EarthWatch

Step to the Front...an American Challenge

The challenge facing the United States: renewed vision

As we move forward on our journey into 2006 it is important that Americans recognize the presence of a growing challenge. A challenge that threatens to restrict our future, the future of our children, that of their children and the generations who follow. The challenge is one of vision, or more specifically our ability to redefine and the vision that has driven the United States to our position of international leadership over the past two centuries.

What’s poses the threat? Simply put, as a nation we’ve lost our way and we lack the commitment to regain it.

It isn’t that I am naïve, or that I lack a historic perspective. I know that we have had our blemishes and that scandal can be found in our past. In almost all human endeavors you find greed and malice, and by digging we easily find fault in America’s history which is marked by each of these. Negative factors, however, are not central to our history and they have not guided the American Dream for most of us. Individually and as a nation we have cherished freedom, and I believe we still do, however we find that we are not focused on the continued maintenance of our society as our grandparents were and more often then not our citizens are looking for their own success rather than the continuing success of our nation and its diverse community.

As a result we find ourselves in jeopardy of loosing the mantle of greatness and the insight handed down to us by our Founding Fathers. This very act portends the end of America’s leadership within the community of nations and we have only a very short window of opportunity to recover from this error before our footing fails us and we are swept aside by others who would take the lead. And should we find ourselves in decline, overcome by a China in growth or an India with increasing savvy in computing and software, we will find our economy unable to hold its own...especially when faced as we are with trillions of dollars of debt to be repaid and fewer foreign lenders to assure our continued Governmental spending.

We should not underestimate the importance of this, nor should we interpret it as a matter of nationalistic or egocentric pride. We are part of a body of nations, and over our history we have shared the stage with many others. In fact the diversity of nations promotes a true understanding of the global family and allows us dialogue that yields true cooperation. Our lost vision threatens our membership in this league; our lack of fitness will prevent us from holding a place on the world stage.

I don’t know what caused us to loose sight of our national responsibility. That may best be left to others to determine. Perhaps all empires fall into decline after they have reached their zenith, and the competitive nature of man calls for others to strive to succeed. What I do know is that over the past fifty years, that’s within the effective lifetime of three or so generations, we have moved toward personal gain and pleasure, and quick payback instead of slow, steady growth. In general, as a society, we see that we are rejecting the traditional systematic approach to solving society’s problems. While America’s founders and most Americans from then forward held a vision that inspired society to shoulder whatever was necessary to move our nation on. Today, however, we no longer hold this as important. The great majority of our contemporaries in the United States are out for what is best for them, putting the needs of our nation, and the world aside. And this has torn holes in our social fiber that need to be mended, and mended now.

It is time for this to end. It is time for the American to raise its voice and declare that we intend to be a going-concern that will again see the future, our future, in terms of hundreds of years...not just a decade or so within which we strive for personal gain over national success. To do this we need to dedicate ourselves at all levels to this renewal and commit both government and society to redefining our American vision, reestablishing our faith in our constitution, and rediscovering what it means to be Americans.

Ever since the thirteen colonies broke free from England we have been the land of adventure and of hope. Men and women world wide have dreamed of leaving their homeland and coming to America where they could be free. Free to live and grow, raise their children, find success, practice their diverse religions, and find their place among equals. They still strive for this, but we are not holding up our end of the promise. America is faltering, too intent on spending without understanding our path, without vision.

There are several key areas that need our immediate attention. First among these is the need for our governors, at all levels of the Republic, to accept the responsibility to govern. Communities, Cities, Counties, States, Congress, and the Senate...through to the Executive Branch...all of our elected officials need to accept the responsibility that we chose them for. They need to work together to establish continuance within our society, and build a process that will succeed both in the short term and the long term...well beyond the ‘horizon’...so that the United States will be secure and engaged in the future of our world. This isn’t always the easy path, it means making the difficult decisions that will take us to a successful future.

