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Looking Left and Right: Inspiring Different Ideas, Envisioning Better Tomorrows I remain a firm believer in late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone's observation that "We all do better when we all do better." That objective might be worth pursuing more diligently." If we don't look for ways to tamp down the vitriol and intense hatred which members of Left and Right teams freely direct at "the opposition," we will not only foreclose whatever options might still remain to find common ground that moves us all forward. Worse still, we will eliminate both the hopes for and attainment of a better and more peaceful future. We're too close to achieving that empty triumph as it is. We might not want to acknowledge that we're all in this together, but we are. The sooner we pause for a moment and ask ourselves What Happens Then? if we continue to stoke the white-hot partisan fires, the sooner we realize that sustaining polarization is not in the best interests of anyone. If we keep doing more of the same partisan same, the answer to What Happens Then? won't be to anyone's liking--not that current antipathy is offering us much. It's actually not contributing anything other than deepening the divide. There will be harsher consequences from doing more of the same. Aren't we better than that? Shouldn't we want, expect, and deserve more? There's plenty of blame to go around, of course. But we're no closer to one side winning--whatever that might mean--than we ever have. Partisans on each side might not (or might not want to) believe that, but if Left or Right is counting on Right or Left to concede, a long and painful wait is all that's guaranteed. Sure as hell we won't experience "better" by doing more of what we're doing now".So I'm hoping to do my part by offering--from my staunchly progressive approach--a different and more meaningful perspective on our conflicted public dialogue. I invite you to join in. Who knows " we just might get to a better place after all! Richard Turcotte is a retired attorney and former financial adviser (among other professional detours) and now a writer.
OpEd News Member for 693 week(s) and 2 day(s)
117 Articles, 6 Quick Links, 72 Comments, 0 Diaries, 4 Series, 0 Polls
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Saturday, January 25, 2014Painting With A Broad Brush If we don’t recognize and accept that bitter partisanship is not always the wisest or most beneficial strategy, the goal of a better future will forever be as far away tomorrow as it is today.
Thursday, August 21, 2014All The Facts Matter Regardless of one's confidence in both their assertions and in their beliefs that "human ingenuity" and "technological advances" will save the day, reality offers a different take.
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Saturday, August 2, 2014Be Careful About Long-Term Energy Optimism When prices have increased as much as they have in the past half-dozen years for perhaps the most essential product required to sustain our individual, industrial, and cultural lifestyles, the normal ebb and flow of prices takes on a very different and more challenging hue.
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Tuesday, October 25, 2016Peak Oil: Can We Begin? Pt 1 Peak-oil deniers like to use that "running out of oil" meme for their own misleading purposes. Given the hundreds of billions of barrels of oil buried underground worldwide, making that simplistic point and no other is an easy win for them--today. It also highlights a certain entrenched unwillingness to consider the broader view--the one with facts and implications.
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Wednesday, September 28, 2016Left v. Right: Different Worlds Pt 6 If the only advantage in preserving a status quo is to delay doing anything, the primary achievement will be to ensure the difficulties have been compounded....Cause-and-effect merits more consideration than it gets. All the more so in light of the steady stream of nonsense issuing from Donald Trump and his apologists.
Series: The Left v Right Conflicts (17 Articles, 14514 views)
Wednesday, January 29, 2014Group Think & Political Identity Acceptance by others, specifically those most important to us personally, is as basic a human trait as there is. Who doesn’t want to feel welcome by those closest to us—the individuals and groups who matter most, however we define that?
Saturday, May 21, 2016Peak Oil: Now Is A Good Time To Get Serious (Part 2) If nothing else, we'll need to recognize that, like climate change, Peak Oil is not some event looming on a distant horizon. Peak Oil is happening now. We must guard against the notion that Peak Oil's impact (like climate change) is just a one-time, cataclysmic episode "scheduled" to happen but only at some random time at an indefinite point sometime long into the future.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016Left v. Right: Different Worlds Part 3 For those of us on the Left, the failure of conservatives to address the economic imbalances and the obvious harm amounts to callous disregard. It may be convenient to seek closure quickly and avoid troubling oneself with nuance and a range of considerations affecting policy, but that strategy has its drawbacks...
