SpaceBit

See where we have been. Look where we can go.

I was particularly interested in the last few minutes of the Obama acceptance speech last night when he discussed a 106 year old black female voter from South Carolina. He went over all the major events that she had witnessed our country had overcome, setting a stage for what we are capable of doing.

I was interested because it draws significant parallels to another motivational speech many of us have seen, and one I give frequently. As Obama did last night, the last few minutes of An Inconvenient Truth mentions slavery, women’s suffrage, the World Wars, segregation, MLK, cars and planes and the Moon, Berlin, Communism, and a few other environmental-specific events. Obama adds a “Yes We Can” between each event, and he is a better orator than Gore or I. But the examples and reasons for presenting them like that are the same.

I think I will be a bit embarrassed next time I give my version of AIT because it seems silly to try to compete with Obama as a motivational speaker. But I also realize I have a new event to discuss, one that can perhaps motivate people more than all the other historical images combined.

…Now I just need to have a discussion with Obama about this whole “clean coal” thing…