A Real Superhero

It's late Friday afternoon. It's been a tough week and a hard day. I'm in need of a Superhero to look up to. On second thought, I realize no matter what my problems are, they are zero in comparison to those of many, many others.

I did find are real superhero, though. His name is Lenny B. Robinson. In case you missed the story, here is an oustanding article written by Michael S. Rosenwald, The Washington Post, "Who is the Route 29 Batman? This guy." >>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/rosenwald-md/post/who-is-the-route-29-batman-this-guy/2012/03/28/gIQA8nPjgS_blog.html?hpid=z6

Robinson talks to Jayden Deleon-Talbert, brother of Khloe Deleon-Talbert, a patient being treated at Children’s National Medical Center, at the annual Hope for Henry Superhero Celebration. / Allen Goldberg The Washington Post 30 Mar 2012

Community Promtion on the Cheap

Even in good times many communities believe they don't have the dollars to invest in making themselves attractive to visitors. Shortsighted as this outlook is, it is still “king” in many of the communities in which we live in Michigan, for instance.

If the community fathers and mothers were only looking and listening they’d see and hear an Internet-based, smart phone superhero riding to their rescue.

This solution is inexpensive to implement and maintain, as well as much more effective and appealing. All it takes is good old project management, writing / editing, and graphic design combined with website development skills. All those skills are resident in most local communities. Take a look at what NYC did two years ago:

Go here for more about the World Park Campaign >>>

Really, How Bad Is It? It’s Outrageously Bad.

Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, the whole 99% movement, among others, have underscored the fact that the U.S. middle class is no longer middle nor a class. Over the past 30 years we have become zeros in the great political game orchestrated by the super wealthy 1%ers. For us, literally, the American Dream no longer exists. We have not only lost our wealth, our homes, our retirements and our jobs, but also our voice in Washington.

However, the authors of Winner-Take-All Politics, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson are still optimistic that we can retrieve American Democracy from the hands of the now in control American Oligarchists. Please see Bill Moyer’s interview below.

Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, authors of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-broadcast-on-winner-take-all-politics/

Let’s be the First International / Regional Energy Node

S.E. Michigan, N.W. Ohio and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, should join together as a region and follow the lead of the City of San Antonio which has adopted and is implementing a sustainable, alternative energy plan called Mission Verde. San Antonio-owned CPS Energy is a partner in the Mission Verde program.

Soon, San Antonio homeowners, businesses and government units will be producing their own energy and employing their people in a new industry - converting homes and businesses to sustaining power generating units and operating a revolutionary distributive power system.

Mission Verde is based upon an earlier program, also created by Jeremy Rifkin, which was adopted by the European Parliament in 2007. It is now being implemented by various agencies within the European Commission as well as in the 27 member-states. Rifkin is an advisor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany is the lead country in the program.

In his recent presentation Rifkin underscored that areas, cities, regions around the world will soon become collaborative, distributed power "nodes" selling harvested energy to other cities and regions. Please watch this video:

Jeremy Rifkin is the author of The Third Industrial Revolution. He is a senior lecturer at the Wharton School’s Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania—the world’s #1 ranked business school—where he instructs CEOs and senior management on transitioning their business operations into sustainable Third Industrial Revolution economies.

Rifkin’s Huffington Post blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-rifkin

Go here for Mission Verde info >>>


City of San Antonio Mission Verde

This Belief Made the USA

On September 12, 1960 a candidate for the presidency of the United States gave a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association of Protestant Clergymen in affirmation of the historic American belief in separation of church and state. A belief which he as a Catholic-American, I underscore, put his life in jeopardy to uphold while serving in the Navy during World War II.

Recently, another candidate for the presidency, Sen. Rick Santorum, stated that he “almost threw up” after reading Sen. John F. Kennedy’s comments.

Here is what Sen. Kennedy said that day:

Sen. Santorum does not agree with the view that the government must not endorse one religious faith over another. That’s why I, a Presbyterian by family tradition, believe a vote for Sen. Santorum would be a mistake.

In my book if you want to be the representative of the people of the United States, then you damn well need to represent all of us, not just those who happen to agree with your particular religious view.

Can Collaborative Internet Gaming Change the World?

Maybe so… watch Jane McGonigal explain why.

Jane McGonigal presents at TED

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Dardesheim, Tiny German Village Leads the World

Nearly 20 years ago visionary civic leaders of Dardesheim, a tiny German village located north of Switzerland, made a courageous decision. They decided to devote their community and personal resources in an all out effort to become, “Germany’s renewable energy city” and become 100% energy independent.

Back then, these civic leaders decided that their concentrated community effort would pay off not only in cheap electricity to power their homes and businesses and new jobs for their people, but also, possibly, in a monetary return to be realized by selling excess energy to other communities.

They were right.

Today, through a combination of wind, solar and biomass energy alternatives, Dardesheim is energy independent and produces enough power from wind turbines alone to “meet the needs of nearly all 80,000 resident of the surrounding county.”

“Proponents intend that the projects spread their economic benefits throughout the community. According to Heinrich Bartelt (one of the leaders behind the Dardesheim 100% renewable energy village concept) the community's investment in the project has become a development engine for the entire region. All the investment from the project stayed in the region, becoming the raw material for new local job creation. (Enercon a wind turbine manufacturer, in nearby Madgeburg, employs 3,000 and has become the largest industrial employer in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt.)"

Go here for more>>>
http://wind-works.org/articles/DardesheimGermanysRenewableEnergyCity.html

Elsewhere, the World Future Council and HafenCity University have established an International Commission on Cities and Climate change. The twenty members strive to identify best policies for sustainable urban development. Additionally, Munich, Boulder, Wildpoldsried, San Francisco, Barcelona, Woking, Sydney, and Copenhagen are engaged in becoming less dependent on fossil fuel.
Go here for more>>>
http://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/100__renewable_energy_for_citys-for_web.pdf

Finally, the European Union has about four years on the USA when comes to renewable energy. The Germans are leading their charge, too. They’ve transformed about 20% of their energy use into renewable energy, away from carbon-based fuels. The other European nations are expecting to reach the 20% renewable energy goal by 2020.

Jeremy Rifkin, principle architect of the European Union's Third Industrial Revolution long-term economic sustainability plan, and others, are working with cities, regions, and national governments to develop master plans to transition their economies into “post-carbon Third Industrial Revolution infrastructures”. In 2009, Rifkin and his team developed Third Industrial Revolution master plans for the cities of San Antonio, Texas and Rome, Italy, to transition their economies into the first post carbon urban areas in the world.

See my previous post. Go here>>>
http://downrivermi.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/leadership-a-vision-of-our-future/
Listen to Rifkin’s description of the “Third Industrial Revolution.” Go here>>
http://thedianerehmshow.org/audio-player?nid=14767

So, what are we waiting for? It’s time we put that often self-proclaimed American Ingenuity to work and establish our own centers of excellence at our universities and seriously encourage collaborative community-based renewable energy programs like the Germans have done!