Saturday, January 18, 2014How Did We Get Here? (And How Do We Get Out?) How did society move from a point where certain principles stood as longstanding anchors in the foundation of conservative political philosophy to a place of so much bitterness, often-times hysterical nonsense, combined with knee-jerk opposition and willful obstruction today?
Tuesday, July 22, 2014Denial Tricks of the Trade It should come as no surprise at all that we have a dedicated cottage industry working double-time to dispute any concerns that the rate of oil production has peaked (or at least leveled off for about a decade).
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Thursday, April 10, 2014What Did Happen To The Common Good? The Republican Party operates on the assumption that only small government—if that—is necessary or proper. Ideological differences aside, when one group takes it upon itself to proactively gum up the works at every turn, we’ve moved beyond philosophical differences into a very dark chapter of present history.
Monday, June 6, 2016Peak Oil: Now Is A Good Time To Get Serious Pt 4 A fossil fuel-driven-and-made-possible life is all any of us have ever known. There are virtually no aspects of daily living that do not depend in some part on inexpensive, readily-available and easily-produced fossil fuels. That's not going to change dramatically overnight, but we shouldn't count on energy supply status quo for years and years to come.
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Thursday, May 26, 2016Peak Oil: Now Is A Good Time To Get Serious Pt 3 Amid all the chaos and challenges and burdens which already suck up most of our attention, the problems associated with the challenges of future oil production call upon us to harness a vision for the future that is not just incrementally better than this one. Reliance upon the same resources, methods, beliefs, and strategies which have carried us into the 21st Century will not be the same ones carrying us forward.
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Monday, February 24, 2014Immoral? Some Elected Officials Need A Dictionary & A Mirror Denying the most basic of necessities to those most in need—in no small part because policies and ideologies one supports either help set the dominoes in motion, or keeps them toppling farther away from places where solutions can be found—seems a curious demonstration of morality
Monday, September 22, 2014So Much For Energy Security Energy Independence and Energy Security are such comforting notions. Might be worthwhile for those otherwise pre-disposed to swallow the stories whole to pause for a moment or two and consider the effect and impact of actual facts. And while they're at it, pondering what the motivations have been for cherry-picking and misleading--and who is and is not being served by those tactics--might also be enlightening.
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Sunday, October 5, 2014More Info Isn't Necessarily Enough What seems like an obvious solution--more information and facts--in the apparent failure to understand the challenges which declining peak oil production rates (and/or climate change) will bring about is not quite so obvious. It makes perfectly good sense, but that doesn't matter, either. Nothing like human nature to muck up simple solutions!
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Wednesday, June 8, 2016Left v. Right Pt 2 A narcissistic demagogue as clueless as is humanly possible about both national and international policies, practices, standards, and relationships has somehow managed to incite millions of Americans by an almost nonstop stream of misstatements, adolescent--dangerous--button-pushing, fabrications, and pseudo-facts. This is now the standard for national political office?
Series: The Left v Right Conflicts (17 Articles, 14514 views)
Monday, May 12, 2014The Art Of Shooting Oneself In The Foot There is a great deal at stake for all us, and we might all be better served understanding not just what we do in asserting and defending our beliefs, policies, and opinions, but why. Appreciating that might make a world of difference " literally!
Sunday, August 10, 2014Price Drops Sound Great, But.... Wishing economic realities were different is a nice balm, but wishing is just wishing. None of us want to be in a position not too far down the road where we're collectively kicking ourselves for once again postponing the hard work needed today to afford ourselves better opportunities tomorrow.
Series: Peak Oil - A Challenge Not To Be Overlooked (41 Articles, 34619 views)
Tuesday, March 11, 2014Ideology No Matter What The Price When facts get in the way of witless ideology to protect the wealthy and the powerful at the expense of everyone else, facts are a convenient casualty.
