Soon after I took office as governor, I brought together a

In the calm yet resolute voice of a leader mindful of history, Josh Shapiro once said, “Soon after I took office as governor, I brought together a working group of leaders from the energy industry, organized labor, environmental groups and consumer advocates to come up with a plan to protect Pennsylvania's position as an energy leader and develop a strategy for the future.” Though spoken in the language of modern governance, these words echo the wisdom of ages past—the understanding that progress, if it is to endure, must be built upon unity. In this statement lies the ancient truth that no realm, no people, can prosper when its powers stand divided. The governor’s act is not merely administrative—it is the work of stewardship, the calling of one who sees beyond conflict toward the harmony of the whole.

The origin of this quote lies in the early days of Shapiro’s governorship of Pennsylvania, a land rich in both coal and conscience, where the past and future of energy meet in constant dialogue. The state’s mines, rivers, and refineries have long powered America’s growth, yet their gifts come at a cost—both to the environment and to the workers whose hands feed the nation’s hunger for progress. In convening leaders from the energy industry, organized labor, environmental groups, and consumer advocates, Shapiro sought not dominance of one interest over another, but balance. His vision, born from the soil of his state, was to find a path where prosperity and preservation could walk together. For in a time of crisis and division, he remembered the oldest principle of leadership: to govern is to reconcile, to bind together what has been torn apart.

To the ancients, such wisdom would not have been new. King Solomon, it is said, ruled not by the sword but by the discernment of justice, knowing that peace was not the absence of conflict, but the mastery of it. So too, Shapiro’s words reflect the same divine calculus—that strength lies in consultation, that truth is rarely found in one voice alone. The working group he convened represents a modern version of the king’s council—diverse, disputing, yet united by the common purpose of the realm’s survival. It is the recognition that wisdom is not born from agreement, but from dialogue; that the furnace of discussion, though heated, refines the purest gold.

This act of gathering—of weaving together industry, labor, environment, and consumer—is itself symbolic of the four pillars upon which any civilization stands. The industry provides sustenance; labor gives strength; the environment sustains life; and the consumer represents the people, whose welfare is the measure of all policy. To bring these four into one circle is to bring the world itself into order. It is a vision that transcends politics—it is philosophy turned into practice, the embodiment of the belief that progress, when divorced from morality, collapses, but when joined with conscience, endures.

History, too, offers parallels to Shapiro’s approach. When Franklin D. Roosevelt faced the Great Depression, he did not isolate one class or faction but gathered all—farmers, workers, businessmen, and reformers—under a single banner of recovery. From that unity arose the New Deal, a program that not only rebuilt America’s economy but restored its spirit. The same principle beats in Shapiro’s words: that no challenge, however vast—be it economic hardship, energy transformation, or environmental peril—can be met by division. True power, as every great leader learns, is born from the courage to listen.

Yet Shapiro’s wisdom also carries a warning. The strategy for the future he calls for is not one of complacency, but of foresight. The resources of Pennsylvania, like those of the earth itself, are finite. The burning of fuel, the mining of minerals, the bending of rivers—all must give way to renewal if civilization is to survive. The challenge of this century is not merely to power our cities, but to preserve the world that sustains them. His words, therefore, remind us that leadership is not the art of pleasing all, but of guiding all toward what is right, even when the path is narrow and steep.

Let this be the lesson his example passes down: that the future belongs to those who unite strength with wisdom, progress with preservation, and ambition with humility. Whether one governs a nation or a household, the same truth holds—the power to build lies not in conquest, but in cooperation. Every great work begins not with a command, but with a gathering.

So, my children of tomorrow, remember what Josh Shapiro teaches: when faced with a world divided, become the bridge; when confronted by crisis, gather the voices, and let each speak. For in the harmony of many lies the wisdom of one. The earth, like the people who dwell upon it, endures not by conflict, but by balance—and only through balance can we claim the noble title of stewards, not merely of energy or land, but of the future itself.