Yesterday, I got an email from Jonathan Miller. Well actually I got two emails from Miller’s group the Compassionate Community. I guess the spam software belched, and yes, I did sign up for the group.
The email was hyping Kentucky’s First Lady Jane Beshear and her project of the Green Team and began with this:
Happy Earth Day!
I'm pleased to tell you that in celebration of the holiday, First Lady Jane Beshear just announced her vision to make the Governor's Mansion and all Kentucky homes more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
The email concludes with a link to a Facebook page:
So, please join us by signing up for the Green Team at greenteam.ky.gov and/or join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15267901982.
I know that a lot of the First Ladies have pet projects. The projects allow the First Lady to do “good work” and get good media attention. Usually the projects are more about projecting image that actually accomplishing anything.
I still remember Martha Wilkinson (Wally the Weasel’s wife) poster. Martha, dressed in a 1940’s WAC outfit, was trying to get volunteers for her GED Army.
So a couple of questions:
First, did Miller use this opportunity to touch base with supporters? I don’t understand the use of the Compassionate Community to promote a state government website. Isn’t the standard press release enough? Does the linking of government supported activities and a personal website promoting a book give anyone else heartburn?
Greetings and welcome to The Compassionate Community, where we believe public policy should reflect the fundamental moral value of compassion for others.
On this site, you can:
Order copies of the book (Now in paperback!);
Second, the Facebook page for the Green Team has Jonathan Miller as the creator. Does the Secretary of Finance really have the time to sit around and create a Facebook page? Let’s hope some staffer did the work and just put Miller’s name on the page.
Third, did anyone actually do any research before they put the Green Team web page on the Internet?
One of the tips from the First Lady was to:
Replace regular incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (cfl)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of CO2 a year.
Of course this would be a great idea if there wasn’t that pesky neurotoxin problem:
….the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, and the companies and federal government haven't come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.
I guess the thing that bothers me about this little project isn’t the cause; I’ve been accused of being a liberal tree hugger myself.
What bothers me is the amount of time and effort put forth by Miller and staff on a public relations exercise and the linking of a personal promotion website to a Kentucky government project.
Don’t they have anything else to do?
Doesn’t anyone ever think about how things might look before they do these things?
9 comments:
My favorite Miller books are Shiksas Are For Practice and Vegas Dreams.
As someone who sells light bulbs for a living, I am less enthusiastic than most about compact fluorescent bulbs. This is due to the fact that the ones currently available contain significant amounts of mercury. If one of these bulbs should break inside of a person’s home, it could cause a challenging disposal situation. It is my belief that the technology should progress to a point at which the mercury levels are low or nonexistent before people changeover their entire homes. Another consideration is that as these bulbs burn out, they will most likely be thrown away as though they are normal rubbish and landfills will have incredibly high levels of mercury in their soil as a result.
Jonathan Miller talking about moral values is like Bill Clinton vouching for monogamy.
If you're a good boy, Ralph, Miller might funnel a little scratch your blog's way. He's done it before you know.
Moral Values And Neurotoxins. Now that's a headline!
Shiksas Are For Practice. Oy vey.
Glad to see Miller's doing something as we never see him at the office. What does that boy do all day long? Seriously, we go days without seeing him at Finance. Maybe he's off playing climate warrior with his old boss Al Gore or something.
Ralph, it doesn't count if Stan Lee is the one calling you a "liberal tree hugger."
Most CFLs today on the market contain less than 5mgs of mercury and there are CFL options out there that contain as little as 1.5mgs of mercury- which can hardly be called a “significant amounts of mercury” considering that many item in your home contain 100s of times more of mercury including your computer. Mercury levels in CFLs can never be “nonexistent” since mercury is a necessary component of a CFL and there is no other known element that is capable of replacing it. But CFLs actually prevent more mercury from entering the environment. According to the Union of Concerned Scientist, “a coal-fired power plant will emit about four times more mercury to keep an incandescent bulb glowing, compared with a CFL of the same light output”.
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