As long as the government's actions are secret, it cannot be held accountable. A government for the people and by the people should be transparent to the people.
Interpretation
Transparency in government is essential for accountability to the public.
This quote by Al Gore emphasizes that for a government to serve its citizens effectively, its actions must be transparent. When government actions are hidden from the public eye, it can lead to a lack of accountability and trust, undermining the foundational principle of democracy where the government is meant to represent and serve the people.
In practice
During a town hall meeting to advocate for open government initiatives.
Global warming is real and human activity is the main cause. The consequences are mainly negative and headed toward catastrophic, unless we act. However, the good news is that we can meet this challenge. It is not too late, and we have everything we need to get started.
The climate crisis is not a political issue; it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
I think it's harder for people than it should be. But as more and more of us become carbon neutral and change the patterns in our lives to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, we are now beginning to see the changes in policy that are needed.
We have a planetary emergency. We have to find a way to create, in the generation of those alive today, a sense of generational mission.
CO2 is the exhaling breath of our civilization, literally... Changing that pattern requires a scope, a scale, a speed of change that is beyond what we have done in the past.
Well-established theories collapse under the weight of new facts and observations which cannot be explained, and then accumulate to the point where the once useful theory is clearly obsolete.
Sudden shifts and changes are no bad preparation for political life.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.
Political institutions, no matter how well or badly designed, depend for continued existence upon acting men; their conservation is achieved by the same means that brought them into being. Independent existence marks the work of art as a product of making; utter dependence upon further acts to keep it in existence marks the state as a product of action.
It would seem that the Watergate story from beginning to end could be used as a primer on the American political system.
American politics used to be an amateur sport. But somewhere along the way, we handed over to professionals all the things people used to do for free.
Genuine politics -- even politics worthy of the name -- the only politics I am willing to devote myself to -- is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and for the whole.
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