Partisan politics

"The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard really caught my attention even though I already knew much of the information provided in the video. I like how the video focused on telling us the whole story, every step of the way, and how it is all interconnected.

I am dissappointed that the reaction to the video has seemingly played out once again as a Republican vs. Democrat debate. I believe that the only way this climate crisis will ever be solved will be through throwing partisan politics out the window on this issue and coming together as a cohesive unit to combat environmental concerns. This belief stems from my feeling that the environmental crisis is too big a problem to be tackled if we let ourselves get caught up in petty bickering and divisiveness.

I've long been a staunch believer in nonpartisan politics. The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I attended the Sorensen Institute for Political Leaderships' High School Leaders Program at UVA. The program focused on thoughtful, nonpartisan discussion of issues facing the state of Virginia, and brought together high school students from throughout the Commonwealth of VA for the two week program. During this time, the most important rule was that no one could divulge their political leanings, not even the professors or program coordinators. This fostered a feeling of freedom in the classroom where I did not fear speaking about my ideals. Everyone thoughtfully listened to everyone's point of view. At the end of the program, our class formed a website where everyone wrote in what political party they aligned with, and I was suprised by many of my classmates' responses. I was also surprised to learn that it didn't change how I felt about these people at all: they were my friends, and that was that. Political divisiveness tears us apart. What I learned during my time at Sorensen is that we can all learn to work together, even with people who have views that differ greatly from our own. I have continued to embrace nonpartisan politics or atleast friendly discussion between political parties, and have been particularly pleased with Virginia's previous governor, Mark Warner, who embraced a more moderate approach to politics to bring Virginia together to focus on issues important to the Commonwealth.

The debate over "The Story of Stuff" seems to have once again pitted Republican versus Democrat. The debate has moved away from the actual content of the video and has turned into another excuse for partisan bickering and divisiveness, which does not solve ANYTHING! People always have the right to have an opinion, and they ofcourse have the right to say that they do not like Annie Leonard's film. But the critique should not be based solely on maintaining opinions down a party line, which seems to have happened here. Just look at where the sources are from: the article giving (mostly) positive feedback (although it raises some issues with the content and discusses how there might be some incorrect information present) to the video is from an environmental institute, and the article giving negative feedback about the video is from a conservative group. The article from the conservative group even says that Leonard's video is a video coming from the far left. I have no problem with a debate over the content of the film. What I do have a problem with is the fact that instead of merely having a debate over what the film says, the articles written about the film are changing the debate from what they like or dislike about the film to asking which party has the right idea, the left or the right. How will we ever solve the climate crisis, or many of the problems facing todays world, if we cannot get out of the cycle of partisan politics which distracts from the real issues?