Earth Day is 45 years old this week. That’s a lot of years promoting a message of caring for our environment and ensuring a safe future for our children and grandchildren. Yet here we are facing ever greater climate disruptions with precious little progress on solving these problems. Rather than give up in despair, each person in each house in each community can start to solve local problems by paying attention and getting to work. Earth Day activities are all round us this month but it’s important not only to go see the turtles at the local environmental center, but also to reduce your own waste stream, recycle and reuse what you can, bring your own bags to shop, plant that seed, grow that tree, teach your children, learn from your children, follow important policy discussions and vote for those local and national representatives that reflect a way forward into a positive future. Forth-five years is not such a long time but in that time the environment has gotten worse, the outcry from the scientific community has gotten louder and bolder, and we can no longer afford to sit and watch the news unfold on TV – we need to become the news: demanding action, taking action, being the change we want to see. The theme for this year's Earth Day activities says it best: It's our turn to lead.
I was driving home from work on a dark, damp, cold afternoon feeling every bit as gloomy as the weather when Aquarius/Let in the Sunshine started to play on the radio. It didn't take more than a few seconds for me to become instantly refreshed and singing along. I wasn't a die hard hippie but did have my moments back in the day so naturally this song brought me back to the time when bell bottoms ruled and peace and love were in the air. It wasn't all wine and roses back in the 60's and 70's. As the Vietnam war took its toll on young lives, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and other leaders were assasinated, and students at Kent State were gunned down I felt a piece of myself was lost with each of them. But the possibilities for change were very much alive. We marched to end war, we protested injustice, we started Earth Day, we pushed for equality, we demonstrated our anger and disappointment and we made a difference. I can't help but believe that we could make the dramatic changes that our nation and world desperately need today if the same spirit ruled. A wrecked environment, income and social inequality, bigotry and intolerance, gun violence, and endless wars keep the fires of discontent raging. Seems to me the message of love and peace has never needed a louder voice, so sing on, dream on and march on.
