Second in a series
Re: “Eriksson Defines Himself with Clarity”
As City Council audiences soon will learn, just-elected Göran Eriksson does not fudge his words.
During the late campaign, Mr. Eriksson, in business with his wife, presented himself as a successful business owner and strong advocate for the environment.
This angered and/or confused purist-type environmental activists.
They claimed, and still do, that Mr. Eriksson’s label is akin to proclaiming you are tall and you are short.
You cannot be strongly pro-business and pro-environment, they say, as if it were widely accepted logic.
Is there a conflict? the new Councilman was asked.
“I don’t see a conflict, not at all,” says Mr. Eriksson, pushing back firmly but diplomatically. This gesture – firmness couched with sensitivity — soon is expected to become a common sight around City Hall.
He is not a word-mincer.
Aiming his remarks at so-called pure environmentalists who hold that commerce is not just a rival but an enemy, Mr. Eriksson said the flap over his longtime stance is “an invented conflict (intended) to create wedge issues.”
Pure environmentalists are not accustomed to being talked to this way.
They may return fire at their peril.
Mr. Eriksson is not going to change his stripes.
His early critics are the side that is out of step, he maintains.
“People in California and other places “who have been really successful on the environment side,” said Mr. Eriksson, “also have worked very closely with business.”
So there – for now.
(To be continued)
