July 5, 2010 at 12:36 p.m.
The Will to Be Free:  "We The People" Must Choose  
Remember, it would be seven long years of fire, death and deprivation before British tyranny was dealt the final, mortal blow at Yorktown. But we choose to date our independence from the day "We The People" summoned our national will and published that resolve to the world in our Declaration of Independence. It was our united choice to be free that counted most.
Many patriots had called for that liberty before 1776. However, the will for real revolution came only when it became "self evident" that reason and prudence could no longer tolerate the status quo-regardless of the risks.
Today, "we the people" face another kind of tyranny-the dependence of the United States on foreign oil. Love him or hate him, George W. Bush said it best when he told us "America is addicted to oil." But President Nixon said it first, over 40 years ago. The status quo was a concern then-today it has become a dire emergency.
Back then, we imported 24 percent; today we import over 70 percent, much of it from countries the State Department calls "dangerous and unstable."
And, as we try to reduce those levels, the recent events in the Gulf of Mexico offer evidence that energy independence is not easily won via domestic drilling, and certainly cannot be guaranteed by our federal government.
So perhaps it's time for another revolution, based again on our collective will. We must all recognize, at last, that if we are to be free-energy independent-we must again summon a national resolve that translates into the combined effort of multiplied millions of concerned Americans. This war must won in our own lives-daily, in a hundred different and creative ways. Reason and prudence offer us no other recourse.
Washington cannot make the problem go away because, in truth, we are the problem. We are the most voracious consumers on the planet, conditioned by fifty years of mass marketing that set consumption as the highest ideal. Yet, we whine for a leader to do what no one president or government can-make us truly energy independent. This too has become self-evident.
But the more insidious problem is the lack of leadership coming from within us. It begs the question, when did We the People become so weak willed-and why? Could it be rooted in our own slavery to personal comfort?
I call to mind the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, that famous French observer of the new American Republic. Way back in 1835, he said this about the mollifying effects of materialism:
"It does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them, and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one's acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born."
He also observed, that failing to take individual responsibility feeds the problem.
"In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own."
Today, propaganda and politics from both sides of the aisle cloud the debate. Frankly, as long as sustainability is perceived as a partisanship issue we will remain in gridlock. What we need now is neither a Democratic voice nor a Republican one. We need an American voice.
As the stalemate over energy policy continues, other countries are gaining a foothold in clean technology manufacturing. In allowing this to happen, We the People are the author of our own demise. That, we must not allow.
Each of us as Americans must heed the call to energy independence by reducing our individual impact on petroleum consumption. We must begin to see our selves fundamentally no longer as consumers but as sustainers.
That change of self-perception will fuel us to learn wise and creative choices in how we eat, travel, work, build our homes and more. It will shape everything our life touches, as it must. And the big surprise is that it's not about giving up what's good-just having the wisdom to choose the best.
Happy Birthday America! And may wise personal choices by your sons and daughters sustain you through many more.
by Anna M. Clark, special contributor
