The First Earth Day

 

When I was a kid, before junior high school, I can remember going with my family on a long road trip into Virginia. We were led there by friends of my parents from the Deaf club in Baltimore. They were outdoors people and knew of beautiful, isolated places in which we could picnic and swim in the Potomac River.  I remember the deep green of the seeming forest and the quiet, except for singing birds and rustling unseen little animals. The water was clear, cool, and refreshing. It was clean. I fell in love with it, and so did my family. When my aunt, uncle, and cousins came down for a visit from Long Island, we remembered our way back and took them there.

I have no idea what it looks like now, over 50 years later. I’m pretty sure the water isn’t clean anymore, and that people shouldn’t swim in it.

I remember the first commercial I saw about pollution and the environment, and it made a big impact on me. I noticed litter along the sides of roads and highways from drivers carelessly tossing their trash out an open window. I noticed litter dropped wherever a person might be walking, and in parking lots where they’d just dump their car ashtrays.

 

Nowadays, I see masks littering the parking lots of stores along with the usual drink containers and snack bags.  Even on our rural roads, there’s always trash poking up from the grass along the sides.  People don’t seem to care at all.

I have seen people dump their drink cups and snack bags when there is a trash receptacle just a few steps away.  I wonder what is wrong with people that should be so careless with the only home we have?My husband and I will pick up trash we see lying around and dispose of them.It's so easy to put trash in its proper place.

There was a difference on our first Earth Day, this day in 1970. There was more of a spirit of cooperation and concern for the Earth. I was 15 years old on that first Earth Day, and I felt hopeful. I hoped that the waterways would be cleaned up from the poisons polluting them from companies dumping their wastes. I hoped drivers would stop throwing their trash out the window and wait until they came to a place to safely dispose of it. I hoped pedestrians and picnic goers wouldn’t litter as they walked or ate.  So much for the hopes of a teenager.

I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring some time in the late 1980s-early 1990s. I wish everyone would read it.  I didn’t understand all the chemistry she wrote about, but I did understand one thing she wrote that gave me a kick in the stomach: anyone born after 1954 (year I was born) carried DDT in their livers.  DDT. That’s a poison freely used until it was banned years later. But many of our parents and we small children were sprayed with it as the dust croppers flew overhead.

Now we have forever chemicals and tiny bits of plastic this’n’that that we’re breathing in or ingesting.  Forever.  They don’t go away. They become part of us.

Last August, the Inflation Reduction Act was passed. Tucked into it were funds to help the environment and combat climate change. It was the first piece of legislation to address environmental issues in years. This year, the Rethuglicans would like to gut it and roll back other measures President Biden put into place to fight climate change and help poor beleaguered Mother Nature.

Where do these Rethuglicans think, people are supposed to live after planet Earth has been destroyed?  Maybe they think Elon Musk will have built enough spaceships to take all the rich people to … where?

I miss the 1970s.

For more on Earth Day and the background leading up to it:

Heather Cox Richardson 

This Day in History 

 

 

Parable of the Sower

 I tend to avoid dystopian and/or science fiction stories. Dystopian stories usually depress me, and I maxed out on science fiction in my 20s.  On one of my visits to the library during Black History month, I saw Parable of the Sower on display. I became interested when I saw that the book was set in 2025 (not so far away!) and that it was in first person. I enjoy first person stories because you really get into the mind and soul of the narrator even if it means other characters aren’t fleshed out as well. Octavia E. Butler has a writing style that engages the reader right from the first page.

 

This is an excellent book, but it’s not a happy one. The story begins in a small town in California. Global warming and a complete breakdown in the economy has caused unemployment, food shortages, and poverty. A breakdown in law enforcement has caused the rise of gangs, thieves, and other dangerous marauders.  The main character, Lauren Olamina, and her family and neighbors live in a gated compound, trying to stay safe from the lawless criminals on the “outside”. Lauren, her family, and the community are multi-racial, which was one of the few positives I found early on.

