Global Warming ... Peak Oil ... Financial meltdown ... these all threaten our future prospects, our ability to see a positive future reality for ourselves and descendents.

George Herbert Walker Bush lies at the core of a driving motivation in my life.

President Bush was facing a reelection battle against Bill Clinton, and so advisers persuaded him to attend the world environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, possibly the most optiistic moment in recent history. Before he went, however, he told a press conference that "the American way of life is not up for negotiation." If that's true, if we can't imagine living any differently, then all else is mere commentary.

One thing that unites the progressive blogosphere is the drive to imagine a different life, a different world, a better one, a better path forward ... and we all, in our own ways, fight to achieve those visions.

Twenty years ago, the first President Bush stated that "the American Way of Life is not up for negotiation", showing an inability to imagine catastrophe from non-negotiation and an inability to see something better. Without imagination to see a better future and the power to achieve it, we will not progress out of catastrophe to prosperous sustainability.

A New Year's Pledge: imagine that better path and fight to achieve it.

And, I imagine life differently and it energizes me to fight to Energize America toward a prosperous, climate-friendly future.