Keeping Up with the Greens:Frank's House:Of Fathers and Suns

Forget keeping up with the Joneses. Try keeping up with the Greens!

This is our entry for the Tree Hugger TV EPIC (Ethical Progressive Intelligent Consumer) video contest. The idea is to show how you walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Frank and I decided to video tape the real progress he has made with his family home in Windsor California, and play him off against a fictional (but all too real) "neighbor" (played by Cairo based T.H. Culhane) who is obsessed by "keeping up with the Joneses" but doesn't quite understand what competing to be eco-friendly is really all about.

With this video Frank and I establish the two main characters who will eventually appear in a full blown series we are in development on called "Keeping up with the Greens: Frank's House" - Frank DiMassa (who will be renamed "Frank Green") a utility consultant and homeowner with a wife and two kids who lives in a "Truman Show" kind of model American surburban enclave that is a manicured, sterile and ecologically tragic landscape that he hates, and Tom Culhane (who will be renamed "Tom Brown"), a man perfectly adapted to the artificial paradise who believes that global warming is part of a "State of Fear" conspiracy concocted by Enviro-wackos and that bigger is always better.

The names Frank Green and Tom Brown go along with our previous instructional video on "The electron pool" where we showed people the difference between "green electrons" and "brown electrons". Frank consumes (and produces!) only "Green Electrons" while Tom consumes massive amounts of purely 'Brown Electrons".

The tension between these two figures and the relationship with their wives and children ultimately creates an optimistic look at how even the most stubborn of American consumers can find ways to compete their way toward cooperation and sustainability.

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[tculhane]

Come on genius -- you seem to have it all figured out. TELL US WHAT TO DO!

Sincerely and with faith and love,

An American Patriot who cares about one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice, FOR ALL.

[tculhane]

... what will happen then? We may have the oil from those reserves to use for another 10 or 15 years. Then my kid is in high school. Okay, what then? I'm looking to YOU for answers, fella. You come across as very certain about things. Okay. Lead us. SHOW US THE WAY. JUST WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE. GIVE ME A 25 YEAR PLAN, enough to get my kid through college and into a steady job where he can make his own decisions as an adult and raise his own family.

[tculhane]

You seem so smug, so let me ask you, in sincerity, WHAT VISION DO YOU PROPOSE? WHAT EVIDENCE DO YOU HAVE? WHY SHOULD WE FORM A CONSENSUS AROUND WHAT YOU CLAIM ARE "FACTS". WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INFORMATION? Can I trust the future of my children to your beliefs about the way the world works? If we drill for the remaining oil in American territory soon(which we WILL, believe me -- environmentalists have no real power!) without enlarging our energy portfolio,conserving and being more efficient

[tculhane]

I've also met Al Gore, but was never brain washed by him (and he is the farthest thing from a hippie!). He's just another guy, like you, trying to put it all together and make things safe for his family. Do you have a family? Do you care about them? Or anything? Or are you just a self-centered and violent prick who likes to hurt others? What is your motivation? Why are you threatening ME?Did I hurt you by offering to dialouge with you and publishing your comments so others could learn from you?

[tculhane]

China is a huge country like the U.S., made up of many different types of people. I've seen the good and the bad, both of which exist in both our countries. I never said China was "so green", I said they one sector of their complex society has more advanced technology deployed than we do, which is a crime and insult to American ingenuity. I told you, I'm a patriot. I believe in America, despite what our awful politicians and unscrupulous businesses have done to us.But do YOU believe in America?

[hfl2005]

You have been to China and have seen what they want you to see and told what they want you to hear. You are such the naive. I could be wrong. Did they show you the slave labor and the organ harvesting plants? Did you see the people painting those Todd Macfarlaine sports figures for pennies an hour? Yes pennies an hour. I interviewed for a job with them and found out how they are made. If China is so green why dont you live there. I will buy the ticket.

[hfl2005]

You are the one that has been brain washed by Al Gore and his hippie ilk. Go take your life fortune and buy up some carbon credits. Wait I have a better idea. Why dont you give the money to me and I will kick you in the nuts. Both will have the same effect on the environment.

[tculhane]

The money SHOULD be going into YOUR pocket, and that of all American workers. I've also been to Venezuela and they are actually using more advanced "green" technologies than we have. We

Americans are being played as patsy's, duped by a mafia of irresponsible profiteers to use our consumer strength to keep a status quo going that makes us poorer and poorer. Look at the dollar now; I can't even buy things in Europe because a buck is only worth 55 cents. Let's stand together against this outrage!

[tculhane]

The Chinese, meanwhile, are investing in "green" technology at a ferocious pace (I've been to China several times and seen it, have you?) so they are playing both sides of the fence. We actually import all of our environmental technology from China for our USAID project in Egypt because US companies lag behind. Isn't that sad? It makes me mad. Where is our American entrepreneurial spirit? Why are our products no longer considered the best and most advanced? It's embaressing.