Dear Friends:

It’s been a long time since I have contributed an article in JustOneOpinion.com and I realized I missed it.  I am hoping to do better in the future. I have been busy writing a sequel to “Farewell My Beijing” which I hope to get published sometime this summer.  I will call it ”My China, My World.”

I love to bake, and like to try out a new recipe at least once a week (I just removed 40 mini pecan tarts from the oven). I also play tennis and duplicate bridge.

Three things happened in the past few months that were both scary and delightful. I want to share them with you.

On Saturday, March 31st, I went to visit an open house in our neighborhood. The floor of the foyer was white tile that continued into the living room. There was a small step that I did not see and I fell face first. When my head hit the living room floor it sounded like a rock thrown on the tile. The right side of my head near my eye immediately swelled up like a balloon, and I had bruises all the way down to my foot. I was positive I had broken every bone in my body and had suffered a concussion, a broken neck and back, and would never be the same healthy person again.

I was in the emergency room for five hours and endured four X-rays and a CAT Scan. Those were the longest four hours in my whole life. Finally, the doctor came and told me that nothing serious happened and he thought it was a miracle. Poor Dick had to take over the household chores and cooking (which he knows nothing about ) because I was so bruised and shaken. I was ordered to get an MRI on my foot because it was badly swollen and bruised.  The MRI showed a fracture and a torn tendon.

The next day I remembered Costco had invited me to do a book signing for my memoir “Farewell My Beijing” on Saturday, April 7th.  My family, my friends, and even the General Manager of Costco advised me to reschedule it for a few weeks later, but I refused. Costco had been advertising it for two weeks, and the store had placed a huge poster of me  at the front entrance. I decided I was not going to let them down.

I wore a hat tilted enough to hide my black and blue face and just carried on like nothing had happened. It was the day before Easter and thousands of people were shopping and I was in the middle of all that commotion. In less than three hours I’d sold the entire case of books that Costco had ordered. I met and talked to people of all walks of life and made many new friends.

It was a wonderful experience in spite of everything. My publisher came to see for himself, and when all the books were gone, he came up to me and paid me a compliment.

“Chi, I have decided that you could sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.”

I also wanted to share the news that my eldest granddaughter, China Rae, was awarded an Honors Scholarship ($60,000) at the University of Arizona. She also won another $10,000 award for two essays she contributed.

She will be moving into the brand new Honors Dorm here in September. I know that someday she will be a famous brain surgeon.

I am so happy being a part of Just One Opinion again. I want to wish everyone happiness and good health.

Chi Newman

Editor’s note by Dick Kelly: Jon Waalkes lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along with his wife, Kim, Jon has a passionate interest in making this earth a healthy and prosperous place for his future yet-to-be grandchildren to live when they are old enough to be responsible caretakers for our beautiful planet.

I recently finished reading The Green Collar Economy just in time. Because, for over the past month, the need for action at the level that the author, Van Jones, described has been ratcheted up a few notches. As the Senate debates the current stimulus package, the opportunity to make the changes described in this book is a distinct possibility. At least, I hope so.

Converting from a carbon/oil based economy to a green-collar economy and the subsequent use of renewable energy to power our lives, I believe, will not happen if the governments of the world don’t dramatically change the incentives and funding behind the change. This change must start with the United States. As one of the big abusers of the world’s environment, our country must change in order to have the world follow, and to persuade others by our standards and purchasing power.

The opportunity is now! The challenge is to make it financially viable for individuals to participate, businesses to start up, and communities to change. This is where the federal government needs to get involved. The government needs to spend on green initiatives, finance community spending, and rebate individual consumers for energy improvements to their homes and transportation.

In addition, the government must accelerate spending in research and development into alternative energies, as the efficiency model of 2020 that will finally cut our addiction to oil has yet to be developed. This is where the stimulus bill should be headed – real jobs, right now.

Tax breaks will not create stimulus. The old conservative model of the trickle down economy is obsolete. The tax breaks for the wealthy will only result in bigger investment portfolios—investments that don’t equate to jobs for the poorest of our society. It only equates to a CEO, with a bloated salary and bonus structure, making layoff decisions based on a quarterly dividend for the portfolio holders. This is why we need to give incentives to spending in green technologies as our way out of the ecological and economic mess we are in.

The other point of Van Jones’s argument is to develop a system that penalizes violators. The government needs to make it painful to these business offenders. Tax breaks to oil companies need to be reversed and a carbon tax/cap and trade system needs to be developed. The government’s role should be to accelerate penalization without creating economic difficulties for the poorest of Americans. To do this, the economic price of alternatives needs to be subsidized for the short term.

As I read The Green Collar Economy, I kept hoping the author would tell me about a successful, green collar, free-enterprise business model—a company that could be replicated over and over across America, rewarding investors and providing long-term financial opportunities to stakeholders (vendors, employees, and community). However, that company doesn’t yet exist – at least not one that doesn’t cater to just the eco-conscious elite of our society.

The serious deficit that renewable energy must overcome is witnessed by the recent layoffs at many of the wind turbine manufacturing plants. As the economy has turned downward, so have the employment levels of many startup turbine manufacturing companies that have created new hope in many communities across America. The financial incentives of alternative energy are not present at this time, requiring that the government must fully support the change to alternative energy in order to level the playing field. Government backing will make wind, solar, and geothermal energy a financial reality for everyone.

The author of The Green Collar Economy did identify some non-profit organizations that are doing well, but this approach alone is not going to cut it. Things must change, and that change must be initiated by Washington. It appears that we will need to ask our government to act with the power to both move mountains and stop the removal of mountain tops!

While I really enjoyed reading the book, it is a bit scary knowing that the roadblocks to achieving a green collar economy are so huge and some of the solutions still very far from our grasp. However, I look forward to hearing from other readers of JustOneOpinion.com on their views of the reality of a green collar economy?

Jon Waalkes

Click here for a listing of all of Craig’s articles.

Click here for a full list of Chi’s articles.

Click here for a list of Claire’s articles.

Click here for a list of Bob’s articles.