Paul Wellstone’s name is invoked frequently on this site.  And for good reason—his was a voice of clarity and vision in an increasingly cloudy world, particularly so after the 2000 election.  Senator Wellstone had, what seemed at the time, a unique ability to see beyond the hysteria of the post-9/11 drumbeats for war, and saw what many of us also saw, that the course the Bush administration was taking us was dangerous.  Few other public voices at the time were able to articulate this in the manner he could, and it will be to our nation’s everlasting regret that we didn’t listen to those who did.

Ever since "An Inconvenient Truth" won its two Oscars(tm), I've been giving a great deal of thought about the significance of that event.  I've been frustrated by the attempts to swiftboat Al Gore by the "Tennessee Center for Policy Research."  On another website I visit, I had a short but spirited  guestbook exchange with someone calling themself "Nicky Cage from Hollywood" about the validity of climate change ("Nicky" couldn't refute any of the statements I made, but simply referred to me as a "global warming fanatic").  

But the Oscar(tm) win led me to start thinking about how that might help bring the issue to an even wider audience.  I know, I know--to all of us it seems ridiculous to think that such a critical issue as climate change isn't in front of everyone every day, but I really don't think that's the case.