Tomorrow, Green Jobs Now is having a national day of action, with (as of now) 661 events planned across all 50 states. Numerous green, labor, community, youth, and faith organizations are involved, along with thousands of ordinary citizens.
The goal is to highlight the potential for a green investment plan that creates jobs, boosts domestic industry, repairs domestic infrastructure, reduces oil imports, and meliorates global warming. More specifically:
1. Encourage elected leaders and presidential candidates to prioritize green jobs and an inclusive green economy.
2. Build a powerful and diverse base of organizers, promoting the movement for green jobs as the best way to fight poverty and global warming.
3. Elevate the voices of low-income people, people of color and other vulnerable constituencies in the movement for green jobs.
Go to Green Jobs Now to sign the petition and find an event in your area.
In sharp contrast! Tomorrow is the occasion for another national day of action, "Solutions Day," organized by Newt Gingrich’s Republican astroturf group American Solutions for Winning the Future (can someone, anyone, please tell me what "winning the future" means?).
Unlike the green jobs event, it’s very difficult to find out from the website just what Solutions Day is about — aside, I mean, from "providing citizens with the tools, knowledge, and training they need to transform government at all levels," and also "real change and real solutions for Energy, Health, Education and the Economy." Listen to this vague-ass blather:
Of course if you’ve tracked Newt’s group for a while you know it’s about a fairly standard conservative agenda: drilling for oil, school choice, tax cuts for the rich, etc.
I looked around a while trying to figure out exactly what one does to participate in Solutions Day, and as far as I can, it basically amounts to congregating and watching the event on television. So grassrootsy!
The contrast could not be sharper. Like so:
