Great piece on how an issue is framed. In my role as a Sales Guy, I always want to be the guy writing the RFP, as opposed to being asked to bid on one. The guy that writes the RFP is the one who determines in which direction the conversation must go. In other words, if you aren't planning the dinner, you might be the meal.
I won't cut-n-paste from the linked piece, because it really needs to be read in its entirety to get the most bang for your buck. I will include his closing, because it needs to be read and understood:
Mankind is driven to create and innovate, not sit on his or her thumbs in caves. We were not scared to go out because of dangerous animals and we were not scared to create a fire because it might suffocate us.
John F. Kennedy, in a famous speech at my alma mater, Rice University, in September 1962, said, “Why go to the moon? … Why does Rice play Texas? … Because we choose to.”
What he DIDN’T say was, “It is very dangerous and carries a lot of risks and we don’t know how. Therefore, I propose we put a complete ban on going to the moon”.
JFK made a call to action for a noble, some might say quixotic goal that could be undertaken by our government. Similarly, I don’t oppose an effort on our nation’s part to find cheap, inexhaustible energy. In fact, according to NASA, we spent roughly $150 billion on 2011 dollars (roughly $24 billion in 1969 dollars) to send a man to the Moon. According the Brookings Institute, the US will have spent roughly $150 billion between 2009 and 2014 in Green Energy programs. The projects break down as $100 billion for renewable supply, $15 billion in conservation research, $10 billion in electric cars research and subsidy, $10 billion in high speed rail research and subsidy, $6 billion in “smart grid” research and $6 billion in nuclear power research and subsidy.
The difference? The government has competition for making energy available and low cost. The people of the US oil and gas industry stood up and took on the kind of challenge that President Kennedy laid down. In the last decade, they have raised the bar for what success looks like. The benefits are myriad, although they sadly seem to be lost on musicians, entertainers and armchair epidemiologists of various stripes.
It's sad that this Country no longer embraces the Put-Politics-Aside-And-Let's-Accomplish-Something-As-A-Unified-Body mentality. When MSNBC began running this ad, it made me laugh every time I saw it:
The Left in this Country today wouldn't allow a project like the Hoover Dam to move forward. There would be protests and environmental studies on snail darters or the preble mouse, or something else that would cause delays, shutdowns, and stoppages.
Think I'm wrong?
Keystone XL, baby.
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