Comments on: Keeping the dialogue about The Idler open OR I broke all my rules about blog-post-length with this one

By: Jenn, aka JeSais

Jenn, aka JeSais — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:33:28 +0000

aaryn…. you so blow me away with how articulate you are! glad we’re on the same side

christine… I applaud your willingness to put yourself out there. you’ve respectfully disagreed and that’s totally cool.

By: stacy

stacy — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:29:01 +0000

dear aaryn, I lvoe you, as always.

dear scott, please get a blog so we can all read it and become your die-hard groupies.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:47:11 +0000

I would make a lengthy comment here agreeing with your philosophies and attitude towards personal responsibilities and actions, but my laptop is plugged in and I fear I may be expending too much energy that is neither solar nor wind-powered.

Bravo.

By: Kizz

Kizz — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:00:31 +0000

I think that we may well have to legislate corporations to reduce the corporate carbon footprint. On an individual level, though, I think we have to just chug along doing what we can and trying to be better today than we were yesterday. Hey, maybe today that guy will only idle for 27 minutes, whoopee! Progress.

I’m not perfect at reducing my footprint but I’m doing my best and I’m not asking someone else to tell me to do it before I change. That just feels like common sense to me.

I’m also still puzzling over the example in the last comments section about the security guard. I don’t know that I would have said something to her but I don’t think it would be totally out of line if someone did, depending on how it’s phrased. There are rules here about picking up after your dog. I belong to a dog owners group in the local park and we believe in helping to police/inform/encourage each other to do the right thing. So you see a dog crapping and the owner not picking it up you can try something kind but motivational like, “Hey, I’ve got a bag here if you need one.” Isn’t the guard’s idling in that category?

By: Leslie

Leslie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:44:40 +0000

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! A few years ago I had a very different attitude about the environment and our country than I do today, and it is because if discussion exactly like this that my eyes are WIDE open! Thank you for being brave enough to allow this conversation to continue on your website and being able to “take it” like you give it. Many would have closed comments long ago. Even if the message gets across to only ONE person, that is one more person that gets it, and that is good enough for me. That person may make the difference that changes all of our lives. So, thank you, not only to Aaryn, but to everyone who put thought into their comments.

By: Jenn @ Juggling Life

Jenn @ Juggling Life — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:05:46 +0000

It was quite enlightening to go back and read the comments. I’m totally shocked that there are people who don’t realize that everyone doing their little bit adds up to change for the better.

By their logic we shouldn’t bother voting because just one vote won’t make a difference.

Still friends.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:32:51 +0000

Christina, if you blew out the numbers on your lipid profile and your doctor told you to quit eating chocolate cake, would you stop eating cake? Or would you hire a contractor to weld your refrigerator shut?

*We* are the change. Why wait for the creaking wheels of government to pass a “regulation” when we can start making change today by the simple act of living more responsibly? (And, btw, what kind of regulation are you holding out for … a ban on sippy cups?)

Aaryn nailed this one. Will it really take $8 gas to rouse Americans from a lifetime slumber and make us realize we are our own worst enemies? I pray not.

I’m trying to keep one short because I’ve been spamming Aaryn’s blog with too many novellas. But one final point:

Christina, you write, “The guy could have been more environmentally conscious.” Wow, could you possibly set the bar for responsible behavior any lower? I mean, I’m struggling to imagine how this guy could’ve been any more environmentally *unconscious*. He’d have to run a Hummer H3x with the AC blasting for four hours to keep a six of Michelob cold….

By: san

san — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:30:49 +0000

@ Christina:

You know. Sometimes – more often than we would like – peope need to get nailed to the cross for their actions.
As long as people are not being made responsible for their actions -even if they seem so insignificant in the “broader picture”-, nothing will change.

I do agree with you on the point that something needs to be done on the governmental level about some things, but more often than not change happens from the roots up – not the other way around.

By: Cheri @ Blog This Mom!

Cheri @ Blog This Mom! — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:29:46 +0000

Aaryn~
I have been reading your blog and your columns since day one, and I love, love, love the conversations that you start. I love that you express your opinions, and that you express them so eloquently, even — or especially — when those opinions are different from my own. You always keep me thinking.

As for you Ed, thank you for identifying yourself. When you threw that cigarette butt out the window? I was the woman (with the particularly good haircut) who maneuvered her car next to yours at the intersection and screamed at you. Remember me? I was driving the Volvo XC90 with the one child in the back seat.

By: Christina Shaver

Christina Shaver — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:38:59 +0000

But wait! One more thing and then, really I’m done. To my point about regulation. If our consumerism is a large reason why China’s output is so high, then in my estimation it is the responsibility of our lawmakers to impose regulations on companies making these products.

And now. I’m done. Burp.

Comments on: Keeping the dialogue about The Idler open *OR* I broke all my rules about blog-post-length with this one