Both sides of IGF weigh in on fate of environment, national security, one another
In the final two segments of last week’s Daniel Island Intergenerational Forum, both the high school seniors and the senior citizens were asked to provide remarks to two “group discussion” questions, as well as offer some concluding observations about their generational counterparts and the overall IGF program. Following are selected statements provided by each panelist.
Group Discussion Topic 1: Protecting the Earth’s Deteriorating Environment
Question: The world's environment is under threat from climate change, rising sea levels, ocean dead zones, deforestation, pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Many countries are dealing with some of these problems by substituting renewable energy - such as that gained from wind, the sun, and tides - for fossil fuels. Denmark, for example, gets close to 40% of its energy from renewable sources, while the United State gets only about 13% of its energy from renewable sources. ARE WE, THE CITIZENS OF OUR COUNTRY AND THE WORLD, DOING ENOUGH TO FOSTER A REVERSAL OF THESE THREATS AND WHAT MORE COULD WE DO?
Senior citizens
Joseph Maurelli: “You don’t know what you don’t know… Are we doing enough? No, I don’t think so. But I don’t think we really understand the problem as well as well as people espouse. And I think we need to learn more about it before we can do anything.”
James Edwards: “Over the course of my term (on a condominium association board), I was able to change all of our lighting, including landscaping and security lighting, to LEDs, and we halved our electric bill.”
David Brown: “In my opinion, it is an existential issue… If your planet is no longer habitable, all these other things pale in importance. We need to re-examine our values.”
John Gilsenan: “America is not the only nation on the planet, and other people are contributing to what is a global problem. We need to take care of our own nest… But not politicizing these issues would be very helpful in getting to an answer.”
Nona Bonheimer: “There is a renewable energy protection tax credit which limps along, being renewed by Congress, and then lapses, and then gets renewed… Without a permanent tax credit for renewable energy, developers of renewable energy have a very difficult time making progress with their efforts.”
High school seniors
Jeffrey Sapakoff: “I believe that the (Obama) administration is on the perfectly right track with the environmental policy. We need to continue subsidies that will continue to allow us to get away from oil dependency.”
Aidyn Trubey: “We are too far gone with our dependence on fossil fuels in our efforts to get bigger, stronger, faster… The best we can do is stem the bleeding until we can get to a solution.”
Isaac Holt: “We are on the right path to deal with the deterioration of our environment. We have put ourselves in a position of being a nation that produces its own oil and natural gas, which has also created new jobs.”
Reid Cobb: “The labeling we use today is climate change; five years ago it was global warming and thirty years ago it was global cooling... We should not spend trillions of dollars on an unknown enemy.”
William Pugh: “We need to invest in our generation to help combat this problem. There needs to be more innovation… America needs to lead the change; even though we may not be the largest polluter on the planet, we need to set the tone for the rest of the world.”
Group Discussion Topic 2: National security vs. maintaining personal freedoms
Question: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are fundamental freedoms granted to all citizens of this country. Not everyone shares these beliefs and some even despise our freedoms enough to create mayhem by maiming and killing innocent civilians to achieve their evil and twisted objectives. Our nation experienced an unprecedented act of terrorism almost 15 years ago on September 11, and mass murder by terrorists has continued to impact people and communities all across the globe since then, including the recent attacks in Paris. WHAT BALANCE SHOULD WE STRIKE BETWEEN MAINTAINING PERSONAL FREEDOMS AND PROTECTING OUR CITIZENS FROM HARM?
Senior citizens
Nona Bonheimer: “This question was written before the current issue with Apple… I think of the young men and women we have sent off to war to fight for these freedoms... and yet, we’re sitting here thinking about giving up some of our protection.”
John Gilsenan: “It is certainly a conundrum that we are faced with… You can’t worry about shining the brass on the ship if you have a flooding problem. I would put the safety of our citizens first.”
David Brown: “The critical word in the question is balance... But from my personal side of the issue, I’m struck with the notion that the first responsibility of government is the security of its citizens.”
James Edwards: “My feeling is that the terrorists have already won. I look around and I see an America that I hardly recognize, and it scares the ever living hell out of me.”
Joseph Maurelli: “There really is a balance… You have to be very careful here. I believe in people’s rights, but I also believe in the government’s right to keep us protected.”
High school seniors
Jeffrey Sapakoff: “Something that sets us aside from so many other countries is that we are a nation built upon freedoms. But when it threatens national security, that’s when your personal rights need federal intervention.”
Aidyn Trubey: “In that process (of identifying terrorists), we take a lot of our liberties away. Are you truly saving lives, if those lives aren’t living, if you don’t get that quality of life from those liberties taken away from us?”
Isaac Holt: “Two things I believe will move us forward are patience and trust. We need to come up with innovative ways to deal with the situation to where citizens feel safety is the number one priority.”
Reid Cobb: “If you kill someone with a gun, a felony, you don’t get your rights. That being said, we can’t step over the line, because it is a very slippery slope that needs to be tread on carefully.”
William Pugh: “There are some scenarios, where safety is concerned, where certain individual liberties need to be sacrificed. We can’t be completely free without being safe, and we can’t be safe without having to sacrifice some of our freedoms.”
Final Question: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT EACH OTHER TONIGHT?
Senior citizens
Joseph Maurelli: “The mantel of leadership is being passed… And I’m incredibly impressed.”
James Edwards: “I’ve learned that help is on the way… It is very uplifting to see that its possible that younger generation can reverse some of these problems.”
David Brown: “It’s going to take the collective wisdom and effort of all of our generations to get to solutions to the many significant challenges that lie before us.”
John Gilsenan: “Sometimes we have to agree to disagree, but let’s forgo the trap of being disagreeable in the process… I wish you the best of luck; you’re a great bunch.”
Nona Bonheimer: “I was so impressed with how articulate (the high school seniors) were, and how creative in your thinking on these issues you were.”
High school seniors
Sapakoff: “We are the face of America… But it has been insightful and inspiring to hear the wisdom of the people who have a few more years on us.”
Trubey: “We’re going to take what (the senior citizens) have shared to heart, and hopefully pass it down to our next generation.”
Holt: “America is a unique orphan child, and each generation is a new adoption home… Our generation will do our best to help it grow.”
Cobb: “We need to look not only to our friends, but to those who may disagree with us for solutions. And we need to look not only to the modern age, but to past history.”
Pugh: “I may talk with friends at lunch about what changes are needed, but we don’t have the wisdom of the (senior citizen panelists) yet... We need to be informed, and proactive versus reactive.”