 

Safety, even in a locked and gated community, can’t be guaranteed and Lauren realizes early on that having an escape plan is a good idea. However, her friends and family scoff at the idea. They believe in their own safety. Lauren begins to secretly gather items for a “go bag.”  She has another secret as well: she has been developing her own idea for a religion with a goal.

 

Although her father is a Baptist minister, Lauren isn’t comfortable with that faith although she obediently goes through the motions. She journals every day and that is where she develops her ideas centered around the name “Earthseed.” She reasons that change is the motivating force in the universe and people must either control change or adapt to it. She writes her philosophy out in verse.

 

A major change happens in the community and Lauren finds herself on the road, trying to reach safety with a band of other refugees. To find out more about Lauren’s journey and Earthseed, please read the book. Some of it felt so chillingly familiar, I had to check and see if the book was published recently. I was somewhat surprised to see that it was published in 2000.

I say somewhat surprised because I remember it was around then that Al Gore began warning us about climate change.

 

As for the other events, I think Octavia Butler was remarkably prescient about what our future might look like. I also learned that she was one of the first Black science fiction authors to be published and, sadly, that she passed away in 2006.

 

She did write a sequel called Parable of the Talents, and I am requesting it because this book really pulled me in, and I want to see what happens to Lauren and her group.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone whether you are into dystopian/sci-fi or not.

 

This holiday season has been weird

It didn’t feel like Christmas this year, and not only because I couldn’t totally ignore the news.

My schedule was off. Normally after Thanksgiving, I watch a Christmas movie or two right up until the 25^th.  Our usual schedule is this:

Christmas Vacation

Home Alone

Die Hard 1

Muppet Christmas Carol

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Die Hard 2

A Christmas Carol (Alastair Sim version)

March of the Wooden Soldiers

Miracle on 34^th Street

A Christmas Story

It’s A Wonderful Life

Tonight, Christmas Eve, I watched my first movie of the season: Miracle on 34^th Street.

I was already listening to my Christmas music long before Thanksgiving weekend. Most of our Christmas decorations are packed away and our little tree’s lights burned out. My Christmas village is on top of the TV but totally a-jumble. We haven’t remembered to pick up a new strand of lights and I just haven’t had time to set up the village.

I started training to be a customer service representative with Holland America Line, learning how to book and rebook cruises. Classes began on November 28 and will end on December 29^th. There is so much to learn about how to make a booking. You’d think it would be a simple thing, but it isn’t. There are a thousand details to remember and two different platforms to use. Not only that but there was also a great deal of out-of-classwork that had to be accomplished.

There were a couple of glitches. I was supposed to go live on the phones December 12^th and start earning but for one reason and another, that hasn’t happened yet. If all works out at this point, it’ll be the New Year before I start earning income. We’ve been having a rough time the last two months because of how prices have skyrocketed. We don’t really have enough fixed income to manage comfortably and that’s why I was looking forward to pre-Christmas income.

There’s another hitch. For some reason, I’m having connection issues with the platforms that Holland America uses and if I can’t get it all straightened out, I won’t be able to continue with them. We are trying a stronger ethernet cable to see if that will help. I’m kind of nervous about it because the cable I have now works just fine with every other website and platform, except for Holland America.

Even though I haven’t been writing about the garbage going on around us, that doesn’t mean I haven’t read about it and had strong feelings about it.   When I find myself feeling discouraged, I turn my music up higher.

The most recent doesn’t-seem-like-Christmas event was yesterday. I was busy with classwork and TB wrapped all the gifts except for the ones from me to him. We were having that bomb cyclone storm ("but there's no climate change!"), mostly heavy rain, and very strong winds. I took a break from classwork to wrap his gifts in the back of the house where it was secluded. As I was wrapping the gifts, I heard a ripping sound that seemed to come from above. I thought the wind might be ripping off shingles or even a part of the roof. I went to the front of the house to tell TB and our neighbor from across the street ran over to tell us the tree in our backyard had been torn from the ground.

