Dan Thiede live-blogs this session at the Minnesota Green Communities third annual statewide GREEN BY DESIGN Conference
R.T. Rybak highlights Minneapolis and Minnesota steps toward green development, and gets us all fired up, Ellen Anderson discusses legislative intiatives and the merging of economic and social justice issues with energy issues, and Van Jones talks about building a green economy for all.
Minnesota Senator Ellen Anderson thanks the Minnesota Green Communities partners, and pushes forward the vision of pulling together global warming solutions with social justice work. Her three main legislative inititatives this past session were to (1) Raise the minimum wage; (2) Stop preventable home foreclosures; and (3) Set up a framework for a Midwestern cap and trade program. Then she welcomes Van Jones to the stage.
Van Jones, in his own words
Van Jones is founder and president of Green for All, co-founder of Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, co-founder of 1Sky, co-founder of National Green Jobs Corps Green Jobs Corps (more at vanjones.net)
“I wish the Senators in DC were as nice as Ellen, and I had a great time chatting with Mayor Rybak. And a big thanks to all the people who fed us today. The team at Green for All is bigger than me, so thanks to them, too.
“I want to be right here, nowhere else. You have decided to deal with the lack of affordable housing, and doing it in a green way—addressing two crises at one time. There is no roadmap or cookie cutter way to do that—and it is the path you’re blazing that will allow others to follow. My hope is that when I am done here, that even those of you who are sick of hearing the color green, you will be excited when you leave. And those of you who were eco-freaks and now are eco-chic, you are feeling pretty good now. Green is moving to the center of politics, industry, and everywhere else, so you are inevitably faced with a moral challenge: As GREEN moves from the margin to the center, who will you take with you and who will you leave behind?
“I do my work in communities where you can’t give balloons and flowers to a three-year-old at their birthday, because they will think it is a funeral. I got tired of going to funerals. I got tired of seeing prom pictures on funeral flyers. I got burnt out. And then I discovered Marin County. It is just across the bridge from Oakland, California. Everyone there is HAPPY. Happy and fit. And they are always happy to see you. They have hybrid cards, solar panels, tofu, Whole Foods, and relaxation retreats. I began to learn about the Green Economy.
“I said, what is this? Are we going to have a world with eco-have and eco-have-nots? NO, I thought, these people are good people. One day I had a compact fluorescent lightbulb go on over my head, and I thought—Why don’t we get the hustle and drive of Oakland together with the hustle and drive of Marin County? Let’s look at the communities that were pushed down by the pollution-based economy, and make sure they are the first ones lifted up by the clean and green economy. We are going to have to put up millions of solar panels, weatherize millions of homes, create millions of jobs. If you are going to beat global warming, you are going to have to put up millions of wind turbines and trees, establish 50 million new local farmers and local gardeners, get biofuels in all of our trucks. What if we had a green economy that cared about all people, all species? WE NEED A GREEN WAVE THAT WILL LIFT ALL BOATS!
“When I went back my neighborhood in Oakland, I was enthusiastic. I said to them, “yoga, tofu, and solar panels are the revolution, the future.” And then there was silence. They thought I had been out in the woods too long. It took me a while to figure out the translation. The green discussion about the planetary crisis is not the one they want to engage in, because they have too much personal crisis. They don’t want to hear about polar bears dying.
“BUT, when you talk about the OPPORTUNITIES of the green economy—the place where ordinary people can make and save money—that is when they will start to listen. It worked for us; we got a unanimous vote to get the Green Jobs Corps started.
“Figuring out a way to green the economy and make it equitable is not something that anyone has in their job description—which is why it is ALL OF OUR JOB. You have the power to create the innovative models to make this happen, and be the leaders. Every single day as you move forward, figuring out how to bring cost down and environmental protection up, you are making a livable future for all of us. None of us were trained to deal with the challenges ahead of us. We focused on our silos and our disciplines, not for reaching across those lines and building partnerships. The HEART is there, but the HEAD and the HANDS have been trained to do it another way. Don’t let your comfort zones stop you up. The beauty of this movement is that we are all equally ignorant, all with a little piece of the puzzle, and we have to work together to make it whole.
“We have the chance to build the movement that we have always wanted: across all races, genders, income levels, disciplines—all problem-solvers. We want government to work with the best of business. We want to bring labor to the table and expand the diversity of our workers. We can make what is good and green what will also lift people up. We can’t have any more Katrinas—no more leaving people behind. We can all work together to bring these resources to the communities who need it most. This will give us the country we have always wanted.
“A lot of people have almost given up on this great experiment. Underneath that rejection is a lot of pain—a lot of ideals that have been broken. You found out about let-downs and disappointments. I want to say to you that you were not wrong to believe in a place called America, and that as grown people, some of us still believe. America is not the place we live, but the place we are going. Some of us still believe in one nation indivisible, and beauty, and liberty and justice for all. Don’t care about the things that divide us—we can build an economy that protects a vulnerable environment and a vulnerable people. We can solve the toughest problems in the world, and lead the world. Through your work, all of this can be done.”
Additional Resource
Watch Van Jones and Carl Pope in conversation on an episode of This Brave Nation.
