The U. S. celebrates its Independence each year on July 4th
with picnics, fireworks, baseball games and all of the other great summertime fun
that we enjoy. One thought occurs
to me with tomorrow being the 4th, in 2012 — what does American Independence
mean? I can share what it means to
me. I am a Very Patriotic
person. Growing up with my dad,
was a WWII veteran and policeman, I knew to stand at stone-still attention
during the playing of the National Anthem. I’ve lived on military installations and seen the faces of
new recruits and veteran servicemen.
My children were military brats in their growing up years. So, when I/we hear the word
independence what comes to mind are images of the destruction of war, the costs
of protecting our country and our corporate interests around the Earth. Also thoughts of the costs in terms of
human sacrifice as well.
For these reasons, when I think of Independence, I think of gaining
our freedom from our present addiction to oil. The U.S. economy is based on petroleum, from the backbone to
much of the flesh of our day-to-day lives is derived from oil and petroleum
products. Everything we do is
based somehow, linked somehow to oil.
Think about it — agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, commerce, you
name it —
directly connected to oil. With
that, let’s talk about true freedom and independence. A “what if” scenario . . . what if we put as much
brain-power and human capital into conserving energy resources as say the Super
Bowl? What if we said we’ll no
longer put our troops in harm’s way to protect oil production on foreign
soil? What if that amount of money
and human energy were focused on finding smart ways to conserve, learn about, improve
and implement renewable energy? What
if we sought to preserve the water we drink, the air we breathe and our health
overall by saying — No more drilling, no fracking, no oil rigs polluting
our oceans, no tankers leaking oil — what if we harvested solar energy from the
sun that shines everyday on the U.S.?
What if we developed even more efficient innovative turbine technologies
to capture wind and water energy from the flow of air and water? What if we used geothermal energy where
solar or wind isn’t as practical? What if we don’t yet know what renewable
energy possibilities are out there?
All we Americans have to do is think of the inventions, technology and
innovations that came from our ventures into space flight to get a glimpse of
the possibilities. Have we lost
our American will to find a better way?
Wouldn’t that be true independence for the U.S.? We’d not only free our military from
protecting the oil supply (and the oil companies’ profiteering interests) but
we would also gain our independence from paying oil and gas companies
governmental subsidies (your taxes at work, not paid out to help people but hugely
profitable megacorporations). We’d
also be free from our dependence of oil and gasoline. No more watching the prices go up at the whim of, well, we
aren’t exactly sure, but somehow the prices go up and people are held hostage
at the pump, then when folks drive less, the prices magically go back down some.
Have we become so compliant and complacent in America that we just accept what
the large oil corporations dictate to us with slick advertising and lobbyists
in D. C.?
Here we are a nation of innovators and entrepreneurs but we are
allowing the Chinese to eat our renewable energy lunch. As two military strategists Marine Col.
Mark Mykleby, and Navy Capt. Wayne Porter pointed out in 2011 (A
National Strategic Narrative), do we want to put our national security in jeopardy
or would it be prudent to think sustainably in terms of our energy policies?
The U.S. has the manufacturing capacity and workers, the innovative
spirit and the know-how, what is keeping us from moving forward when it is in
our best interest? Are the
subsidies money better paid out to corporations in oil, timber and sugar
industries? Do we really want to provide subsidies for clean-cutting, denuding
our forests so logs can be shipped to Japan? For sweeteners and sugars that are causing a diabetes
epidemic? Or oil and gas
production and burning that fouls our air and water? Asking and answering tough questions like these and
more are crucial to U.S. independence.
Weaning ourselves off of our dependence on fossil fuels and investing
instead in energy to fuel the future seems to represent genuine U.S. Independence. We’d each have control over the amount
and the type of energy we use. Perhaps
a community comes together to develop its own small-scale renewable energy
production where the people in the community would have a voice and local
control over the energy they use.
Somehow we have lost our Energy Will and it is time to claim it once
again. The U.S. has always been a country of fiercely independent mavericks but
have we been lulled to sleep by the drone of our many motors and ever-present
TV screens? Can we be strong-willed once again? Can we stand strong and say “No”
to growing energy dependence and “Yes!” to a smart energy grid, conservation
and innovations. That we can wave
the beautiful Red, White and Blue proudly, energy independently, and proudly
say “We Are Free!”
