Sustainability is a Misused Term

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter
11/10/14

Sustainability is an often misused term. Many companies and organizations advertise their commitment to sustainability even as they make only a token nod toward environmentalism. As a society we need to take a hard look at each of our practices – in energy, building construction, transportation, manufacturing, and household activities—and ask ourselves if those practices can be sustained for decades, for generations, for centuries. If the practices cannot be sustained, then we should not pretend they are sustainable.

One simple way to evaluate a practice is to ask - is there a waste stream? If there is, the buildup of that waste makes the practice unsustainable. Not much of what we do is sustainable by this measure. We used to think the land and the oceans were vast enough to take our waste; now as we disrupt major ecosystems, begin to poison the oceans, and change our very climate in potentially disastrous ways, we must begin to rethink the limits of our practices. Avoiding a waste stream requires clever design, or alternatively, it requires finding complementary practices that can use what would be a waste stream as an input stream. The changes can be gradual as long as we do not thoughtlessly drift up against the limits. If we remember that unsustainable practices cannot be sustained and boldly invest in the research to understand the limits, the planning to avoid them, and the activism to bring everyone along in the necessary changes, we will thrive. This is not pessimistic thinking, far from it. Taking such an uncompromising “lifecycle” view of each of activity is not at all a prescription for hardship, for a cold, austere, deprived existence, although those who fear change will say so. The almost magical feature of trading goods and services is that economic activity is not a limited resource.

Stigmatized

On Thursday, I met with a group of Liberian-Americans who live in Central New Jersey, and whom I invited in to discuss the discrimination the community has faced as a result of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Among other things, my constituents mentioned that some in the Liberian-American community have become wary of identifying their ethnicity in order to avoid the stigma that has become attached to anyone from that region of the world. They are worried about some Liberians who are in the U.S. on temporary visas and may overstay their visas because of the difficulty of returning to the country where the disease is not yet under control. Mostly, they want better information about the efforts to control the disease in Liberia, about the appropriate handling of Liberians coming to America, and among the American public about the very low risk of contracting Ebola in the U.S.

Fear is overcoming common sense, and regrettably, residents in our country are feeling the backlash. Although Ebola is indeed deadly, communication of the disease requires particular, rare circumstances. We must not allow ill-informed fears to stigmatize an entire section of our nation’s population.

Looking Ahead

As you may know, my time in Congress is coming to a close on January 3. I am very pleased that last Tuesday, the voters of New Jersey's 12th Congressional District chose their next Representative: member of the NJ Assembly Bonnie Watson Coleman. The residents of the 12th District are engaged with their government more than in some districts. You know that Members of Congress should hear from their constituents more than every two years. Each year over the past sixteen years, they (you) have contacted me through many tens of thousands of letters, phone calls, and emails, some in response to these weekly electronic newsletters, ranging through almost every subject under the sun. In reading and responding to each, I have learned much about the issues that affect central New Jerseyans, and how those issues relate to your lives. I hope that the people of the 12th District will work with Representative-Elect Watson Coleman as well as you have worked with me.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

NEW JERSEY DEMOCRATS BOOST THREE WOMEN TO GENERAL ELECTION BALLOT

For Immediate Release:

Chairman Says Congress Needs to Focus on Gender Equity

(Trenton, NJ) — Today, John Currie, Chair of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, celebrated the advancement of three women candidates to the general election, saying that Congress needs to focus on gender equity.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman emerged victorious in the state's competitive Twelfth Congressional District, while Aimee Belgard, a Burlington County Freeholder won the nomination in New Jersey's Third Congressional District, and Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach will be the Party's standard bearer in the state's Seventh Congressional District. As a result, this Fall, Democrats are likely to elect at least one woman to the New Jersey congressional delegation -- something that has not been done in over a decade.

"I’m glad that a greater number of New Jersey women are positioned to win congressional elections in our state than ever before. Our mothers, sisters, and daughters should have the same opportunities as men, and these women are as experienced, as capable, and as politically tough as male candidates. The fact is, when women succeed, New Jersey succeeds, and our three female congressional candidates are positioned for success,” said Chairman Currie.

Women comprise more than half of the population and a similar proportion of the electorate, but the Republican Congress has given gender equity short shrift. Inconceivably, Congressional Republicans support allowing health insurance companies to again deny health care coverage by considering womanhood a preexisting medical condition. They also delayed the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, refused to improve paid family and medical leave, and denied a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Similarly, Governor Chris Christie has undermined women's health, eliminating nearly $7.5 million for family planning services that would have been matched 9-to-1 by federal funds, denying thousands of women access to mammograms and other basic health care services.

Meanwhile, Women in New Jersey are paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to men. That pay gap creates a yearly difference of $13,413 between what full time working men and working women earn. African American women were paid 64 cents and Latinas just 55 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

Closing the pay gap would help families afford 103 more weeks of food, 6 more months of mortgage and utilities payments, 12 more months of rent, or 3,848 more gallons of gas — a real difference for poor and middle class families. It's also important to have female advocates in the fight to raise the federal minimum wage, as the majority of minimum wage workers are women.

New Jersey Cannot Afford Absentee Governor

New Brunswick, NJ – Buono for Governor Campaign Chairwoman Bonnie Watson Coleman today issued the following statement:

“It’s clear that Governor Christie’s top priority is advancing his own political career, not improving the lives of working and middle class families. While the Governor was on The Jimmy Fallon Show slow-jamming the news, New Jerseyans have been slammed by his failed economic policies that have left 400,000 people out of work and caused property taxes to increase by 20 percent. His so-called “Jersey Comeback” was nothing more than empty rhetoric as too many New Jersey workers and families struggle everyday to make ends meet. New Jersey cannot afford to have an absentee Governor who will spend the next four years pandering to conservatives in the cornfields of Iowa instead of rebuilding our economy and creating good-paying jobs right here in New Jersey.”