EP 70 Congressman Dick Swett:: Civility, Vision, and Honor Matter

 Congressman Dick Swett:: Civility, Vision, and Honor Matter

In an era where civility is a rare commodity, recalling the way that Dick Swett conducted himself as a US Congressman and later as an Ambassador to Denmark is a reminder that civility, humility and conscience are still honorable and - perhaps even possible again.

Listen here:

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Dick was elected to the second congressional district seat in congress in 1990 and in 92 he was handily re-elected for another term.

 

The turning point of Dick's political fortunes came in 1994 with the successful passage of the assault weapons ban. Despite the danger to his own career, Dick voted for the measure and it became law. He lost his reelection bid by less than a percentage point.  FOLLOWING ON THE HEELS of the ban,  there was a decline in gun violence but when the ban was not extended under George W. Bush we reverted to the status quo ante and we all know what that has looked like for our country.

 

In 1998 he was named Ambassador to Denmark by President Bill Clinton a post he held until 2001.

 

In this podcast I speak with Dick Swett about his political journey and his life journey since his act of courage led to the passage of the (temporary) assault weapons ban in 1994 and his razor close loss, fueled by the NRA, in the subsequent election.

 

 

 

 

From Dick to FB friends.

Saw this great quote tonight:

"The person who cannot listen to an argument which opposes his or her views either has a weak position or is a weak defender of it. No opinion that cannot stand discussion or criticism is worth holding. And it has been wisely said that the person who knows only half of any question is worse off than the person who knows nothing of it. He or she are not only one sided, but their partisanship soon turns them into an intolerant and a fanatic. In general it is true that nothing which cannot stand up under discussion and criticism is worth defending."

Elder James E. Talmage

 

 

Richard Swett. Richard Nelson Swett (born May 1, 1957) is an American politician from the U.S. state of New Hampshire who served as the U.S. representative for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district from 1991 to 1995. He also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark from 1998 to 2001.

 

 

Richard N. Swett

Ambassador to Denmark

Richard Swett was nominated by President Clinton to be U.S. Ambassador to Denmark on April 2, 1998 and was confirmed by the Senate on July 31, 1998.

In 1990, Richard N. Swett was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives 2nd Congressional District of New Hampshire. In Congress, he served as a member of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation; a member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; and a member of the Congressional Delegation for Relations with the European Parliament and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. Congressman Swett co-authored the landmark Congressional Accountability Act. He also authored the Transportation for Livable Communities Act and introduced bills to encourage energy conservation and use of renewable energy. In 1996, after winning a primary contest, Congressman Swett was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. He was narrowly defeated in the general election.

In the private sector, Congressman Swett's range of business experience encompasses architectural design, project management, corporate management, project development, and finance. He has been active in real estate design and development, alternate energy development, energy conservation, industrial development, and export promotion. For several years he has operated a consulting firm doing business in the United States and eastern and central Europe. He is a licensed architect in California and New Hampshire.

Congressman Swett is a member of the American Institute of Architects, is the state Chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and is involved in various other civic organizations. He is also a contributing author to the book, A Nation Reconstructed: A Quest for the Cities That Can Be, and had numerous articles published as a Member of Congress.

Congressman Swett was born on May 1, 1957, in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture in 1979 from Yale University. The U. S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Congressman Swett one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans in 1993. He was also named one of the Ten Most Influential People in New Hampshire by New Hampshire Business Magazine that same year. He has been awarded the Presidential Citation by the American Institute of Architects, as well as numerous honorary degrees including an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Franklin Pierce College in Ringe, New Hampshire. He received the National Award from the Residential Caregivers Association for work on behalf of residential care facilities throughout the United States. The American Legion awarded him the National Economic Commission Citation of Appreciation.

 

 

 

https://www.climateprosperitysolutions.com/

Climate Prosperity Enterprise Solutions (CPES) is a community-focused development firm working to create sustainable local economies through an innovative wealth creation model.

EP 69. Here Comes the Sun - Daniel Weeks, Revision Energy and the Fight for a Livable World

 

EP 69. Here Comes the Sun - Daniel Weeks, Revision Energy and the Fight for a Livable World.

My conversation with Dan Weeks was a refreshingly optimistic moment in these troubling times. He’s no Pollyanna about the challenges that we face but he definitely sees the magnificent and expansive view from the summit, even as he recognizes the mountains still to climb.

Listen here:

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A 12th-generation Granite Stater, Dan Weeks is well steeped in New Hampshire history but he is also a citizen of the world. Dan left New Hampshire after high school to serve with AmeriCorps and attend Yale and Oxford on scholarships. He lived and worked on four continents before returning to NH with his South African wife Dr. Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, a human rights lawyer and academic. Dan and Sindiso are the proud parents of three young children.

