These days I’m feeling all right
‘Cept I can’t tell my courage from my desperation – Bruce Springsteen, Local Hero 1992
Having just stared into the abyss of insurrection, and after enduring four years of climate change denial, the denigration of science as an essential tool of public policy setting, the recission of basic environmental protections from air, water and land, and the embrace of offshore drilling, I am equal measures scared, energized and exhausted. I doubt I am alone.
The challenge I am facing is how to adjust my thinking from playing defense to engaging in a proactive agenda at the federal level. Those of us who value the environment have been fighting back for so long that we cannot allow ourselves to be satisfied with just being cheerleaders for the agenda of the new administration. So far, I like what I am hearing. That said, in particular, let us not be lulled into simply restoring what was in place prior to the Trump administration. Sure, the rules used to be more protective, but we needed to do better then, and we still do. Just look at our State of the Waters: Cape Cod report if you have any doubt that we have a lot of work to do on water quality alone.
In thinking about it, I have concluded that dreaming about getting back to the good old days is both lazy and a little misguided. The old times were never quite as good as we recall anyway. Better yet that we put our energy into thinking about how to replace what was lost with a structure that will serve us and the next generations well into the future.
I begin my Day One reset today.
