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Nelson speaks out on poisonous politics, oil companies
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| By:MARK J. CRAWFORD, Telegraph Editor |
April 21, 2006 |
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While Rep. Cliff Stearns' recent appearance opened with a question about war, Democratic Senator Bill Nelson's visit at the North Florida Regional Chamber of Commerce last week opened with a question about peace.
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Paul Martucci asked Nelson whether or not he was in support of the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace, an initiative supported by the likes of Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Mark Dayton, retired newsman Walter Cronkite and best-selling author Marianne Williamson to curb the level of international and domestic violence.
Martucci, a school counselor, said the kids he's worked with are forced to confront violence on a daily basis, at home, at schools and in their communities. For that reason, he said, he has become a supporter of a cabinet-level Department of Peace. Two-thirds of the budget proposed for the department would be directed toward programs dealing with domestic issues, including violent crime, he said.
Saying he would look at the bill regarding the peace department, Nelson discussed the importance of values that seemingly aren't being passed on from one generation to the next like respect, tolerance, hard work, discipline and faith.
Nelson added a declining belief in the American Dream and cuts in education funding as contributing factors to a less civil society.
"I get concerned. Are we moving to a position of the haves and the have-nots? And if we lose that sense of optimism in an upwardly mobile middle class to which most of us aspire, then we've taken away a part of America."
Cuts in funding to student financial assistance, which he said he has tried to fight by amendment, are part of that problem.
Beyond schools, which can't be completely saddled with raising children, Nelson said the nation has to get back to the roles families and faith play in civilizing society.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is one of the most profound commands ever issued, Nelson said. He used the country's current level of partisanship as an example of just how far some have strayed from that commandment.
"Look at the ideological rigidity that's going on right now-(the) 'It's my way or the highway' attitude. You can't govern a country as big and as complicated and as broad and as diverse as this country unless you get people to-as the Good Book says, 'Come let us reason together,'" Nelson said.
Politics, he said, is poisonous in the nation's capital. In an environment he called "hateful," he said it's hard to get anything done.
While he said he couldn't do it for anyone else, he could be accountable for how he conducts himself. His wife, Grace, he said, is doing her part as president of the Senate Spouses Club. The sole reason, he said, is to try to find common ground across party lines.
Not ready to commit to the idea of a Department of Peace, Nelson did advance the idea of requiring young people to commit to one to two years of service to their country, whether it be in the military, the Peace Corps, teaching, or some other worthy endeavor.
According to a Web site established for the Department of Peace campaign, Congresswoman Corrine Brown is the only legislator from Florida to formally endorse the plan.
Clay Electric's Chris Carson got the senator onto the topic of energy, asking what could be done to help consumers bear rising costs and reduce energy consumption.
"Our energy bills have gotten ridiculous," Carson said, largely because of the cost of natural gas, coal and wood.
The country's energy crisis is rivaled only by the nuclearization of Iran as the nation's biggest threat, Nelson said. Importing 60 percent of its daily consumption, Nelson said the country had allowed itself to be to dependent on foreign oil and on using oil for energy.
Americans were seduced by cheap oil, he said, but it isn't cheap anymore, and the country will rue the day when its supply is cut off by hurricanes, terrorists, disgruntled dictators, or whatever form the crisis takes.
Still, the senator, a primary opponent of drilling off Florida's coasts, says the country has options, including replacing gasoline consumption with ethanol and requiring the automotive industry to manufacture more hybrid vehicles.
"Maybe it's going to take $3 a gallon gasoline to get people out of their chairs and start marching in the streets and demand of their government to get out of bed with the oil industry," Nelson said.
America only has 3 percent of the world's oil supply but consumes 45 percent, which makes the oil industry's push to drill off Florida's coasts a "red herring," he said. There are options, he said, but once again, ideological differences and corporate interests are standing in the way.
Gas prices are destined to surpass $3 a gallon because the supply of oil is so stretched that the least disruption in the global marketplace causes panic, Nelson said.
The nation will overcome this challenge, he said, pointing to the history of American politics in which problems build to a boiling point until the public finally demands and gets change.
Jacqueline Betz, who spoke at Stearns' appearance, thanked Florida National Guardsmen present, and the military in general, saying they have done everything the president has asked of them, but told Nelson it was time to bring the troops home from Iraq.
Nelson indicated there have been a number of problems in the execution of war from misinformation about Iraq's weapons to the lack of body armor for U.S. troops. What's done is done, he said, and now a political settlement to stabilize Iraq is in the country's best interests. Yet he admitted he didn't know how that would be achieved.
"I can tell you a lot better in a month or two, because in another month or two, we're going to see if the Iraqis have the will for a political settlement between the three different groups," Nelson said. Without that will, a low-grade civil war will possibly develop into a full-blown one, he said.
Local government officials including County Commissioner John Cooper and School Superintendent Harry Hatcher expressed the need for additional funds to support road and school construction. Starke City Manager Ken Sauer later asked Nelson what they could do to see more funding for infrastructure.
Nelson said local road projects, for example, need to appear as part of the Florida Department of Transportation's plans for the area lest it look as if he is trying to earmark portions of the department's budget.
Even if he could get that money earmarked for those projects, the country is operating in a deficit, borrowing money from foreign banks to pay its bills, he said. That makes finding federal dollars for local projects more difficult, but he said he would continue to try.
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©Bradford County Telegraph 2009
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