Today Dan is a director at ReVision Energy, an employee-owned solar company in Brentwood. and lives in Nashua with his wife and kids.

Dan is an outspoken clean energy advocate and entrepreneur on a mission to transition New England and the world from fossil fuels to renewable energy. As Vice President of Business Development at ReVision Energy, Dan leads commercial sales, project finance, and development for the region's largest clean energy company while promoting climate action at the state and federal level. He has been named one of New Hampshire's “Most Influential Business Leaders” by NH Business Review, “Young Professional of the Year” by Stay Work Play New Hampshire, and "Forty Under 40" by the New Hampshire Union Leader.



Wind on the Floodplain Forest Floor

Prior to ReVision Energy, Dan was Executive Director of Open Democracy, where he continues to serve on the Advisory Board, and president of Americans for Campaign Reform (now Issue One). In 2012-13, he traveled the United States by Greyhound Bus on a poverty-line budget of $16/day researching poverty and political exclusion on a fellowship from Harvard. He is the author of "Democracy in Poverty: A View From Below" and has written for The Atlantic, New York Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and other outlets. He continues to write and speak on public affairs and serve on numerous nonprofit boards.


Revision Energy
https://www.revisionenergy.com/


A CALL TO CONSERVATIVES

https://www.fosters.com/news/20190920/call-to-conservatives

By Dan Weeks

Posted Sep 20, 2019 at 6:06 PM



When my family first joined the Republican Party in the 1800s, they were conservatives in the original sense of the term. As farmers and businessmen, soldiers and public servants, my forebears were intent on conserving New Hampshire’s most precious assets, from our land and water to our self-reliant way of life.

The first John Weeks was elected to Congress in 1828 as a member of the original Republican Party, defined by its Jeffersonian embrace of rural life and against a centralizing aristocracy and corporate corruption. He is best known for leading an 1820 expedition into the White Mountains, which resulted in the naming of New Hampshire’s highest peaks. He died in the shadow of that Presidential Range at the same time a young Illinois Congressman named Abraham Lincoln was helping found the second Republican Party.

Decades later, another Republican John Weeks of Coos County would make his name in Congress as author of the Weeks Act of 1911, establishing the Eastern National Forest as a landmark in land and water conservation. In a letter to his son (my great-granddad) Sinclair Weeks, who would follow in his footsteps as a senator and secretary of commerce under President Eisenhower, John summarized his notion of principled, pragmatic leadership: “A man is a leader, legislatively, when he knows more than those who are serving with him. He does not need to be an orator, have wealth or any other qualifications than to have the facts.”

Although their time has passed, the time for such a brand of fact-based conservatism in Congress and Concord has not. Indeed, all I know of these three men and the conservative tradition out of which they came leads me to believe they would follow the science and act with urgency to conserve our common home for future generations, were they faced with today’s climate crisis.

Against this backdrop, I have been saddened to see New Hampshire’s Republican governor question climate science and pressure his fellow “conservatives” in the N.H. House and Senate to sustain a slew of vetoes denying climate action this week.

When asked about climate change in a 2016 gubernatorial debate, Gov. Chris Sununu stated simply, “No, I don’t believe in it.” To back up his position, Sununu provided the following perplexing logic from his position as then-CEO of a family-owned ski resort: “I don’t believe in [climate change] because I know we might have had an awful mild winter this year, and we saved an awful lot of money in our snow budget but I can tell you that next year, we may not be as lucky.”




Day Lilies in Fog



Even more perplexing are Gov. Sununu’s oft-repeated assertions that “I’m an environmental engineer” and “you’ve never had a governor with the experience that I bring to the table...when it comes to understanding the environment and climate change.” A NHPR investigation subsequently found that Sununu was never licensed as a professional engineer, never sat for the exam, and more than a decade has passed since he worked in the field of civil or environmental engineering – small comfort for a citizenry that overwhelmingly accepts the scientific consensus on global warming.

But denying scientific fact and exaggerating your own credentials are one thing; blocking the will of the people when it comes to conserving New Hampshire’s natural environment and way of life is something else.

Which brings me to HB 365, the bipartisan bill to raise the net metering cap for homegrown renewable energy projects and cut climate-warming carbon emissions, which was vetoed by Gov. Sununu and narrowly failed an override vote this week.

In the ordinary course of events, this bill would be anything but controversial. It passed the New Hampshire House with over 70% support for the second year in a row (including dozens of Republican backers) and won a unanimous voice vote in the Senate. It is a top priority for environmental advocates and the clean energy industry, which employs thousands of Granite Staters and brings billions in local investment to increase our self-reliance and energy independence.

