If we get the message out, we win

Salon.com has a killer interview of environmental leader Robert Kennedy Jr. up here. In order to view it you have to sit through an advertisement, but it's worth it:

Q: If we're looking at an environmental wasteland under
Bush, why aren't there people in the streets the way they were on Earth
Day 1970, which launched the modern environmental movement?
Well, it's not because people aren't interested. The primary reason is
it's not being covered in the news. I asked [Fox News chief] Roger
Ailes about this recently, and he said, 'We just don't cover it because
it's not fast-breaking. If you release toxics into the air, people
don't get sick for 20 years. We need something that is happening this
afternoon. The polar ice caps melting -- that's just too slow for us to
cover.' And of course the tampering with the regulations you're seeing
in Washington is happening in back corridors, and the networks can't be
bothered to investigate, much less explain to the public the connection
between these regulatory rollbacks, even though the outcomes will be
dramatic and will affect America for generations. But I'll say this --
every poll shows that both Republicans and Democrats want strong
environmental laws, up around 75 percent of the public, and there's
almost no difference between the parties. Those polls are confirmed by
my own anecdotal evidence. I speak all around the country on
environmental issues. Three weeks ago I spoke at a petroleum and gas
industry conference, and I got a standing ovation from the audience
when I told them about Bush's environmental record. And I'll give you
another example: I was recently in Richmond, Va., speaking to the
Women's Club, which is solidly Republican -- I was told that none of
its members had voted for a Democrat since Jefferson Davis. And I got a
standing ovation there, too. It's because most Republicans are actually Democrats; they just don't know it.
If they knew what was happening in the White House, they would be
angry, they would be furious. And when they are told what is happening,
they get angry. And that's the reaction I get all around the country.
If we get the message out, we win.

There's also an piece by Kennedy in this week's Rolling Stone that's worth a read. Check it out, and then check out the incredible amount of damage the Bush Administration has done to the environment by going here.
The NRDC has compiled an exhaustive (and exhausting) catalog of Bush's
environmental record over the past three years. I defy anyone,
Republican or Democrat to honestly defend these types of policies:

• EPA officially rolls back Clean Air Act protections
• EPA quietly backs off on reducing drinking water pollution
• Forest Service to double logging in Sierra Nevada forests
• EPA exempts oil and gas industry from water pollution rules
• Despite scientific concerns, Interior Department approves power plant near Yellowstone

Now
keep in mind, this is just a small sampling of what happened in 2003. I
didn't even get into 2002 and 2001. In order to stop it from continuing
into 2005 we need to get the message out.
By the time November 2004 rolls around, this stuff should be on
everyone's lips, spreading the bare, terrifying facts to anyone within
earshot. If we can show people how little disregard Bush has for our
country's natural resources then he won't stand a chance at the ballot
boxes. And there'll be nothing the Supreme Court will be able to do
about it this time.

Posted by flow Frazao on November 20, 2003 at 05:23 PM | Permalink