HATE TO HARP, BUT...

The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors is at it again. Two teenage high school girls appeared before the board to ask that April 15th through the 22nd be declared Earth Week. I guess they didn't do their homework on the word sustainability, as it got maligned at an earlier board meeting. (See my blog of April 1st.) The text of the resolution, drafted by the student organization, explaining the goals of Earth Week, had the line "...a peaceful, just and sustainable world..." According to Supervisor Tom Tryon, a libertarian, in his opinon, using the word "just" means environmental justice. Which, according to him, has a whole agenda around it. Tryon said, "Sustainability, what it has become a term for, in my opinion, is economic stagnation. Sustainability is not about change. Its about having no change." And, on and on and on about free market capitalism, socialism, the climate change is natural, and bad government. Sometimes I think we vote in idiots.
The rest of the board voted FOR the resolution. And, our tea party guy, Spellman, much to his credit, pointed out that this high school club goes around recycling cans and earning money for their school activities. Thank you Spellman for common sense.
These girls are not exactly opposing capitalism and promoting Marxist socialism. The girls think its about preserving a quality way of life. Spellman recognized these girls and their organization as working together for positive outcomes.
Tom and I have been friendly adversaries for years. I'll have to ask Tom if he was ever a boy scout.

WORTH SHARING

I recently talked about survival and my friend Allan Willard sent me an absolutely amazing video about urban sustainability, actually raising your own food, fish, and using digested gases for some fuel needs. Quite amazing. It may come to this for all of us as the planet struggles to support its demanding population.Check it out:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRMvXZIKaw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

But, disturbing to me, since sustainability seems to be a positive thing in our society, how that word could be so misused.
Check this out:
Calaveras is a small county. Citizens here are very supportive of business.  At a recent board of supervisors meeting, during a discussion over hiring of a consultant firm to design bridge upgrades, a member of the audience Tonja Dausend of Burson told the board that the company under consideration, Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., claims the firm has touted itself as a world-class leader and innovator in the delivery of sustainable solutions on its website. Here is the cruncher.  Dausend claims that in her opinion, "sustainable development" is anti-American. Wha??? 
She believes sustainable development is part of a United Nations effort to impose control over local governments like ours.
If that isn't kooky enough for you, Darren Spellman, the newly elected "Tea Party"supervisor agreed with Dausend. He wants to avoid hiring firms with anti-American principles. What anti-American principles? He'd like firms to have some kind of "litmus test" to pass before being hired.
If it looks like McCarthyism and sounds like McCarthyism, its close enough to call. American firms judged by a claim to something as proper as sustainability on a website instead of  whether they are qualified to do the job? Since when is it the Board of Supervisors duty to not consider a bid on the opinon of someone from the audience that sustainability is part of some United Nations conspiracy? We are surely the laughing stock of the mountain counties. We have a republican and a libertarian who voted with Spellman to reconsider. Remember that the next time you are in a voting booth. If it can happen here, it can happen where you live to.
In my opinion the well funded Tea Party is anti-American. Its all about power and money instead of people.