Van the man

not this one, although he is sweet.






this guy:











I went to a book reading / lecture last night to hear Van Jones speak. I was listening. He is a lawyer, an environmentalist, and most importantly an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised in this country, especially young African American men. He has a new book called The Green Collar Economy which I have been reading which outlines a set of ideas to bring millions of people out of poverty creating a new set of jobs based on a new green economy. Most of the jobs would be involved in skilled labor positions like manufacturing and installing solar panels for instance, so there is an education component to it as well. He likens the midwest plains to the "Saudi Arabia " of wind power, and makes the same metaphor for the sunbelt in the US for its national solar producing capabilities. His ideas really had me listening. So much of this green wave is about eco-elitism (building a green vacation home) or selfish self-reliance (disconnecting from the grid, and from community). He talk about China and India as our "brothers and sisters" in this economic and environmental mess. His language and view is inclusive, big, broad, for the least of these, glocal.

Hearing him talk about speaking the truth-in-love to those in power as well as to those in poverty, and bringing a collective spirit of action across all kinds of social chasms really got me thinking. Hearing ideas about bringing the greenest solutions to the poorest people really has me talking. Hearing him talking about re-honoring and re-recognizing the need for skilled labor education, really just got me. Hearing him talk about how we need to move beyond solely equal protection from the WORST pollution (environmental justice and advocacy) to equal oppurtunity for the BEST new clean technology and jobs was real paradigm shift for me. Hearing him declare his faith in God was pretty cool too.