Comments on: My Blog Inaction Day Contribution http://keithgoode.com/2007/10/17/my-blog-inaction-day-contribution/ The personal philosophy of the thinking man's man. Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:22:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Julie http://keithgoode.com/2007/10/17/my-blog-inaction-day-contribution/comment-page-1/#comment-1193 Julie Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:11:06 +0000 http://keithgoode.com/2007/10/17/my-blog-inaction-day-contribution/#comment-1193 One more thing. The whole reason that some people demonstrate and raise the alarm is to get an issue noticed. Clearly somebody somewhere achieved their aim because here you are, writing about environmental issues (whether for good or bad) so the message has gotten out. The conversation has been started. Sometimes that's the true aim. The people at the protests are on the far left, but they've moved the chains (borrowing a football expression.) But I think you get my point. It's like this: most of us aren't extreme and aren't fond of extremists. But the extremists also provide us the luxury of seeming reasonable and rational if only by comparison alone. And slowly we edge closer to an objective. There was a time, after all, that abolitionists seemed like crazy Yankee leftists. I'm glad they got their message across, though. Aren't you? One more thing. The whole reason that some people demonstrate and raise the alarm is to get an issue noticed. Clearly somebody somewhere achieved their aim because here you are, writing about environmental issues (whether for good or bad) so the message has gotten out. The conversation has been started. Sometimes that’s the true aim. The people at the protests are on the far left, but they’ve moved the chains (borrowing a football expression.) But I think you get my point. It’s like this: most of us aren’t extreme and aren’t fond of extremists. But the extremists also provide us the luxury of seeming reasonable and rational if only by comparison alone. And slowly we edge closer to an objective.

There was a time, after all, that abolitionists seemed like crazy Yankee leftists. I’m glad they got their message across, though. Aren’t you?

]]> By: Julie http://keithgoode.com/2007/10/17/my-blog-inaction-day-contribution/comment-page-1/#comment-1192 Julie Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:12:58 +0000 http://keithgoode.com/2007/10/17/my-blog-inaction-day-contribution/#comment-1192 Keith, I always appreciate your posts. Just wanted to mention that there are many, many people who, like you, love the feeling of being in nature and are concerned about the practical implications of human behaviors--implications such as air pollution, habitat loss, and resource depletion. These concerns have a common-sense self-interest behind them. Of course you are going to have extremists out there yelling that the sky is falling. In my experience, these folks generally seem to be those that are new enough to their awareness that their alarm has not tempered yet. They react on impulse and passion, not knowledge and understanding. Unfortunately for many of us, they hurt the efforts of others working to protect our natural resources. Others have tied up their ego so much in railing AGAINST things that they've lost sight of what it is they want to accomplish. Then there are the life-longers who are just like you. Trying our best and fully aware that the average person doesn't have time or inclination to bike to work, stop eating cows, or recycle their yogurt tops. (Humor.) There's a saying I use. Any jackass can kick down a barn door, but it takes a carpenter to build one. Using that analogy for environmental protection, you should know that there are thousands or millions of people working quietly behind the scenes every day to try to make the things you mention easier, convenient, and more American, if you will. Whether it be subtle efforts at the education you mentioned (bite-sized and to the point, yet obvious and high enough profile to have an impact) or the efforts to develop new technologies that make saving energy easy, or products that are less toxic, etc. We're out here. We're working hard. We are tired, too. We are also just trying to get by. We get it. And we deserve not to be lumped in with the less enlightened of our brethren. Thanks for reading. Keith,

I always appreciate your posts. Just wanted to mention that there are many, many people who, like you, love the feeling of being in nature and are concerned about the practical implications of human behaviors–implications such as air pollution, habitat loss, and resource depletion. These concerns have a common-sense self-interest behind them. Of course you are going to have extremists out there yelling that the sky is falling. In my experience, these folks generally seem to be those that are new enough to their awareness that their alarm has not tempered yet. They react on impulse and passion, not knowledge and understanding. Unfortunately for many of us, they hurt the efforts of others working to protect our natural resources. Others have tied up their ego so much in railing AGAINST things that they’ve lost sight of what it is they want to accomplish. Then there are the life-longers who are just like you. Trying our best and fully aware that the average person doesn’t have time or inclination to bike to work, stop eating cows, or recycle their yogurt tops. (Humor.) There’s a saying I use. Any jackass can kick down a barn door, but it takes a carpenter to build one. Using that analogy for environmental protection, you should know that there are thousands or millions of people working quietly behind the scenes every day to try to make the things you mention easier, convenient, and more American, if you will. Whether it be subtle efforts at the education you mentioned (bite-sized and to the point, yet obvious and high enough profile to have an impact) or the efforts to develop new technologies that make saving energy easy, or products that are less toxic, etc. We’re out here. We’re working hard. We are tired, too. We are also just trying to get by. We get it. And we deserve not to be lumped in with the less enlightened of our brethren. Thanks for reading.

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