Blog: Don't Argue Over Sustainability, Celebrate It

The current political climate in our county has turned hostile towards a very basic life philosophy: Sustainability. This is the sort of silliness that occurs when ideas become the property of ideologues.

Sustainability was a foundation building block of life in Carroll County long before I came to embrace it; long before I held a job with the county with the word in its title and way long before the current commissioners took office and decided that sustainability was some nefarious plot to interject the practice into our lifestyles and economy with implications of an international conspiracy.

Rather than make thoughts about a more sustainable way to lead our lives a labor, a better way to address the subject is from the positive, to make it a pleasant challenge to leave our local place and our planet better for our existence and that of our inheritors. Sustainability is not about sacrifice, it is about doing things smarter and using our God given brains to think our way through to smarter solutions.

There is a trite cartoon circulating the internet which poses the question about global warming. In essence, one character in the cartoon asks another, “and what harm will be done if we begin to act to stopglobal warming”.  There are certainly those with smug answers at the ready in reply but of course the bottom line is that if we have higher expectations for ourselves and our nation, no harm will come to anyone. The worst we can do in behaving poorly is a tragic end to the
planet’s history. The best we can make of acting responsibly; sustainably, is that we’ll improve our lot.

There are those on our Board of Commissioners who would argue that Sustainability is a plot by the United Nations to restrict our freedoms and steal the property rights of individuals. To that charge I say, “Baloney”!

Freedom to choose is one of the very fundamentals of Sustainability. No one is forcing anyone here to recycle their plastic and paper. There is no mandate to compost. Our government has never dictated what we think and how we may think about it. The current Commissioners are trying to create a boogeyman for their own political convenience and benefit but the public is buying none of it. Those among us with children want to leave a better place as their inheritance, not one of growth run amok and unfettered pollution in the name of “property rights for all”. As has been said many times before, your property rights end where they meet my jaw and the welfare of my family.

This holiday season many of us will be with our families and will discuss topical events from the outcomes of football games and the latest news from afar. Let us also try to include some discussion about how we can all act in the next year to leave this place we inhabit at least none the worse for our presence here and celebrate a sustainable way of life that may actually leave the joint a tad for the better.