Since January, I’ve been writing about land and water restoration projects on this blog, but I realized in June I was selling myself and my idea of restoration short. Because what I really want to write here is much bigger and much more personal. I don’t really want just to recycle others’ posts about restoration projects; I want to turn the United States around. It is SO MUCH in need of restoration now, and not just because of BP’s Deepwater Horizon Spill or the economic disaster that began in 2008. Its need for restoration goes back to 2001 and September 11, back to the oil crisis of the 1970s and the beginnings of the environmental movement, back to Martha, the last passenger pigeon…you get my drift.

It goes back to the bridges and roads and other infrastructure the United States has been neglecting since the Reagan revolution. It goes back to the decline of our inner cities, epitomized now by Detroit. It goes back to our repeated attempts to reform education.

From now on, my topics will be farther out, more pie-in-the-sky. Because what I really want is to inspire people.

If you want more information about environmental restoration, check out Conservation Maven and the Global Restoration Network. Or just do a Google alert for “land restoration” or something similar. You’ll get more information than you ever wanted about restoration projects. Or just check out your city or state website—the department that deals with the environment will be hosting restoration projects for which you can volunteer. Restoration is big in the United States.

But I think it needs to be bigger. I think it needs to be everything.