Shoulder High Production's Campaign #1: USEI&S - United States Energy Independence & Sustainability
When America was founded we were given the rights and responsibilities to pursue happiness, free of persecution, and in a just society of our own making. It was a bold vision and one worth a lifetime of gratitude and a lifetime more of persistence and diligence to honor. Over our brief time as a nation, we've faced many internal and external challenges and the manner in which we've faced them and the outcomes we've created have helped define us as a nation. We are a strong willed, courageous and entrepreneurial people who have built an economy and culture unsurpassed in its influence by any civilization to date. There is much to be proud and grateful to be an American for, and with the same breath, there is so much more for us to become and to accomplish.
I'd like to pose a question to us. I have my own answer that evolves over time, but I'd like to start a discourse around it. Certainly, America is a country of individuals with the freedom and right to pursue their just form of happiness the way they choose. There have been specific challenges to America that have brought sections of the country together like the claiming of our independence, the space race that put the first human on the moon, and more recently the enterprising development of the internet. These were either challenges we were responding to with collective will and sacrifice or visions we embraced with vigor and innovation. Unquestionably we change the world together. And within the same amount of time in history we've also lived through eras of complacency, ignorance, and apathy. We've created an economic and political machine so powerful, we have become the most affluent and consumptive society on the planet. And the fact of the matter is that it is well within our rights to strive and pursue our happiness.
But here's a question to the individual. At what cost and ramification to our present and future are we willing to live the way we live today? At what point as Americans alive today, do we consider other cultures, future generations, and the planet’s very ecosystems inconsequential to our decision making process? Should we expand the definition of ourselves? We as Americans are free to pursue our happiness how far and why?
In the most idealistic world, the American experiment has been to see if we can create a new nation that can help create a new world. One that is not only free and just, but compassionate and entrepreneurial. SHP would like to ask for how long do we envision attempting to run this experiment, and are we willing to analyze and adapt to the changing set of realities that we will face along the way? War, poverty, illness, injustice, prejudice, and ecological devastation are still running rampant and we'd like to encourage those efforts to do something about them.
This is our mission and vision for the planet that we share with millions around the globe. Can we create a culturally and environmentally sustainable world? America is more than ready to step up to the challenges that face us. We simply need to spend some time together on the right kind of questions.
And our first question for this new SHP Research and Action Center is: Is our dependency on fossil fuels to fuel our national economy culturally and environmentally sustainable? Can we come together as a nation to face the fact of the matter that we are at a crossroads? Continue to rely on the drastically dwindling, non-renewable, toxically polluting fossil fuels -- or the development of clean, efficient, renewable forms of energy and energy creation.
SHP believes that America does in fact, need to immediately begin the process of drastically transforming the way we fuel our economy. Our current fossil fuel based economy has never shown its true cost and peril to the extent that we are witnessing today. Ironically, the convergence of these symptoms has given us an exciting opportunity. We should now be able to easily illustrate the economic, environmental, and political folly of continuing to rely so heavily upon oil and coal; from both national foreign sources. The time is ripe to bring to the nation's attention to all the innovative and necessary solutions. We believe there is no other single issue facing the modern world that, in its conquering, can promise a safer, more prosperous, and more sustainable world; or in the very least, provide us the time to continue to strive for these ideals. Shoulder High Productions has decided to follow the efforts and campaigns of those who are leading the charge trying to address these issues. From the big visions to the little steps, we are searching for those trying to answer the call.
--Chris Baldwin, Shoulder High Productions
