The real Earth Day, the one that takes place on the Spring Equinox, carefully planned by a small group of true and stalwart environmentalists in 1969, continues. On Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 1:48 a. m. EDT (Equinox) a figure will step up to the Peace Bell at the United Nations and a sweet chime will ring out into the night, lingering for all gathered to hear. At the same moment across the world other bells will ring, a symphony of sounds that speak a long and patient dedication to “Peace, Justice, and Care of the Earth.”
The real Earth Day has been kept for 38 years without fail. The faux event, Oil Day, is surrounded by far more noise but more people every day are coming to understand the true meaning of that day in April. If that day had a motto it would be, “Profit, Power, and Exploitation of Earth.”
There was a time when caring about clean air and water united all of us. In 1967 when the Summer of Love bloomed in Berkeley, California, all Americans believed that they stood on the cusp of a time when we would naturally assure that the rivers to flow clean, all shared a common vision for unpolluted air, and war was obviously a problem to be ended. It was a future fervently hoped for by nearly all of us.
It did not happen. The appearance of controversy was carefully manufactured by the same people who now collude to assert ownership of the air we breathe and the water we drink; given the starkness of our future today the words that divide us fade in significance.
Liberal – Conservative – Republican – Democrat – Man – Woman – Black – White. They are just words.
All Americans need to examine how we arrived at this juncture in time. Each of us needs to take immediate action to get off the grids. It is the grids, installed by that ugly concatenation of government and corporations, that caused the problems and divided us. The people of greed need our lives and money to survive; you can stop them by climbing off the grids.
Take this simple yes – no test to find out just how entrenched you are in the grids.
• Do you pay a mortgage every month?
• Do you pay an electric bill every month?
• Do you pay to put gas in your automobile?
• Do you have car payments to make every month?
• Do you pay every month for cable television?
• Do you pay for your Internet access?
• Do you pay for your phone service?
• Do you pay taxes, not fees for essential services?