 

This was a huge tree.  We went to look, and I took these pictures, completely stunned and appalled. There was no damage to us; however, the top of the tree damaged our neighbor’s fence and above ground pool. I learned that our homeowners’ insurance does NOT cover damage to our neighbor’s property. They allow $500 for tree removal, but we have a $500 deductible.

Ho ho ho. Not.

Even though the holiday season this year has been weird for us, we are going to fake it until we make it tomorrow and have a wonderful day with family. We will celebrate the birth of Jesus and enjoy our day despite everything.  We’ll watch It’s A Wonderful Life and realize how blessed we really are.

 

 

Remember "An Inconvenient Truth?"

I sit in the comfort of my air-conditioned room, hiding from the bright sun, and gloomily read the 10-day forecast.  North east of us, residents might experience a rain storm.  We’re not supposed to be so lucky.  It’s supposed to be hot, humid and miserable all next week.  Our front windows face west, so every afternoon I have to close the drapes to keep the sun from beating in.  We have special drapes that are made to reduce the hot sun’s rays.

It seems that each year, the summer gets longer and hotter.  TB’s been looking at the lawn, wondering if he’ll ever have to mow it again.  We haven’t had much rain to keep the grass growing and green.  It’s mostly dried up brown stuff and some kind of crab grass.  I water my flowers less frequently than I have in years gone by because of the potential of the aquifer’s level falling too low.

Imagine!

Today I saw Dan Rather’s newsletter about “An Inconvenient Truth”.  It was a film and book by former Vice President Al Gore.  He knew his stuff and was right on the money with his predictions.  I remember being concerned when the film was released 16 years ago.  I also remembered the first Earth Day in 1970, when we were all supposed to be more conscious of taking care of the Earth.  We didn’t do it in the 36 years between 1970 and 2006, and Gore warned of dire consequences if we didn’t start addressing climate change sixteen years ago.

Of course, nothing was done.  Oh, people like my husband and I tried to conserve and recycle but legislators didn’t  do anything about the environment until now – and maybe it’s too late.  They were under the impression that Americans didn’t care about the environment.  Maybe we were at fault for that belief.  We didn’t make enough noise.  We were too busy being concerned with work, raising families, and the economy.  Maybe even if we had spoken up, Big Oil and other polluting corporations would have paid the legislators to keep postponing doing anything to help the Earth.

All that is changing, and it’s because the weather has become wilder and more unpredictable over the last few years.  I remember four seasons as a child.  Now there just seems to be two, summer and winter, with short days or a week of spring and fall.  The summers have been unbearably hot with multiple and prolonged heat waves.  Winters have been ridiculously mild.  I can’t remember the last time we had a good snow storm.

How do you feel in a heat wave?  It affects me negatively now that I'm older.  I get very fatigued and cross.  Even with the air on, the house gets hot inside because of our energy in-sufficient windows.  Any outdoor activity has to be done before the sun comes up.  Katie Couric posted an article about how extended hot weather affects us here and abroad.

I believe all the wild fires in the west and all the flash flooding/heavy downpours across the country finally inspired Congress to pass a bill President Biden could sign to address climate change.  It doesn’t go far enough, of course, but it’s the first major piece of environmental legislation in years and years.  It’s a start.

Now, as uncomfortable as I am here in New Jersey, it’s hotter than Hades in the West.  Next week, in celebration of Labor Day and that week, temperatures there may go up to 110 degrees.  I know it’s usually warmer in the western states but isn’t 110 close to what temperatures would be in Death Valley?

There have been incidents of flash flooding and other problems caused by torrential rains recently.  There is no potable water in Jackson, MS.  I guess you could say it was a perfect storm of an aging infrastructure that was never fixed properly and a sudden onslaught on heavy rain.  Residents are told not to drink the water.  The National Guard is supposed to help get drinkable water out to the communities in Jackson.  So far it's been an epic fail.  They haven't been able to supply all the water that's needed.  People waited for like 2 hours in the hot sun for a case of water and the National Guard quickly ran out.  It's freaking summer, people, and it's HOT.  Those people need more than a case of water!

