Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Over lunch at the Mount Airy, North Carolina Rotary Club today, dining on roast chicken, a salad of mixed greens and macaroni and cheese, conversation was muted. This day — with the inaugural festivities occurring 300 miles away in our nation’s capital — was bigger than our cozy weekly ritual.

I plunked myself down next to Robert Merritt. Robert had been an early and generous Obama supporter, and I wanted to soak in the spirit of the moment with him, in a celebratory framework, and not let my energy be siphoned by the hold-outs in the room, with their crossed arms and refusal to make eye contact with the giant screen TV stretched out in front of us.

Robert Merritt leaned into me: “What do you think he’ll say?”

“I think he’ll use the word ‘sacrifice’.”

Robin Hester, proprietor of the Sobotta Manor Bed & Breakfast in town, sat to my left. “He’ll talk about unity,” she predicted, adding. “This is probably the greatest historical moment in my lifetime — after 9/11.”

Tim Marion, our club president, addressed fellow Rotarians, asking if this were the first time live television had taken the place of our weekly speaker. “Not bad,” he kidded. “Having Barack Obama as our speaker today.”

True to predictions, Barack Obama used both words “sacrifice” and “unity” in his inaugural speech. He talked about the “nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.” He countered this notion by stating that America’s “capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions: that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

Yes, the work — the great work — of remaking America starts with each of us, in each of our homes and businesses, in our schools and houses of worship. In making an effort to reach across our own aisles of difference.

But with the eyes of the world upon them, the Obamas, as First Family, hold the singular opportunity to put the first symbolic shovel into the ground of change. My mind leaps toward what they could — can — and should — do to help usher in the change that we need to get our economy moving again in new, exciting and life-affirming directions, to combat climate change and to build community in our land of diversity.

The First Family could start by transforming the White House into a model “zero-waste home” by launching an initiative to reduce energy used in the home. Back in 1977, a brave and visionary President Jimmy Carter called America “the most wasteful nation on earth” and recommended a path to change by mandating such measures as reduced fuel consumption in automobiles and by providing funding for the development of alternate technologies and energy sources. (Sadly, America was not up for the sacrifice at that time. We were still living the lie that we could have it all, spend it all, and throw out mountains of waste with no consequences.) But I believe that Americans are ready for change today. Americans are beginning to see and to feel viscerally that excessive consumption is not fun and exciting, but alienating and burdensome.

As part of modeling behavior for the rest of the nation, the Obamas could make public a reduction in the waste stream coming out of the White House. This would stand as a signal to the nation — and world — that America is serious about reining in excessive levels of consumption, and it would encourage each of us to follow suit. (Currently, each American disposes an average of 4.5 pounds daily.) To that end, the Obamas would impose an immediate ban on disposables, such as foam coffee cups, paper plates, napkins, and the like in the White House. If the Obama girls carry their lunches to school, they could use zero-waste lunch boxes with plastic components that are washed nightly. The First Family could challenge the Sidwell Friends School to do the same.

This concept could extend into the White House kitchen, where organic waste, such as banana peels, apple cores, wilted lettuce, cabbage and coffee grounds would be composted on site for use in their New Victory vegetable garden. The Obamas could not only plant an organic garden with native fruits and vegetables, but let their children help to tend, weed and harvest it, thus overcoming the “nature-deficit disorder” experienced by so many American children, urban and rural (but especially urban). The Obamas could install dual-flush toilets and low-flow faucets and showerheads in all the bathrooms in the White House to demonstrate their commitment to water conservation. They could reuse grey water from the house and install rain barrels to collect water from the roof. Finally, the new First Family could take a page out of Carter White House which displayed exemplary frugality and energy-savings measures. The thermostat should be turned down and layers of clothing added when it gets cold (and turned up with layers removed when it’s hot).

If taken, these measures would be well-publicized and would encourage Americans to begin to take conservation seriously, to no longer stand pat, to begin to remake America and retool our lives, and finally to seize this moment in history to use our current crisis as an opportunity for the enormous changes that are so urgently needed.