A weblog devoted to spurring a conversation among those who use words to varying degrees in their daily work. Hosted by John Ettorre, a Cleveland-based writer and editor. Please email me at: john.ettorre@gmail.com. "There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real." --James Salter
Who Says There's No Good News in the Paper?
I'm a Cleveland, Ohio-based writer, editor and writing coach, with more than 25 years of experience, including stints in Chicago and Washington, D.C. My work has appeared in more than 100 print and online publications, from the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor to local and regional publications. My work has been recognized by awards (including an Emmy) from four journalism groups.
6 Comments:
Thanks for the story. Have been trying to work behind the scenes to promote wind turbines that could save costs for gov't. buildings or could generate income for our little city on Lake Erie. Beats selling off our assets. Alternative energy sources like this appeal to our better nature and spark civic pride. They probably would not draw crowds to watch them turn in the evening sun, but would prompt schoolchildren to think about practicalities of being good citizens of the world. Win-win in my book.
Of course if we could use turbines to utilize the endless wind of some politicians around here, at least something would get done. . . .
Imagine you've read about T.Boone Pickens's plan for wind farms. Newseek(7/21)has a short piece about it (p.10). For more straight from the horse's mouth: http://www.pickensplan.com/
It is definitely an interesting take on how we might change our dependence on foreign oil. The guy's a billionare and says he has the country's best interests at heart.
Check it out.
Yes, there's another story about him and his plan in this morning's NYT. We'll have to take him at his word about having the country's best interests at heart. But I, for one, don't trust his word much after his obnoxious seven-figure bankrolling of the idiot Swiftboat clowns who tarred John Kerry's Vietnam military record during the 2004 presidential election. Pickens further tarred his own reputation by welshing on a public promise to pay $1 million to anyone who could prove that the Swiftboaters lied. When that proof was presented, the oily oil man backed out. Who knows--maybe he figures his wind power initiative is a way to clean up his image.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/16/kerry_takes_oilman_pickens_up_on_1_million_swift_boat_challenge/
"Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."
--Dick Cheney
Would love to see someone prove him wrong, but was distressed to see Pickens's role in swiftboat controversy. I wondered why Pickens is working so hard to get his plan approved as part of Republican platform when it seemed like a no-brainer for the nation, not just a party. Thanks for connecting the dots.
Just to clarify: my intention wasn't to assume a direct causal relationship between Pickens' (I think) shameful role in the Swiftboat controversy and his more recent campaign on behalf of alternative energy, as if he were seeking public redemption for the former by pressing the latter. Like most people, he acts from a combination of motives. And it's a relatively common phenomenon for a person whose reputation is, well, mixed (he's essentially been a corporate raider most of his career) to seek some more altruistic path in his later years, often as a vehicle for leaving a more positive legacy.
Whatever his particular motivations may be, I'm less interested in them than in whether his campaign will cause some lasting good to be done, just as I'm less focused on whether Bill Gates is trying to clean up his image as a software monopolist by plowing most of his personal fortune into public health (and convincing his buddy Warren Buffett to do so as well). In the end, the good works are far more important than the mixed motives behind them.
Here's another fresh take, a critical one, on Pickens' plan:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-luft6-2008aug06,0,3336586.story
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