Diary: Redford touts grassroots, bloggers, alternative energy in Take Back America conference

WASHINGTON, D.C. - I had not heard Robert Redford speak before and got the chance to do so at this week's annual Take Back America conference, organized by Washington, D.C., progressive think tank Campaign for America's Future. I also got to meet him during a smaller news conference later.
Redford was more down-to-earth that I expected a Hollywood type to be. He embraced plain-spoken United Steelworkers of America President Leo Gerard and presented him with an award. He spoke about his lower working class roots in California where he first learned to appreciate the ocean and mountains. He applauded the several thousand conference attendees for their work and said the grassroots was where the changes would come from in the near future.
"Forget Bush and his administration," Redford said. "They will not change. You can't reason with a stone. It's a waste of our time to go up that hill."
Redford joined Jerome Ringo and Larry Schweiger to tout a plan by a venture called the Apollo Alliance to seek energy independence through clean, renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. The idea is to show that a clean environment does not have to come at the expense of jobs. "It's not the environment or jobs," Ringo said. "It's the environment and jobs."
At the news conference, Redford shook off a query by a TV type about what he personally drove, saying, "I drive people crazy." He then spoke about initiatives he did through his Sundance businesses, such as organizing conferences on global warming, recycling and conserving natural land.
When asked about the media, Redford said the mainstream press had obviously slipped away from what it was during the Watergate days. While there were a few competent mainstream journalists, Redford heralded the "bloggers and new media that seem a little more democratic."