The embarrassment in front of me traveled like a cloud of gas. It left me temporarily paralyzed and drove a few others temporarily insane.
“She filled out her ballot wrong,” yelled an election judge. He then turned to me with a blocking hand gesture. All that was missing was some flashing lights and an annoying siren. This was an all-out Decision 2004 emergency. I stood there, ballot in hand, frozen in disbelief. OK, I did look over my shoulder and braced myself for a charging eyewitness news team. Normally the procedure is simple: Destroy the error-filled ballot and issue a new one. But in these days of the Florida Fallout every vote seems to carry catastrophic consequences. Apparently the woman told the judge in front of the computer scanner that she made a mistake and needed a new ballot. The judge, showing a minuscule lapse of concentration, shoved the strip into the automatic counter. The announcement followed a few minutes later, then chaos quickly set in.
Even though the panel of judges lacked proper preparation for such a situation, I was impressed with the special handling. Before the next ballot was cast, the election police wanted to make sure there wasn’t a way to cancel the poisoned ballot. Such an important decision required a thorough convincing.
George W. Bush did not receive my nod that day, but a week later he left his mark in my rather liberal mindset. It was at the opening sessions of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers conference where I learned the president plays a keen version of Texas Hold ’em when it comes to the Kyoto Agreement. Speaker Gary Baise, an integral part of the Washington, D.C., legal community for more than 30 years, presented the scenario. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent approval of the Kyoto Agreement has elevated the pressure on Bush to follow suit. The Kyoto Agreement is a legally binding international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. Since the U.S. is the leader of world emissions, generating 36.1%, an all-American handshake is pivotal to the Kyoto cause.
President Bush, however, made a rather loud and abrasive statement on Nov. 6 when he once again rejected the proposal. And until he receives firm direction, the international scene will have to wait, signed Kyoto Agreement in hand.
When it comes to the environment, not everything is green and blue. There will always be propaganda thrown from both sides. According to Baise, President Bush just can’t ignore the following arguments:
- 17,000 scientists have signed a petition against the Kyoto Agreement;
- With all the talk of global warming, there will be just a 0.2°F change of temperature if all countries follow Kyoto; and
- Developing countries are not even being considered for the environment coalition, even though they produce over 30% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
Furthermore, jumping on the Kyoto Kart may only lead to lost jobs and yet another increase in material and research and development costs—two stingers which have created a bad reaction in the highway/bridge construction industry. Experts say gas prices alone would increase 20-86%. President Bush, however, may be pushed out of the way by, believe it or not, his own people. Several environmental groups, funded by companies from the oil industry, auto industry and the federal government, are waving the Kyoto Agreement in front of state judges, hoping they will get a whiff of its so-called positive effects. The frightening part of it all is the environmentalists might be carried off in victory, because, as it has been proven many times before, you can change policy in the courtroom.
Now, the protectors of this earth have verbally clocked me before, and I want to make myself clear on one, clean point: I believe the most important actions we can execute as humans deal with protecting the air we breathe.
But before manufacturers spend millions—and perhaps lay off thousands—to adhere to even stricter emission regulations, and before diesel fuel spikes to $5 a gal let’s take a deep, clean breath and make sure there is absolutely no other course of action.
