SOLAR TODAY - September/October 2010

perspective

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what would lincoln say? By BRAD COLLINS

Itravel regularly to Washington, D.C., to work with allied associations and meet with program managers at the Department of Energy. I’m always startled by attitudes around Capitol Hill. People there don’t think the way we do across America.

It will come as no surprise to SOLAR TODA Y readers that many of our decision makers, political appointees and staffers long ago lost touch with what matters to Main Street Americans.

Instead, they seem focused on lobbying tweaks that can mean much to a particular business or industry. And they can affect all of us: Just consider the tweaks that allowed Enron to manipulate interstate natural gas markets.

The other big goal is to get the next political campaign generously funded.

The week before July 4, I was in Washington again and visited the memorials to Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. I wonder what they would say about the current crowd in the capitol. Would they understand the neurotic need to defend a partisan position? Would they endorse partisan rhetoric based on statements that are provably false? Would they understand why loyalty to campaign contributors often trumps loyalty to the country’s best interests?

I believe not.

On the southeast wall of the Jefferson Memorial is inscribed this passage from a letter he wrote in 1810: “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat

Brad Collins is the executive director of the American Solar Energy Society ( ases.org).

which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” What would Jefferson now say to a “strict constructionist” who wants the Constitution interpreted according to the prevailing mores of 1787?

The conclusion of the Gettysburg Address is chiseled in the Lincoln Memorial: “That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the Earth.” What would Lincoln say to a congressman who stops all progress at the behest of industry lobbyists?

And in the FDR memorial, we read this excerpt from a message to Congress in 1935: “Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.” What would Roosevelt say to an industry that destroys public lands and watersheds for private profit?

What does it take to be a great leader today? The only possible answer: the same attributes it took to be a great leader in previous centuries. We have talented, bright and dedicated decision makers in Washington today. Some claim the system is broken, others that their hands are tied, still others that they don’t have the power to effect policy or program change.

What would Jefferson or Lincoln or FDR say to that claim? They’d say: You came here to lead. If the system is broken, fix it. If it cannot be fixed, discard it. No excuses! We need leadership now, and we will know it when we see it.

There is no party in the call to service. There is no us versus them; there are no distinctions among Americans. We need leaders in these troubling times. No one else need apply.

Now go vote.

Brad Collins: Executive Director/Publisher publisher@solartoday.org Editorial Gina R. Johnson: Editor/Associate Publisher editor@solartoday.org Seth Masia: Deputy Editor Corey Dahl: Managing Editor Mike Koshmrl: Editorial Intern Solartoday.org Brooke Simmons: Manager of Online Publishing Design Allison J. Gray: Art Director Peggy Doyle: Designer Dan Bihn: Photojournalist Contributors Richard Crume, Rona Fried, Chuck Kutscher, Joseph Mc Cabe, Liz Merry, Mick Sagrillo, Robert Ukeiley Advertising Sales Annette Delagrange: Director of Sales adelagrange@solartoday.org

Magazine Advisory Council Gabriela Martin, Chair Dan Bihn Paul Notari Richard Crume Alejandro Palomino Frank Kreith Mick Sagrillo Chuck Kutscher Ken Sheinkopf Joseph McCabe Robert Ukeiley Dona McClain Jane M. Weissman ASES Operations Irene Pérez Law: Chief Operating Officer Becky Campbell-Howe: Director of Professional Education Neshama Abraham: Director of Marketing and Communications Christy Honigman: Director of Development Chris Stimpson: Executive Campaigner Solar Nation, a program of ASES Carolyn Beach: Membership Manager Richard Burns: National Solar Tour Manager/ Chapters Liaison Kristin Conrad: Web Development Manager Kate Hotchkiss: Program Manager/Chapters Liaison Dona Mc Clain: Program Coordinator Elena Hoffrichter: Bookkeeper Christine Howard: Executive Assistant Ann Huggins: Member Services

ASES Board of Directors Margot McDonald, Chair Jeff Lyng, Chair-elect Bill Poulin, Treasurer Paulette Middleton, Secretary John Reynolds, Immediate Past Chair Toni Bouchard Jason Keyes Richard Caputo Nathan Mitten David Comis Victor Olgyay Gregory Edwards Nathalie Osborn Trudy Forsyth Tehri Parker Allison Gray Jeff Peterson David Hill Mark Thornbloom

SOLAR TODAy (ISSN: 1042-0630) is published nine times per year by the American Solar Energy Society, 2400 Central Avenue, Suite A, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2843, 303.443.3130, FAX 303.443.3212, ases@ases.org, ases.org. Copyright © 2010 by the American Solar Energy Society Inc. All rights reserved.