The Perfection of Al Gore

Al Gore isnt perfect. Crucify him NOW! No wait, dont do that; all of you (notice I didnt say us) who arent perfect would also have to be crucified. Tragedy averted. Phew!

It is a widely-shared sentiment amongst us vegans and vegetarians that Al Gore isnt the environmentalist he and the media say he is. It angers us, and with some very good reason, that he has become the icon of the environmental movement. Yes, even I wrote an article exposing Al Gores inconvenient truth & That he hasnt pointed to one of the environments biggest enemies  Meatism. As if pseudo-environmentalism isnt bad enough, Al Gore then goes and wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the environment. It is more salt into the wounds of us truth-seekers. But there is a true silver lining here to which we owe Al Gore a huge debt of gratitude.

My fellow vegans, consider this: The guy who invented asphalt, for example, wasnt scorned because he didnt also develop auto racing. One laid the groundwork (no pun intended) for the other. An oversimplification, perhaps, but the point is much the same.

Clearly, there are a number of near-perfect arguments for why Al Gore should have included Meatism on a short-list of what is destroying the planet. But for one reason or another, intentional or not, he didnt. He isnt perfect. Neither are you (notice I didnt say we). But let me also tell you, in no uncertain terms, that he has laid the groundwork for all of us to go the next mile. He has created golden opportunities for those of us concerned about the welfare of the planet and its inhabitants to gain some meaningful ground. The whole country is talking about going green and, arguably, much of the credit for this belongs to Al Gore. Now its up to us to show the masses how to really go green.

Amazingly, Al Gore actually accomplished one of the hardest parts of our task. You see, in sales and marketing (an area in which I am an expert) the greatest challenge is to make people want something. Its easy (and useless) to point to things that we should want, but to make people actually want it & ah, therein lies the most difficult task of all. And Al Gore did precisely that. We truth-seekers have known all along the importance of going green and weve gone blue-in-the-face telling people they should go green. But now, thanks to Al Gore, they actually want to go green. The greatest hurdle has been overcome. Lets give people what they want! Lets show them how to really save the planet. (For a short primer on sales and marketing go to my website www.JeffPopick.com and click on See Jeff In Action.)

It is awesome that Al Gore won the Peace Prize. We owe him a congrats and thanks. Never before have we vegans had such a tremendous opportunity (or need) to save the world; and we really do owe much of it to Al Gore even though he isnt perfect. But remember, neither are you. Oh, and as for me, I must confess that I used to be conceited. Fortunately, last week I overcame it, and now Im perfect.