| Chapter Interlude: | Speech By Mayor Bernero Of Lansing, Michigan |
Jessica and to Molly for hosting this, for bringing us all out, for bringing us together.
I'm a late bloomer in all this green stuff, really. And I'm not ashamed—I'm a little embarrassed—but I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been a follower on this. You guys are the leaders. People, you guys that have been in the trenches on this, I was busy doing other things that I thought were more important. And I'm making this public admission to you to let you [know] that what Jessica said is just exactly correct: you can make a difference in this. You can make a difference.
I ran for mayor, and signing the Kyoto Protocol was not at the top of my list. It wasn't. I had a bunch of things I wanted to do. I had a big list of priorities, and signing the Kyoto Protocol wasn't even on that list of priorities. That's how uninformed I was going into office. Thanks to people like Jessica and many of you standing here, I got educated, I got informed, and I did the right thing. That's because you led the way.
[applause]
So, I tell you this—it's a painful admission, it's painful to admit your own ignorance, but I grew from that. And we can be educated. Even at forty-three, we can be educated, maybe even older. I hope I can keep learning. But we can make a difference. Where we stand today, we can make a difference if we choose to. You students, you parents, you children, you can make difference today, where you stand. For your kids, for your grandkids, you can make a difference today by reaching out, by taking the extra steps that Jessica talked about.
Don't assume that the state senators, the state representatives, the council people, and the mayors know all that they need to know. Even about our, protecting our planet. It's just a little matter of protecting and preserving our planet. We have other priorities, you see. Government is busy with so many things that to take time out to save the planet, you know, it doesn't always make the top ten. Unless we get involved and make a difference.
And I'm glad Jessica brought up An Inconvenient Truth. For my birthday on March 31, which also happens to be Al Gore's birthday, we