Today former Vice President Al Gore presented a challenge to the American people... that we undertake the process of reversing global warming in the next 10 years. I wish it were so simple that we could awaken at the ringing of an alarm. But part of the challenge we face is that we have become so immobilized and complaisant due to our nation's failure in the education of our hands. We have exported our productive capacity, and created generations of helpless consumers and great masses addicted to passive entertainment.

I applaud Al Gore. He raises an alarm. I challenge all Americans to take your hands out of your pockets. Throw away the remote. Put your hands to work in learning to shape materials into beautiful and useful things. We can build the technologies required to bring change. As Al Gore tells us, we have the solutions in our own hands. But our hands must be trained, must become skillful, must take their rightful place in our schools and in our consciousness.