of what we should look for in the next generation of leaders and their vision.
Yes, you’ve told us what we can’t do.
Now, tell us what we CAN do together.
— Mark Toenjes, WCD Member