With A Brief Foreword Note from Doug Draper, publisher, Niagara At Large
Posted January 14th, 2016 on Niagara At Large
From Doug Draper
With all of the negativity we are fed by politicians, it was great to tune in one of the cable news channels this January 12th and hear some truly positive and forward-thinking ideas coming from Barack Obama during his last State of the Union Address as President of the United States.
U.S. Barack Obama delivers State of the Union Address for last time in his presidency.
It sounded like a youngish new Canadian Prime Minister named Justin Trudeau who is already being sniped at with lines like ‘he can’t do that’ or ‘he’s trying to move too fast’ or (especially with reference to his ambitious promise to land 50,000 Syrians in Canada by early this year) ‘ah, you see, he’s going to miss his target’ by critics representing the narrow and dated interests – too often drenched in anger, phobia and cynicism – of old stock Canadians.
Let’s hope that for the sake of the future of younger generations of Canadians and Americans, Trudeau and Obama and whoever takes his place in the White House do not let the voices of negativity and entrenched interest discourage them from at least try pursuing a more progressive course.
In that spirit, what follows is one of the more instirational, forward-thinking excerpts – at least, in my view – from Obama’s January 12th, 2016 State of the Union Address –
“Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.
That spirit of discovery is in our DNA. We’re Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers and George Washington Carver. We’re Grace Hopper and Katherine Johnson and Sally Ride. We’re every immigrant and entrepreneur from Boston to Austin to Silicon Valley racing to shape a better world. And over the past seven years, we’ve nurtured that spirit.
We’ve protected an open internet, and taken bold new steps to get more students and low-income Americans online. We’ve launched next-generation manufacturing hubs, and online tools that give an entrepreneur everything he or she needs to start a business in a single day.
But we can do so much more. Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.
Medical research is critical. We need the same level of commitment when it comes to developing clean energy sources.
Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You’ll be pretty lonely, because you’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community, and 200 nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it.
But even if the planet wasn’t at stake; even if 2014 wasn’t the warmest year on record — until 2015 turned out even hotter — why would we want to pass up the chance for American businesses to produce and sell the energy of the future?
Seven years ago, we made the single biggest investment in clean energy in our history. Here are the results. In fields from Iowa to Texas, wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power. On rooftops from Arizona to New York, solar is saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills, and employs more Americans than coal — in jobs that pay better than average. We’re taking steps to give homeowners the freedom to generate and store their own energy — something environmentalists and Tea Partiers have teamed up to support. Meanwhile, we’ve cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly sixty percent, and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth.
Gas under two bucks a gallon ain’t bad, either.
Now we’ve got to accelerate the transition away from dirty energy. Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future — especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels. That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet. That way, we put money back into those communities and put tens of thousands of Americans to work building a 21st century transportation system.
None of this will happen overnight, and yes, there are plenty of entrenched interests who want to protect the status quo. But the jobs we’ll create, the money we’ll save, and the planet we’ll preserve — that’s the kind of future our kids and grandkids deserve.”
To read U.S. President Barack Obama’s whole State of the Union Address or to watch a video of it click on -bhttps://medium.com/@WhiteHouse/president-obama-s-2016-state-of-the-union-address-7c06300f9726#.tbnu5s878 .
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.
Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.
Niagara At Large 