If that means taxes, then tax. If that calls for a draft or mandatory service within the national structure, than reestablish the draft. If that means limiting the ability of corporations to over-profit from each of us when dealing within monopolistic patterns, then create the limiting legislation that will allow us to balance corporate growth with the needs of our citizens. That means health care, petroleum, automotive, computing...and a wide array of other industries, domestic and foreign, who are controlled by rules of commerce within our nation. Once our ‘house’ is in order, we need to repair our foreign policy and return to the community of nations as a partner, employing Diplomacy and working together within the body of nations to find balance rather than coercing others to meet our demands.

As we take the course to achieve our vision we will find dozens of critical elements that need to be managed and adjusted to ensure that we succeed. High on this list are education, environmental protection, energy, Diplomacy, economic growth and the reduction of our national debt, human rights, agriculture, and national security. Each has a far-reaching impact on America and the world, and each represents a significant set of specific problems and opportunities that need to be understood and addressed as we move toward renewed vision.

A look at the elements that make up our vision reveals many areas where we are not succeeding and some causes for these faults.

Education: Take a moment and consider that our High School dropout rate is higher today than ever before, and that as a nation we are reading below the sixth grade level, down from ninth grade in the 1980s. While our educational focus has called on a K-8 revolution, with no child left behind, we have an explosion in mediocrity within our High Schools and suffer from it through to our mid-range colleges...and others. It isn’t that we’ve stopped believing in the need for an education; it’s that we are allowing students a free-pass in the grading process and not holding them to excellence. As a result they are not achieving the educational milestones that they need to achieve on this journey. If America intends to compete in the decades ahead this will need to change.

If we can’t produce well educated graduates in math, science, engineering, medicine, and computer engineering how will we hold our leadership in these fields? Education has been key in our success in the past, and it has drawn tens of thousands of foreign students to our shores annually, but our American graduates in math...as one example...are falling off and today fewer Americans then needed are entering this field. No wonder we are outsourcing to Asia and India? We need to define our future needs and push to educate our citizens, young and old, as part of our vision.

Environment: For decades America lead the world in improving the environment, but no longer. Today our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reversed most of the standards established over the past fifty years for air and water quality, and under both this and the past administration we have been unwilling to take the lead internationally to champion environmental protection. In the past five years alone we have failed to sign any of the important International Environmental Treaties for air or sea quality and we have only sent token representation to international conferences in the field.

In the meantime nature is acting on our indiscretions, and due to Global Warming...which our current Presidential Administration denies exists, and the toxic shock effect of chemical pollution we find ourselves...that is America and the rest of the world...in extremis.

As the leading consuming nation of global resources, and in many ways the leader in pollution as well, we have a responsibility to champion environmental protection, not stand on the sideline and refuse to actively participate in finding the solutions needed to heal our earth. In less than 100 years we have seen the face of our world change. The seas are no longer able to cleanse themselves, Glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate, and air and water purity is declining...and we Americans are, at least, a significant cause of that change. If we believe that oceans must remain clean, that air and drinking water must be safe for all, and that Glaciers should continue to fill their tracks...we must take action to promote Global healing before it is too late to act.

Energy: Today the World is powered primarily by petroleum, followed closely by coal and natural gas. These fossil fuels are at best limited...as they are non-renewable, and they are being consumed at an ever increasing rate. Oil is projected as the first fossil fuel that will be expended, followed by natural gas within fifty years. As a nation obsessed with automobiles and travel it is reasonable to define our demands for gasoline as obsessive and, along with the issues raised by Environmental concerns, we need to understand that if we fail to solve the energy problem our Nation and the rest of the World will grind slowly to a halt.

We are dealing with an increasing demand for fuel the World over. While the United States consumes a significant percentage of these resources, often cited at greater than 40% of the World’s consumption, we are not the only country with designs on energy. China with its immense population and growing industrialization is beginning to compete for oil from established sources while it begins to develop oil reserves under its own flag or in partnership with established global organizations. American wildcatters may have led the world to oil but we are no longer the only power-player in the game.

There are many new approaches that we should be taking to address the Energy questions that we face, but for the most part we find that America is focused on today and not on the future. This needs to change if we are going to stay in motion in the years ahead.

