AARP Online Community: jo31793

jo31793

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Background

Gender: Female

Status: Married

Location:
INDIANOLA, Oklahoma
United States

Hometown(s):
Lynn, MA - Raymond, NH - Loudon, NH - Barefoot Bay, FL

My Websites:
www.geocities.com/jo31793/
www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/8008/grandma.html

Quote:
Some days you get the bear

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Game	Score
Jigsaw: Medium	4660
Cryptogram	919

About Me

Retired in the middle of nowhere with my (much younger)husband, four dogs(subject to change, I take in strays), and a foundling cat. I am a 6th house Libra with lots of Virgo too, Taurus rising, and lots of Gemini. Most of my life is, indeed, about the "things of the earth" and that makes me happy. Oh yeah! And a 12th house Pisces moon, just to keep things interesting. I am also a retired church organist/choir director. Big surprise! My pets are my only company here. I think of them as my family. My only "neigh"bors are the three horses who live across the street. I take lots and lots of photos... mostly of them. God bless digital cameras! The only humans that I communicate with during the day are my Internet friends. I'm getting very good at speaking "dog", "cat", and "horse"

Interests:

animal rescue, animals, art, astrology, cats, coffee, computing, critters, death, debussy, digital photography, diablo ii lod, dogs, dungeon siege, dying, end of life, ender, eufaula, feminism, gardening, geriatrics, getting old, graphics, grief, horses, life, Maxine, mornings, nutrition, oklahoma, Orson Scott Card, pets, philosophy, piano, pitt bulls, psychology, rottweilers, volunteering, wine, writing

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My Journals (66)

Earth Day tomorrow, an idea whose time had come

I was 27 years old on the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. It was one of my generation's finest moments. We only have one earth and we need to take care of her.

Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin was disturbed that an issue as important as our environment was not addressed in politics or by the media, so he created the first Earth Day. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities that day. It was a truly astonishing grassroots explosion, leading eventually to national legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Earth Day became our first opportunity to join in a nationwide demonstration to send a big message to public officials--a message to tell them to protect our planet.

How the First Earth Day Came About
By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

"Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour.

I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not. After President Kennedy's tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream.

Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself."

http://www.earthday.gov/
http://www.earthday.net/eday2009nationalmall
http://www.earthday.net/
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/modern/earthday_1
http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html
http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/earth_day_0409.aspx
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/history.htm

Added: April 18, 2009
Views: 169 | Comments: 0 | Bookmarks: 0

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Comments (70)

Cby says:

Click Here for Merry Christmas Comments

Swinging through the neighborhood, leaving a bit of cheer! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and an Adventurous New Year~Cby

Posted: December 23, 2009 9:59AM EST