Beyond the usual suspects, the policy is backed by many of the state’s leading businesses seeking to offset their high electricity rates with homegrown renewable energy, who gathered at the Statehouse this summer in advance of the governor’s veto. Dozens of New Hampshire cities and towns have also called on Concord to raise the arbitrary cap so they can turn old landfills into solar farms while saving taxpayer money and combating climate damage.

Most importantly, surveys find that fully 85% of registered voters nationwide – including seven in 10 Republicans – support far more aggressive climate action than a 5 MW net metering cap: requiring utilities in state to produce 100% of their electricity from renewables by 2050 rather than the measly 0.7% currently sought from solar.

Yet in spite of this overwhelming public and legislator support, HB 365 died this week after numerous Republican representatives switched their votes under pressure from Gov. Sununu. According to multiple reports, Sununu told a closed-door caucus of Republican lawmakers that sustaining his veto wasn’t about the issue or the people of New Hampshire – it was about him. He even went so far as to attack New Hampshire’s fledgling solar industry as “crony capitalism at its worst.” Did he forget the tens of thousands of dollars he has raised from fossil fuel companies and utilities? Or does he remember them all too well?

The time has come for a return to the old tradition of fact-based conservatism and a Grand Old Party that places conservation at its core. After all, what could be more conservative than preserving this one and only planet we call home by stemming the climate crisis before it is too late?


Dan Weeks is a director at ReVision Energy, an employee-owned solar company in Brentwood. He lives in Nashua with his wife and kids.

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A Rest at Jefferson Highlands

TedTalk

Power to and From the People; Creating an Energy Democracy | Dan Weeks | TEDxWolfeboro

 

Against All Odds

The Winter Warrior

Episode 08 Ripples of Hope - The Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative PAREI Sandra Jones and Peter Adams

Episode 08 Ripples of Hope - The Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative PAREI Sandra Jones and Peter Adams

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Robert F. Kennedy

This is a joint podcast of The Radical Centrist and New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore and cross broadcast on both podcasts because of the unique nature of what PAREI has achieved and the tremendous promise that the work they do holds not only for the state of New Hampshire but as a model for similar organizations all across the country.

Last Light on the Mt. Washington Hotel

In this podcast - part 3 of our "Beyond Carbon" series I interview Peter Adams and Sandra Jones, Founders of what may very well be the first non profit in the country to focus exclusively on sustainable energy and conservation. Since their founding in 2003 a growing army of community volunteers and environmental patriots has worked with Peter and Sandra to help others plan their energy future. No one is asked what their beliefs are, what they drive, their political party, who they voted for. There are open arms and open hearts beginning with Peter and Sandra and the infectious effect of that openness and acceptance has spread throughout not only the organization but the community. It is one of the most important keys to their success. Another is the axiom, "don't talk . . . do." Experiment, take risks, make mistakes, learn from them and move on, celebrate your victories by sharing your knowledge so that others might benefit from it all. Today as many as 150 other communities from across America have requested the primer developed by PAREI to form their own Energy Initiatives.

Rainbow Over the Mahoosucs

So when Sandra and Peter and the army of PAREI began it may have seemed at times a lonely business, but in part from their efforts, A Renewable Energy Revolution has flowered. That Renewable Energy Revolution taking place in this country has many points of light, to use a phrase from President George H.W. Bush, each of them spread their warmth and illumination moving us with growing momentum and enthusiasm toward a distributed energy future that will allow us to live comfortably and still care for the planet and our neighbors, both humans and critters of all shapes and sizes, or as Free Joseph says, the earth and all its inhabitants.

To me, Sandra and Peter are living proof that heroes and patriots walk among us every day in our own communities. People who recognize that the changes we make here at the grassroots are the ripples of hope that build to create change at every level.

Now if they were here right now, both of them would deflect the attention from themselves to the hundreds of volunteers now engaged with them in the work of PAREI. Of course they are right. But without the catalyst; without the stone dropped into the pond, the ripples would not rise up.

If it seems like I am immensely proud of my old friends, I plead guilty. How could I not be when their work gives me such hope for the future. For as long as citizens reach for the stars, it won't matter that our leaders are temporarily lost in a black hole of partisanship and ideology. Time and again throughout our history we have seen that If the people lead, the leaders will surely follow.

A Ripple of Hope 

Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative (PAREI)

Website

Directions

Solar energy equipment supplier in Plymouth, New Hampshire

Address: 79 Highland St, Plymouth, NH 03264

Phone: (603) 536-5030

Links:

www.facebook.com/pg/PlymouthEnergyInitiative

http://plymouthenergy.org/

https://www.localfoodsplymouth.org/

http://www.nhsolarshares.org/

RFK Ripple of Hope Speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp81OYCjXtU