Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 20, 1992 TAG: 9203200382
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A 60-ish guy standing in a college gym, braving the mushy acoustics and teaching the folks in the bleachers about civic power.
It was a steady-voiced, reasonable, patient Ralph Nader calmly laying out the scary things about the United States.
The White House admits ozone depletion is big trouble. Topsoil depletion at the rate of Connecticut's land area each year. Pesticide poisoning of the soil. Depletion of major underground water supplies that has us eyeing Canada's. Global warming. Massive debt and corporate bail-outs.
Why is all this happening?
"The easy answer," the graying Nader told hundreds of people at Roanoke College Thursday night, "is we're not organized. . . . We need a civic culture, a civic society."
The culture in power now, he said, is the "corporate-government" one.
Ordinary people can solve local, national and even worldwide problems if they can just start swapping solutions. Nader wants to start a citizen action cable network - "our own audience network."
A few years ago, he said, when social leaders realized that network television wouldn't be a civic communicator, they thought maybe cable stations would.
But they underestimated the "infinity of entertainment material." Junk shows dominate hundreds of cable channels. Nader said there's not a single one dedicated to citizen action.
So there is little chance for communities that cleaned up their environment or their schools to share their stories.
People, not the networks, own the airwaves. "We need to control what we own," said Nader. And when communities and civic organizations are able to tell each other how they solved their troubles, he promised that good ideas will quickly spread.
If citizens regain political power, Nader believes that energy efficiency and renewable energy such as solar, wind, fuel cells and biomass sources could drive out the dominant and polluting oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries. Electric cars might drive out the gas-guzzlers.
He warned adults in the audience at Roanoke College's three-day "Earth Visions" events that their descendants will resent them for leaving their world a mess.
And though older folks are appalled by drug use and violence among the young, Nader urged them not to back away from young folks. "You have great assets that they desperately need."
At an afternoon news conference, Nader, who exposed the big car companies' disregard for auto safety in the 1960s, said he still doesn't own a car.
His demands now are for roll-over protection, side-impact protection and air bags for both the driver and passenger. (He also is troubled by the "grossly inadequate" braking systems on big trucks that plow into cars on the interstates.)
But Nader might actually buy a car. He and a bunch of celebrities, like Dan Aykroyd and Peter Falk, have challenged any automaker to produce at least 200,000 two-air bag cars a year. Ford Taurus almost won Nader's sale but, he said, the company "muffed it" by making the passenger air bag an option.
Other makers have joined the competition. "Now," he said, "the question is, will Honda win this little race?"
by CNB