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A Pinch Of Salt
By Harry Saltzgaver
I was inspired last week.
I was inspired some 47 years ago, too. That’s when John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Of course, I was way too young to understand what that meant. Really. Honest. But I like to think that it began a life based on serving others — even if I’ve wandered far from that base a time or three.
I am of the generation inspired by the Kennedy clan. I didn’t follow or understand Bobby Kennedy as much as I did the Camelot president (I think I did three book reports on “PT-109” when I was in junior high), but I sat in disbelief with the rest of the country when he lost his life to a madman with a gun.
I never was much of a Jackie Kennedy fan, and was even less impressed when she became the paramour of the Greek tycoon. But I have to admit to being inspired by Maria Shriver more than once, and by more than her photogenic profile, too.
Last week, it was Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s turn. I managed to finagle a ticket to the State of the Downtown luncheon put on by the Downtown Long Beach Associates strictly to hear Kennedy speak (I hear too much about the state of the downtown as it is). He did not disappoint.
Kennedy is a passionate environmentalist, to say the least. Where his father and his uncle put their considerable intellects to conquering the political world, Junior is determined to change the real world.
As a lead attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kennedy has had the opportunity to study in depth the impacts of modern society on the environment — and the potential impacts of doing something about it. He is yet another Kennedy with a positive message — we can do something about the way we live if we’ll just have the will to do it.
While Kennedy’s original push was water quality — he was founder and still is president of the Waterkeeper Alliance (there are Baykeepers and Streamkeepers, among others) — his passion these days is clean energy. He can talk solar and wind power with T. Boone Pickens while at the same time envision “smart” electrical grids with our own Mayor Bob Foster (former president of Southern California Edison).
He can explain the negative impacts of coal-burning power plants while talking about how many square miles of solar panels it would take to power the entire West Coast.
But that kind of knowledge is almost expected of someone who has spent his life studying one subject. His facts are fascinating, even convicting, but not necessarily inspiring.
The true inspiration is the fact that Kennedy has done something with his passion and knowledge. He’s that rarest of rare breeds, a doing dreamer.
Kennedy is a partner in a company called Project Better Place, which comes up with clean energy solutions. He is working in Israel now to make that country independent of foreign oil in three years. He’s doing it with geothermal energy, his smart energy grid and electric cars.
Now he is pitching the same approach here. The energy grid infrastructure alone is a massive public works project that could put the nation back to work.
I’m not smart enough to tell whether these projects are feasible, even with the impetus of making it a national security issue (which Kennedy convinced me it is). But I do know that I’ve finally met an environmentalist who is doing more than protesting or trying to stop things. He’s doing something.
And that’s inspiring.
I was inspired some 47 years ago, too. That’s when John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Of course, I was way too young to understand what that meant. Really. Honest. But I like to think that it began a life based on serving others — even if I’ve wandered far from that base a time or three.
I am of the generation inspired by the Kennedy clan. I didn’t follow or understand Bobby Kennedy as much as I did the Camelot president (I think I did three book reports on “PT-109” when I was in junior high), but I sat in disbelief with the rest of the country when he lost his life to a madman with a gun.
I never was much of a Jackie Kennedy fan, and was even less impressed when she became the paramour of the Greek tycoon. But I have to admit to being inspired by Maria Shriver more than once, and by more than her photogenic profile, too.
Last week, it was Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s turn. I managed to finagle a ticket to the State of the Downtown luncheon put on by the Downtown Long Beach Associates strictly to hear Kennedy speak (I hear too much about the state of the downtown as it is). He did not disappoint.
Kennedy is a passionate environmentalist, to say the least. Where his father and his uncle put their considerable intellects to conquering the political world, Junior is determined to change the real world.
As a lead attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kennedy has had the opportunity to study in depth the impacts of modern society on the environment — and the potential impacts of doing something about it. He is yet another Kennedy with a positive message — we can do something about the way we live if we’ll just have the will to do it.
While Kennedy’s original push was water quality — he was founder and still is president of the Waterkeeper Alliance (there are Baykeepers and Streamkeepers, among others) — his passion these days is clean energy. He can talk solar and wind power with T. Boone Pickens while at the same time envision “smart” electrical grids with our own Mayor Bob Foster (former president of Southern California Edison).
He can explain the negative impacts of coal-burning power plants while talking about how many square miles of solar panels it would take to power the entire West Coast.
But that kind of knowledge is almost expected of someone who has spent his life studying one subject. His facts are fascinating, even convicting, but not necessarily inspiring.
The true inspiration is the fact that Kennedy has done something with his passion and knowledge. He’s that rarest of rare breeds, a doing dreamer.
Kennedy is a partner in a company called Project Better Place, which comes up with clean energy solutions. He is working in Israel now to make that country independent of foreign oil in three years. He’s doing it with geothermal energy, his smart energy grid and electric cars.
Now he is pitching the same approach here. The energy grid infrastructure alone is a massive public works project that could put the nation back to work.
I’m not smart enough to tell whether these projects are feasible, even with the impetus of making it a national security issue (which Kennedy convinced me it is). But I do know that I’ve finally met an environmentalist who is doing more than protesting or trying to stop things. He’s doing something.
And that’s inspiring.
