Post by brendywendy on Apr 23, 2007 18:31:19 GMT -5
Last night Thelma and Louise drove the bus off the cliff or at least into the White House Correspondents Dinner. The "highlight" of the evening had to be when we were introduced to Karl Rove. How excited were we to have our first opportunity ever to talk directly to the Bush Administration about global warming.
We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.
We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country.
We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in (www.IPCC.ch). Mr. Rove exploded with even more venom. Like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, Mr. Rove launched into a series of illogical arguments regarding China not doing enough thus neither should we. (Since when do we follow China's lead?)
At some point during his ramblings, we became heartbroken to think that the President of the United States and his top advisers have partially built a career on global warming not being real. We have been telling college students across the country for the past two weeks that government does not change until people demand it... well, listen up folks, everyone had better get a lot louder because the message clearly is not getting through.
In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."
At that point Mr. Rove apparently decided he had had enough. Like a groundhog fearful of his own shadow, he scurried to his table in an attempt to hibernate for another year from his responsibility to address global warming. Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official. Instead, Mr. Rove was dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully.
Ultimately, we were left wondering what on Earth Mr. Rove was talking about when he said "the American people." If more than 60% of American voters, the Supreme Court, over 400 cities, the US National Academy of Sciences, numerous major US corporations, and others don't constitute the American people, then what does? The truth is, if this administration cared one iota about the American people, they would have addressed this problem long ago, and the sad reality is that this problem has been left to us, all of us, since the current administration has abandoned this issue entirely. In the absence of true leadership, we must guide ourselves. We can solve this, but we had better act fast.
AND MORE FROM THEIR BLOG:
Here we are at our final destination -- Capitol Hill. We just toured multiple states, talked to thousands of college students, spoke to many political figures in both parties, and wrapped it all up at a rockin' Earth Day celebration at George Washington University. (Thank you Larry, Tim, Faith, Carole, Bobby, Vice-President Gore, and Sen. McCain for making it a truly memorable and historic Earth Day.)
Our goal on the Hill today was to deliver to Congress the message from the road and the Virtual Marchers that Americans want solutions to global warming. The leaders we met with today told us that they are already writing global warming legislation, but indicated that this was going to be a very tough fight. They reinforced how important it is to hear from their constituents on this issue. Hear that America? We need you. (You can take action right now by logging onto nrdc.org and clicking on the link "Take Action".)
Everywhere we went today, we were asked by everyone from Congresspeople to Capitol Hill police about the "Rove incident." To set the record straight, the other night, we approached Mr. Rove at a dinner designed specifically to encourage conversations between people from different worlds. We were riding a wave of excitement having just come from talking to college students across the country about global warming. Obviously, we were very surprised that Mr. Rove found discussing such an important issue to be insulting. However, rather than continuing to focus on the encounter itself, can we now focus on the urgent need to act on global warming? We would welcome the opportunity to engage directly with the Bush administration in a constructive conversation about solutions to the global warming crisis.
And by the way guys, the toilet paper thing...it was a JOKE!!
www.stopglobalwarming.org
We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.
We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country.
We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in (www.IPCC.ch). Mr. Rove exploded with even more venom. Like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, Mr. Rove launched into a series of illogical arguments regarding China not doing enough thus neither should we. (Since when do we follow China's lead?)
At some point during his ramblings, we became heartbroken to think that the President of the United States and his top advisers have partially built a career on global warming not being real. We have been telling college students across the country for the past two weeks that government does not change until people demand it... well, listen up folks, everyone had better get a lot louder because the message clearly is not getting through.
In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."
At that point Mr. Rove apparently decided he had had enough. Like a groundhog fearful of his own shadow, he scurried to his table in an attempt to hibernate for another year from his responsibility to address global warming. Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official. Instead, Mr. Rove was dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully.
Ultimately, we were left wondering what on Earth Mr. Rove was talking about when he said "the American people." If more than 60% of American voters, the Supreme Court, over 400 cities, the US National Academy of Sciences, numerous major US corporations, and others don't constitute the American people, then what does? The truth is, if this administration cared one iota about the American people, they would have addressed this problem long ago, and the sad reality is that this problem has been left to us, all of us, since the current administration has abandoned this issue entirely. In the absence of true leadership, we must guide ourselves. We can solve this, but we had better act fast.
AND MORE FROM THEIR BLOG:
Here we are at our final destination -- Capitol Hill. We just toured multiple states, talked to thousands of college students, spoke to many political figures in both parties, and wrapped it all up at a rockin' Earth Day celebration at George Washington University. (Thank you Larry, Tim, Faith, Carole, Bobby, Vice-President Gore, and Sen. McCain for making it a truly memorable and historic Earth Day.)
Our goal on the Hill today was to deliver to Congress the message from the road and the Virtual Marchers that Americans want solutions to global warming. The leaders we met with today told us that they are already writing global warming legislation, but indicated that this was going to be a very tough fight. They reinforced how important it is to hear from their constituents on this issue. Hear that America? We need you. (You can take action right now by logging onto nrdc.org and clicking on the link "Take Action".)
Everywhere we went today, we were asked by everyone from Congresspeople to Capitol Hill police about the "Rove incident." To set the record straight, the other night, we approached Mr. Rove at a dinner designed specifically to encourage conversations between people from different worlds. We were riding a wave of excitement having just come from talking to college students across the country about global warming. Obviously, we were very surprised that Mr. Rove found discussing such an important issue to be insulting. However, rather than continuing to focus on the encounter itself, can we now focus on the urgent need to act on global warming? We would welcome the opportunity to engage directly with the Bush administration in a constructive conversation about solutions to the global warming crisis.
And by the way guys, the toilet paper thing...it was a JOKE!!
www.stopglobalwarming.org
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