Ron Kind Quotes

Whistleblowers play a vital role in ensuring that the federal government is accountable to the people it serves.

The amount of resources we put in are disparate. We put billions of dollars into fuel-efficient technologies. How much are we putting into energy behavior change in a credible, systematic, testing way?

I expect VA's inspector general and the FBI to work closely together so that we can identify and eliminate the flaws that allowed this leak and prosecute any criminal acts.

Congress must not do something just for the sake of doing something. We must carefully and thoughtfully consider the implications of any action and whether that action will help or hinder our ultimate mission of protecting U.S. citizens from terror.

No one wants growth, constant expansion, physical swelling. Growth is not a human value; it's a means to the ends of sufficiency and security. Once we have enough, no one wants more, unless it is sold to us as a cheap substitute for something else, something non-material.

The federal government's role is to establish a process whereby industry can pitch a project, and Canadians can be reassured that this project is worth the risk. That's at the heart of governments granting permits and communities granting permission. People understand we do need economic growth. We do need natural resource projects.

Keep under strict surveillance and control those secret establishments which, within your government structures, seem to regard themselves as above the law.

At the end of the day, though, there are a huge number of considerations that our management team go through before accepting any project - checking out the license is just one of them.

How do we take the bad out of fracking? How do you contain the water? How do we make a profit out of that? Get there early.

Everything has to be well thought out - what do you really need, when can you do with less coverage.

The state is obliged to fight corruption within the government.

Tasmania needs a watchdog, not a lap dog.

No company can be expected to build a nuclear reactor, an oil well, a coal mine, or anything else that's one hundred percent safe under all circumstances. The costs would be prohibitive. It's unreasonable to expect corporations to totally guard against small chances of every potential accident.

From secrecy and deception in high places, come home, America. From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation, come home, America.

Using these unnamed sources, if done properly, carefully and fairly, provides more accountability in government.

Armchair generals assume that nations decide on their foreign policy objectives and then subordinate everything else to achieving them. Life is more complicated. Threats, opportunities and risks are always uncertain, but the economic costs of maximum preparedness are definite.

In a democracy threatened by excessive secrecy and the criminalizing of news gathering, the more sunlight the better.

There should be a precedent that says that when government higher-ups are committing crimes that whistle blowers should be able to blow the whistle in a way that exposes the crimes that they’ve committed. Whistle Blowers who expose systemic crimes against the population … deserve to be treated as heroes, not as criminals.

To Any Officer or Employee of the Government: Please tell Mr. Lincoln Steffens anything whatever about the government that you know (not incompatible with the public interest) and provided only that you tell him the truth—no matter what it might be—I will see to it that you are not hurt. T. Roosevelt.

I don't believe newspaper reporters can substitute for a district attorney, but a newspaper has a very valid investigative role. Newspaper reports on corruption in government, racketeering and organized crime conditions can be very helpful to your communities and the whole country.

Even if Koch Industries had a financial interest in the Keystone XL pipeline, what possibly could be wrong with that? Perhaps more important, under what circumstances would such an interest be worthy of a congressional inquisition?

The consequences of a misstep in a well, while large to the immediate people that live around that well, in the great scheme of things are pretty small, and even to the immediate people around the well, they could be mitigated.

All of my work comes out of a deep concern for human expansion into the landscape.

We can sit between active drilling operations in neighboring countries, complaining that it's too risky to develop our own resources while the world around us does exactly that.

We really need a public-interest government that is not taking marching orders from the fossil-fuel industry and the banks and the war profiteers. We really need a government that is acting on our behalf.