Sam Farr: “I think what turns that around is leadership. Leadership needs to be provided to get us out of the broken modality. I…”

“I think what turns that around is leadership. Leadership needs to be provided to get us out of the broken modality. I think back to the years when I was a Peace Corps volunteer and had no resources except the people. They did not want to necessarily be American consumers and have all these goods, because they could not afford them; but they wanted a better life-style. What I think they wanted from the leadership was how can we have a better life-style without having to pay the price of pollution. They would say we live in pollution and streets that do not have sewers. We live in houses that do not have clean water, or any water at all. We live in houses that have no electricity, or if we have it, it is very weak because it is borrowed from what they call contraband electricity. They were not asking for more bad, more ugly, more evil; they were asking how do we use the smart technologies in the United States. And I think we have done that on a couple of examples. For example, cell phones, a great technology, have eliminated a need to wire everything. Those things are very, very costly; and we are using a technology where satellites can help us communicate all over the globe. That has a social impact. It allows people access to information, and we do not necessarily have to build poles.…”