Green Jobs Gets a General: Mr. Jones Goes to Washington
By Al Giordano
Van Jones, 40, came into public life in the 1990s as a community organizer with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in Oakland, California. In 2007, he founded Green for All, "a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty."
Jones is the very sort of community organizer that Governor Sarah Palin mocked during her acceptance speech at last year's Republican National Convention.
Well, lookie here: Mr. Jones goes to Washington and to the White House too... where "He'll be in charge of controlling the stimulus cash that's dedicated to the creation of green jobs."
The New Yorker profiled Jones in January, in which the reporter, Elizabeth Kolbert, accompanied to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he spoke with a group of high school drop-outs:
"They can now put up wind turbines-almost like a windmill, but this is not your mama's windmill, it's like a big jet engine sitting up there-and make power," Jones said. "Somebody's going to make a billion dollars deploying that technology. I think it should be you.
"They have this thing called solar panels," he continued. "A solar panel is a piece of glass almost. Right now wealthy people can put that on their homes. And it costs money to put it up there, but once it's up the sunlight hits it and it turns it into electricity and powers the house. So you're paying electricity bills, but somebody else is kicking it. Somebody's going to make a million dollars figuring out a way to get those solar panels made and deployed in our hoods. I think it should be you."
Jones' appointment brings a double breath of air. First, he's going to make sure the stimulus money for renewable energy won't get diverted by federal and state agencies to mere pork and patronage projects and is going to be spent as intended. That's not just his job, but his mission in life. Second, his ascendance ends the era when the environmental movement could be seen as a luxury of the privileged and educated. Jones has already done more than anybody else I can think of to forge a new language for that movement, one that speaks to the self interest of the workers and the poor; the very groups that corporations and governments have long divided from environmental concerns by pitting short term economic interests against the health of our children and neighborhoods. In sum, Jones shifts the dominant tendency of environmental advocacy from that of the "activism" of national and international ecological organizations to that of the "organizing" built on the ground during years of local environmental struggles.
Last year, Jones told Mother Jones magazine:
"The only reason that we have the unsustainable accounting that we have right now is because incinerators, dumping grounds, and sacrifice zones were put where poor people live. It would never have been allowed if you had to put all the incinerators and nasty stuff in rich people's neighborhoods; we'd have had a sustainable economy a long time ago... We don't want to be first and worst with all the toxins and all the negative effects of global warming, and then benefit last and least from all the breakthroughs in solar, wind energy, organic food, all the positives. We want an equal share, an equitable share, of the work wealth and the benefits of the transition to a green economy."
When it comes to energy and the environment, there's a new sheriff in town, and he'll soon have a gigantic posse riding with him.
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Community organizing + industrial policy = WIN
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by slaney black (not verified)Boy, Obama is way smarter than I am.
This is great news. He was
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by V (not verified)This is great news. He was a panelist at this year's State of the Black Union event. I found him to be one of a handful of panelists from the entire event who seemed like he had a vision and a plan for addressing the problems in the black community, not just words.
Exactly what we need
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by sustainability engineer (not verified)I'm involved in a cross-disciplinary graduate program in sustainability where we have weekly discussions on the state of sustainability and what can/should be done. Over the course of the past year I've gotten an impression of extreme pessimism amongst even those that know a sustainable economy is technologically feasible. They are of the impression that nobody is listening - that society is too set in its ways and that the structural aspects of our way of life (transportation, city planning, consumption-driven economy) are too great of challenges to overcome.
People like this man are exactly what we need to change the tone of public debate on matters of sustainable living. We need articulate, intelligent national leaders to show people where they fit in to the environmental greater scheme of things. I have been very impressed with Obama's rhetoric so far on this matter, but at the same time get the feeling that his voice alone is not enough.
I have the feeling that the recent economic crisis and ongoing ecological crisis will result in a populace ready for their fundamental worldview to be shifted to a responsible, sustainable, 21st-century one. I think it is too soon for the final tipping point to be reached (need more time for the true dire nature of our collective situation to sink in), but I expect it to come on very fast in the next few years. I expect by the 2012 elections we will see it really start to grip the country, once people begin to really understand the deeper issues inherent in the greed-driven worldview we have espoused for generations.
These are all intuitive speculations on my part, but I feel we are very much on the cusp of a Gladwell-style tipping point, and the collapse of our financial system is the final catalyst required for it to take hold. Does anyone else feel this way? If so, in what timeframe do you expect it to happen?
I think this kind of sweeping, society-wide shift in perspective is going to be required for anything meaningful to change. Solving our economic and environmental issues will need livestyle changes from everyone. Almost nobody is living in an environmentally responsible way right now, even many of those that have been shouting "doom" from the rooftops for years.
