I spent all day yesterday at the Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network Conference, put on by the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance. Overall, I was disappointed with the conference. The sessions were only long enough for us to introduce ourselves and hear a few comments. There wasn’t time for any real dialog.
In between the morning workshops was a discussion session of medium-sized groups based on birth date endings. By pure coincidence I ended up in a group sitting next to an executive from Northwest Airlines, one of the largest employers in Minnesota.
Mr. Northwest Airlines introduced himself by saying that he, unlike most others at the conference, was a conservative. And not just any old kind of conservative, but that special flavor free-market conservative with the secret sauce.
Last year, Northwest Airlines received a quarter of a billion dollar bailout from the federal government. Several years ago it was the beneficiary of a similar bailout from the state of Minnesota. The airline also has a history of ham-handed negotiations with its workers, and earlier this week announced yet another round of layoffs. Free market indeed. And let’s not even talk about how the airline industry is one of the most extractive, non-sustainable industries in the free world.
The assigned discussion topic was the theme for the conference: Mahatma Gandhi’s quote, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mr. Northwest Airlines was quite smug when he said that since corporations can’t vote, it’s up to individuals to affect change. Who needs a vote when you can buy Congresscritters and keep them as pets?
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