When we look at alternatives we find that energy conservation is not being effectively promoted, resource development is being handled badly, Nuclear energy is on hold, and alternative fossil fuel sources are not being commercially accessed. Further, we are not effectively harnessing synthetics and organic sources of oil for use in meeting our demand. We have the skills but we don’t have a meaningful vision for our future.

Potentially more important than alternative fossil fuel sources and fuel supplementing is our development of reusable energy sources such as Fuel Cells, Solar Power, Wind Power, Geo Thermal energy and Tidal Generation. Though each of these requires continued technological development to improve mass market feasibility, they are among the most important avenues available to solve the energy equation.

Others have the right to seek energy from competitive sources, and we need to realize that. It is time for us to conserve, improve and innovate...as a nation, and to blaze a meaningful path in meeting our demand for energy, now and into the future.

Diplomacy: It is not Force, but Diplomacy, that demonstrates true leadership on the world stage. America is the one place the world over where freedom and individual rights form the center of the national culture. I accept that there is a need for military strength, having experienced this first hand, but we need to better understand the diplomatic process and return to these efforts with renewed dedication as we work to solve the problems that entangle the community of nations.
Further, we need to be true to the standards that we proclaim and hold ourselves to all that we propose for others. Diplomacy is essential to building a world rich in civil rights and social and cultural freedom and we need to support the Diplomatic process needed to achieve these goals. Americans must take the lead. We must find and hold a new vision that includes our partnership with all nations and strives to find Peace where conflict threatens.

It is time to pull the world together and find solutions that will last, create programs that will succeed, and make a future that rings true so that our Vision will again be clear. Through a rededication to the Diplomatic process America will be able to lead the world to a stronger and healthier future.

Economic Growth:

Debt Reduction:

Agriculture: America offers an agricultural base capable of feeding the world, yet we are fast outsourcing our needs. Our fields yielded crops in abundance, and until recently we were self sufficient in most food stuffs, but farms are closing and the land is being converted to housing. Today we buy citrus and other traditional American produce from foreign sources, often more then we do from our own farms and we are just as likely to buy beef from Latin America as we are from our own herds. America is capable of delivering more, and even if we open our markets to competition from abroad we need to optimize the production from our fields.

After all, our growing dependence on external sources threatens our ability to sustain ourselves in an emergency and it places our future in the hands of others. America needs to set strategies that will ensure that we are able to feed our own families and then we need to again look at how we can support the needs of others world wide.

In today’s globalization it is time that we consider standing up to the challenge and begin a process that will allow us to feed and cloth the people of the world through a true global outreach. It can be done, now is the time for us to step up and lead the world as we do it.

Technology: Thousands of technology rich devices, from consumer electronics to high-tech breakthroughs including televisions and cell-phones, are no longer produced in America even though they were invented, designed and developed here. America often leads this industry to new innovations and concepts, but we are not meeting market demands for our inventions.

Nationally we need to take some leads from our competitors. Japan, as an example, forms national goals with its industries to plot the course of its domestic and international growth. We need to consider developing goals as a nation to harness our ability to create and innovate, especially in the realm of technology where we are often considered the leader. Then we need to find ways to produce these products within our own market for international distribution...as the Japanese and Koreans have done, and to redevelop the manufacturing capabilities of our nation.

First among these is that, though we hold the patents, these devices are generally produced somewhere else. America, the home of much of modern technology, is not where it is being produced and refined. No televisions, and very few other consumer electronics are made within our boarders.

We need to take steps to ensure that we can produce the high definition televisions that we are demanding, and that have the support within our telecommunications processes to take these tools and the assocaited industries to a higher ground.

..........just ideas to get this page started...but we as American's need to take notice of these and other key issues and take steps to correct them.

America, today and into the future, needs to lead the Global community in managing and improving the world for all to enjoy. It is up to us...today...not sometime in the future.

sincerely...MoonShadow

posted by Moon Shadow @ 7:39 AM