Cindy's Visit to class

Cindy's visit on Monday was interesting, and a great opportunity for all of us to hear from her perspective why she is a member of a tea party organization. I had lot of questions about tea parties in general that I didn't get to ask because we got side tracked (why were we talking about globalization for so long? I forget what lead us into that part of the conversation). Anyway, I was glad to hear that her organization is not governed by anger and aggression like I see so often in the media (although Paul had a bad experience at a Tea Party meeting, and I'm pretty sure I would feel uncomfortable there expressing my view points).

I really don't understand how she can call herself a conservationist and an environmentalist and then vote people into office who do such horrible things to the environment. I would be conflicted about this. I suppose that to her, "fiscal responsibility" and "personal responsibility" are more important to her than making laws that protect the environment. Everyone has their priorities, and I can't expect everyone's priorities to be the same as mine. But that seems conflicting to me. She seems to think that deregulating the systems that manage our country and giving people "freedom" to do what they want will make the country a better place. In the environmental world, we have clearly seen that when men are left to their own devices they do not choose to take care of the environment. Corporations make decisions about money, not help the environment. We need laws that make it financially beneficial to make environmentally friendly decisions, and laws that keep companies and government from exploiting the land.

I also thought that it was interesting that she thinks that the government should rule with religion. She talks so much about the constitution and "freedom," but with a Christian government, would non-Christians living in this country be "free?" Isn't that what the founding fathers were fleeing from in Europe when they came here in the first place? I can't imagine that she's thought through the possible outcomes of a religious state from anyone's perspective other than her own. I wish we'd had more time to talk about that.

And thanks, Paul, for showing the "Cap & Trade" video in class - I'd heard criticism of the Cap & Trade briefly, but the movie outlined things from a great angle! I thought it was a great video. It made me want to read more about Cap & Trade in Europe.