Fifty years ago when we then-young Boomers, along with people of other age groups, created the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, I suspect many of us were hoping for a thriving and greener Planet by now.
Were you involved in the first Earth Day in 1970? If so, what did you do? What did it mean to you? What were you hoping for? What did you expect would happen by now?
We did have some major successes. We got then-President Richard Nixon, of all people, to get behind Sen. Edmund Muskie's (D - Maine) Clean Air Act and sign it into law, on Dec. 31, 1970, eight months after the first Earth Day. Even before then, Rachel Carson woke us up to the dangers of synthetic pesticides in 1963, with her paradigm-shifting book, Silent Spring. In Sept. 1970, essays by Charles A. Reich appeared in The New Yorker, and later in 1970, the entire work was published as The Greening of America, which became a runaway bestseller. We made major strides in promoting notions of sustainability and environmentalism, and in promoting practices of organic gardening, agriculture, food; vegetarianism; animal rights.
Then came the Reagan years, of deregulation, and of the plutocratic empire striking back. These two threads continue-- the addiction to money, and money uber alles; and the advocacy for life, community, and joy in being, which here in the physical world, is of necessity tied to the well being of Nature. When we destroy Nature, we destroy ourselves. That should be obvious, but obviously, it's not obvious to the money-addicted. The addicted want one thing only-- the thing to which they are addicted.
Anyway, if you participated in the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, what were you doing? What were you hoping for, and what did you what to accomplish?
For those who are younger, when was the first Earth Day you remember? What did it mean to you?
Please feel free to email me your responses, by April 29, and I will make a compilation for a later blogpost, on May 1. That will be an appropriate day for such a posting! Let me know if I can post your name, or if you would prefer to remain anonymous. Send your email to BarbaraforAD101@protonmail.com, preferably with subject heading "Earth Day."
And yes, I am running for NYS Assembly District 101, on the Green Party line, of course, on a green platform. Read all about it here under my April 13 posting -- see column on the right. To promote things green in NYS and on the planet, one thing you can do is support this campaign. To support it financially, checks to support the campaign can be made out to "Barbara for AD101" and mailed to:
Barbara for AD101
PO Box 34
Walker Valley, NY 12588
Thank you! And happy Earth Day!
Barbara Kidney,
Chair, Hudson Valley GP