I didn’t intent for this blog to cover politics, but this was just too much for me to ignore. Take a look:
Apparently in the United States of America there are only two types of citizens: those who see the Bill of Rights as something to be upheld for everyone from the President and politicians to illegal immigrants and criminals, and those who see the Bill of Rights as something to be leveraged to protect their way of life and ignored to the detriment of their enemies.
Since March of 2009, Van Jones has been Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He is a Yale Law graduate, snappy dresser, and all around neat guy (from what I’ve found on the internets). But that’s beside the point. He is using his expertise to help this country not only create more jobs, but create green jobs – the type of jobs that need to be filled in an industry that desperately needs to be grown so that we can pry this country out of the clutches of the oil industry for good. Boost the economy and change our energy paradigm? Sounds great!
Unfortunately he has been pressured into resignation by Fox “News” personalities and certain Republican politicians. Apparently the Republicans were mad at Mr. Jones because he called them “assholes” during a town hall type meeting and signed an online petition demanding inquiry into the 911 attacks under the presupposition that the government allowed it to happen, and Glenn Beck was upset because Mr. Jones supported a campaign to get advertisers to boycott Beck’s show (because he called President Obama a racist).
So, here’s a guy who has expertise and skill in an area that our country desperately needs to develop for a myriad of reasons. Now we don’t get to utilize this resource because he expressed his opinions over the years and some people didn’t like it. Obviously it is above these people to look past what was said or done and see what could be accomplished. It doesn’t matter if we share his opinions or not; he has the right to them, as we all do, and those opinions expressed in no way indicate that he may not be able to perform at his job. In fact, President Obama didn’t want him to leave, he left because he “…cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.”
So let’s recap: Van Jones is an all-american proponent for the people and planet but he expressed opinions that opposed the GOP and their mouthpiece, Fox “News”, so they dug up an online petition he signed about 911 being an inside job and used it to create a media shit storm to try and get him fired. To which he basically said it wasn’t about him, we need to focus on the problem not on bullshit politics, and resigned. Awesome.
GOP/Fox “News”: 1 America: 0
