Obama: The First Green President

Everything these days is going green, which many times is just a slogan, a meaningless label or a minuscule effort. It can also be a significant step in the right direction toward energy independence, toward a major effort to affect global climate change, to slowly move gross energy consumers into smart and more keenly educated energy partners.

We desperately need leadership in this country to show us the way, and this effort will ultimately lead the world, which is suddenly and rapidly catching up to this country’s drastic consumption of our planet’s natural resources and is burning up the limited energy resources that are available to us and the rest of the world.

I call on Barack Obama to be our first green president. I want him to not only identify himself in this way, but he needs to lay out drastic methods and plans for this country to reorient our entire economy toward green jobs, retooling the auto industry to use alternative forms of energy and get much higher fuel efficiency, and we require him to call on each one of us to learn how to be more energy efficient, to perform simple functions within our own homes, businesses, schools and communities that will combined make a tremendous difference in the environment in which we live.

The Shell station nearest my home here in the San Francisco Bay Area is (are you sitting down?) $4.74 for regular unleaded. The price is now two cents away from $5.00 per gallon for premium. That is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable, and not only can Barack let us know how unacceptable that is, he can demonstrate a major difference between he and John McCain, who aligns himself with lobbyists from energy companies, and is tied at the hip with our current presidents, Bush and Cheney, who are both from the oil industry and must be in hog heaven right about now when they look at their trust accounts bulging from oil investment profits just waiting for them to get out of office.

When I first started to drive, I paid 28.9 for gas. I remember when gas was approaching a dollar, and to think that it will be pushing $5.00 soon is just absurd. I have already begun driving slower, planning more efficient trips and keeping my eye on the thermostat in my home. I have tried to recycle more, watch my family’s water consumption and tried to use reusable bags when I shop. I have started riding my bike more to run local errands, and this has helped me in more ways than just saving on transportation costs.

I want to hear our next president speaking today about these things. George Bush hasn’t asked one of us to sacrifice for anything in this country. We are slowly sinking and deteriorating from this country’s debt, trade deficit and our overuse of natural resources or pollution of them.

We need to put people back to work in this country making things that used to be made here, with high quality, a high amount of American pride and a community spirit. This can be done by adding green jobs, new careers and training that will teach new workers about our new economy, one that may cost a little more upfront, but one that will pay major dividends down the road.

Finally, I want to hear Barack tell America that it’s getting way too fat. We need to stop smoking, stop abusing alcohol, stop looking to pharmaceuticals to cure every ailment that we can cure or curtail ourselves by changing our lifestyles. We need to get off our butts and stop watching so much TV, get out and walk, exercise and begin programs that will make us all healthier, happier and make us less dependent on doctors, medication and make us less prone to diseases related to obesity like cardiovascular and heart disease, cancers, diabetes and will keep us out of the hospital and will keep our healthcare costs way down.

The time for a green president is right now. Is there anyone out there that finds that their costs in all of these areas haven’t gone sky high? Is there anyone who makes so much money that they don’t care about this stuff? I didn’t think so.