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A little publicity never hurt us either…

Van Jones is a rare bird indeed. In an opinion piece published on October 17, 2007, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman lent his not inconsiderable clout to a great cause, hailing Van Jones, 1994 Echoing Green Fellow, a unique aviary beast. More notably Friedman commented: “I would not underestimate him. Mr. Jones, age 39 and a Yale Law School grad, exudes enough energy to light a few buildings on his own.”

We agree. Jones is the force behind the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and a proponent of engaging the African American community in environmentalism. The way Jones explains it, working-class African Americans who are worried about putting food on the table aren’t going to care about polar bears dying. Even Al Gore’s swimming polar bear cartoon isn’t going to change that. The smart way to bring this overlooked class on board the green bandwagon is to create job opportunities in green industry and train African Americans to do this outsourcing-free, still manual labor work.

But don’t let us re-invent the wheel. Go to Van Jones yourself.