It is time to stop shifting the overton window incrementally towards greener policies. We have to shutter this one and knock a new hole in the wall. The only way that will happen is if people like this man find new ways to frame the debate and bring it home people of all walks of life.
Progressivism: The Next Generation?
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by Scott KnoxI wonder if what's happening here isn't the flip side of what I expected from the new administration back in the transition days..
My expectation was that President Obama would select a roster of younger progressives for his team, and then proceed to chart a modest path of policy. The more moderate policy positions would reassure the critics that would cry about the "Karl Marx All-Stars" (or some such nonsense).
Instead, we got what more than one pundit noted was a cabinet heavy on Clinton-era retreads. These are people who were said to know how Washington works, how to get things done. The progressives were left scratching their heads - this was the change we voted for??
Lo and behold, after 'reassuring' everyone right of DailyKos with his team of 'centrist insiders', the president is proceeding to lay out a more ambitious vision of America than just about anyone thought possible, particularly given the financial crisis.
And now we are starting to see that the second layer of appointees, who will likely be doing more of the implementing work anyway, not that I'm saying that the higher-profile officers are just a front... Mr. Jones is now in a position to influence public policy for 30 years or more, both in this position and for future Democratic presidents if he so chooses.
Meanwhile, I hear that 70% of Dubya Bush officeholders are still looking for work - I guess the recession is even hurting the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute, heh. So goes life for policymakers who were more crony than skilled, who more went-along than provided useful insight.
Between this and the Senate passing the Budget Bill...
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by Phoenix Woman (not verified)...this really is a good news day!
Middle Class Task force
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by Anne CrumptonVan Jones was a panelist at the March 9th Vice President's Middle Class Task Force focus on green jobs. I'd never heard him before and was very impressed with both his words and delivery.
The blog of that day recalls:
Van's message is about providing opportunity and hope, and the moral responsibility to make sure this green wave is one that lifts all boats -- "a green economy that MLK would be proud of." The way to do that, he says, is to make sure green jobs crop up not just in rural and suburban areas, but in urban areas, too. To great applause: "There is a moral principle to green the ghetto first ... to give young people the chance to put down that handgun and pick up a caulking gun." [emphasis added]
Van Jones is a wonderful choice. Amazing choice
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by rikyrah (not verified)he's superb.
The President couldn't have chosen better.
Making my day
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by James HaygoodDamn, this kind of news just does it for me. Makes me see what a wasteland these last years have been. SUCH a great choice.
Good News
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by Lisa in Oregon (not verified)I'll chime in to say thanks for spreading this good news, Al.
and finally...
Submitted on March 10th, 2009 by Kathleen HarganFolks get the message that there's more to (my) Oakland than killing! Van Jones is a hero in my mind, and I'm delighted to read this!
Jones
Submitted on March 11th, 2009 by JWC (not verified)This guy spoke in Austin at Netroots Nation. I didn't know who he was but have to admit I was totally impressed!!! Great appointment.
Obama The Wimp? Come on!!!
Submitted on March 12th, 2009 by C.B. TODD (not verified)Al - OT but want to rant.
Lastest from Howard Fineman is that the Establishment thinks Obama is a wimp (although "the people" don't). What a bunch of adolescent wannabe's. How many times have they complained that Obama is not "tough enough" only to find a steel hand within a velvet glove. But if it's sticks they have to have (not carrots) in order to know who is in the executive office - then it will be sticks they will get - only not their way - their way of governing has run the country off a cliff. It seems to me that Obama is masterfully in control - getting 80-90% of what he wants of a very sweeping agenda with not too much bloodletting. In the end, the Establishment has been side swiped and bypassed - and are basically trying to say "hey where are you going -you can't do that" when Obama has already has done it.
More OT and somewhat relevant
Submitted on March 12th, 2009 by CarolDuhart (not verified)Remember the technical screwups during the Republican Convention last year? It looks like the technical "gremlins" are at it again for the Republicans.
The Big Bad Database of Senator Norm Coleman
Reminds me of this:
The Competence Gap
last year. I wonder if the Culture Clash I talked about last year hasn't bedeviled the Republican Party at all level. Finding competent geeks that can also put up with Republican social policies is extremely hard apparently. Think about the guy who handled the White House e-mails. Or that they had to go to "Geeks Are Us" for hard drive disposal. Sarah Palin using a yahoo e-mail instead of her own secure domain. The party just discovering Twitter. Now this incredible screwup with Norm Coleman.
As I said before, the Culture War has consequences.
And the Republicans are so completely beholden to old energy technology they are completely unable to exploit the new opportunites in new technology, whether alternative energy or computers.