"This week I'd like you to read and comment on this piece, which appeared in the Washington Post on Thanksgiving Day last year. The article was written by Michael Maniates of Allegheny College, one of the authors of the "Confronting Consumption" chapter we read a couple of weeks back. What do you make of Professor Maniates' argument?"
Firstly, I would like to say I completely agree with his argument that the time for easy is over. Being told to take shorter showers, use compact fluorescents, drive less, and get a hybrid {next time we buy a car} now borders on condescending. The situation demands much more than that. We should be able to do the small things while also doing the big things. Of course, some people will make careers out of doing the big things {thus, green jobs}.
Reading this article kept reminding me of a quote from President Kennedy when he proposed going to the moon:
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
Now it is time, and especially with this political climate, to demand the things that are hard because they are necessary. Nothing good ever came easy.
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