Wednesday, April 2, 2008: John McCain stepped before the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. cameras for an impromptu address to the nation. "I want to talk about Article XIV," he said, "a resolution to expand our Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. This resolution was passed by an ovewhelming majority of the voters last month, and we are making important strides in doing the people's bidding. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. has created a special panel composed of scientists and laymen whose job it is to determine a specific direction for the revitalized EPA programs. We have invited nations from around the globe to participate in this venture, and many have sent delegates to serve on this panel. Since the beginning of this new century, the scientific community has warned us that global warming is a real threat to our planet, and if we don't do something within the next few years it might be too late to do anything. In 2003, I co-authored bipartisan legislation called the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act. Wholly endorsed by the Environmental Defense Global Warming Action Network, it was a revolutionary market-based approach to reducing pollution first introduced by that group.
Using that bill as a catalyst, we have asked this panel of more than 75 individuals to help formulate programs that will quickly establish new guidelines for the protection and preservation of that delicate ecological balance between man, plants and all other animals. We will devise innovative ways to recycle virtually everything we now dispose of in landfills. The long-range goal is to make this a world-wide action effort that will enhance our living conditions and prevent the disasters that might come from global warming. Many experts believe the tragic hurricane that recently destroyed much of America's eastern coast cities was a direct result of global warming - and, if we don't respond quickly, more such storms will become commonplace in the near future.
The EPA, while remaining a federal agency of the United States government, will be structured without the nefarious strings so common in slumbrous bureaucracies. We see it as free exchanges of data and and information, a compilation of ideas, and a loose-knit, flexible organization capable of moving swiftly toward solid resolutions for the betterment of all mankind. Please join in this undertaking. The addresses on the screen are where you can send letters, e-mails, or text messages. Your input is, indeed, important to this work. We have wasted too much time already neglecting this vital issue; as your duly-elected interim Vice-President, I am urging immediate action begin on this problem - perhaps the most significant challenge facing all of mankind today."
McCain walked away from the camera, and a pre-scheduled program about global warming began, followed by an airing of 'An Inconvenient Truth", a movie developed by former Vice-President Al Gore two years earlier. The movie had not been a box-office success, but had received strong accolades from the scientific community for its accuracy and honesty about global warming.
Within an hour, the newly-formed panel was deluged with e-mails and text messages, almost all in favor of taking action now to prevent global warming. One O.U.T.R.A.G.E. member expressed surprise, on camera, saying, "If George Bush and Rush Limbaugh were still alive, this would be a non-issue. The environment simply wasn't important to Republicans. Profit, war, and winning seemed to be their only goals."
This was just one more sign of psychological changes taking place within the American psyche. Hubris, avarice, selfishness, and gluttony were being replaced by more valuable traits of humility, allotment, selflessness, and humanity.