Green energy meets jobs (the headline does not say it all)

by Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist

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EVEN ACTIVISTS can stun themselves by speaking up. For a decade, Van Jones, a Yale-trained attorney and cofounder of Oakland's Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, was mostly known in the Bay Area for fighting to reform police and youth prisons.
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In recent years he and other activists have pushed for inner-city job training in the solar, wind, and other energy-saving industries. In June, Oakland became the first city in the nation to create a "Green Jobs Corps" program. A green coalition in nearby Richmond recently installed solar panels on a home, employing at-risk trainees.
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Jones introduced himself briefly, as he thought he was supposed to do. Everyone else gave speeches. The session nearly ended with Jones saying nothing.

"I was feeling terrible," he said over dinner in August. "I was nearly in tears. I thought I had blown it. I'm here with the third most powerful person in the United States, someone who can help our cause . . . and I didn't take advantage of it."

Just before Pelosi adjourned the round table for a press conference, she asked for last questions.
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Jones said Pelosi let him continue. "Everybody comes to the neighborhood and tells these kids don't shoot anybody, don't do drugs, don't get pregnant, then they drive away. . . . You tell them you can help fix this country, you're not going to solve just global warming, you are going to solve a bunch of problems in this community."

At the press conference, Pelosi said there was something said at the round table everyone agreed with. In a video clip on the Ella Baker website, Pelosi said, "Where is Van? OK, you say it for yourself. We'll say it together. 'Green Energy Jobs Bill.' "
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A recent editorial in Investor's Business Daily called it "foolishness" and "waste." Tierney said some Republicans questioned, "Why should we be doing anything for them?"

Jones knows why he is doing something for "them." Several years ago, burned out from police and juvenile justice issues, he attended a retreat. He met Julia "Butterfly" Hill, the woman who lived for two years in a redwood to save if from logging.

In their discussions, Jones said, "I agree with you that there aren't any throwaway species or resources, but you agree with me there aren't any throwaway children or neighborhoods, right? So we need to get these movements working together."
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/29/green_energy_meets_jobs/