Other states that experienced devastation after exceptionally heavy rainfall recently were Missouri, Kentucky, and Illinois.

It’ll probably get a lot worse before it gets better in spite of the environmental piece of the Inflation Reduction Act.  It’s going to take time to implement.  It’s a shame because we sure need to do something NOW.   

Things That Made Me Smile This Week

Five things that made me smile this wee.

1.   I got the most smiles from our weekly visit with our daughters.  They live about 40 minutes away and have been coming over to have dinner with us on Saturdays.  We’ve also been watching series together.  We watched all four seasons Fargo, which I totally loved.  The dark humor was awesome.

I didn’t think I would enjoy Castle Rock as much; I was totally spoiled with how great Fargo was.  I was a bit confused at first watching the first season episodes and it didn’t really make a lot of sense to me until the episode before the last one.  I had a big aha moment when I realized what was happening.  It took me back to my old favorite series, Dark Shadows.  The end left me wondering if The Kid was the devil for sure or was, he trapped in a world in which he didn’t belong?  I know how I wanted it to end; it didn’t go the way I wanted.  That’s okay.  We’ll start watching Season 2 next time we’re together.

Watching series together has been a great way for us all to relax and unwind.  We’re all pretty much home bound so we don’t have a lot of news to share.  When Bill has evenings off, we watch series together.  We watched all of Roots and Stranger Things.  I saw Roots when it aired originally in the 1970s and wow! In 2022, it’s still powerful.  I totally love Stranger Things and have enjoyed watching those kids grow up.  Season 4 was the best ever and I’ll be very happy when Season 5 is released.  Now the three of us are watching the Centennial miniseries.  That’s another show that is very well made.

2.  The next thing that made me smile was working the phone banks for Democrats running for office.  I absolutely adore and respect our Representative Andy Kim.  He is so down to earth and wants to help us regular people.  He’s not as progressive as, say, AOC, Bernie or Elizabeth Warren but that’s ok.  He looks out for us and lives in NJ (not Washington) to be with his wife, family and people.  He should have been a shoe-in again but the census caused redistricting.  Our district lost one county and gained parts of two new ones.  We’ve been calling voters in those two near areas mostly.  Most of them were unaware of the districting changes.  None of the people I talked to have been mean to me.

I’ve also done a couple of phone banks for AOC and the Democratic NY state senate candidate she’s supporting, Kristen Gonzalez.  I’d never heard of Gonzalez but she sounds like she at least leans progressive.

I smile because I feel like I’m doing something to stop tRump and the GQP from destroying our democracy and replacing it with authoritarian fascism and “Christian” nationalism.

1.     3   I signed up to be an election worker.  Again, I felt like I was doing something positive.  I’ve been reading about how tRump, the GQP, and other domestic terrorists have been harassing and threatening election workers to the point they don’t want to do the job anymore.  But we can’t let the bad guys win by intimidation.  That’s what organized crime figures do, terrify and threaten people to get what they want.  It can’t stand.

2.     4.  It’s been a busy week for the FBI and DOJ.  Finally, after such a long wait, there may be justice for the kingpin plotters of the coup attempt.  The FBI raided tRump’s Mar-a-lago because he continued to keep files he should have turned in when he left the White House.  Some of these seemed to be nuclear information files.  A lot of them were top top secret.  What was tRump doing with them?  The wheels of justice grind very slowly but also surely and hopefully tRump will finally be indicted for all his crimes.

All of tRump’s henchmen are beginning to fall too, like dominoes.  All of that made me smile.

3.      5 Last, but not least, after a year of bickering, dickering and betrayal, Congress finally passed the Inflation Reduction Act.  That was the name given it so that all the Dems would vote for it, including Smanchinema.  The act will pump a lot of money into trying to reduce climate change.  I smiled and smiled about this one.  I’d been writing about all the damage our recklessness has caused by abusing the Earth and its resources.  Now we have dirty air and water, intense heat waves, more powerful storms and drought.  Without making changes, we would make ourselves extinct along with all the other animals, birds, fish, and sea creatures.  Another big benefit is that Medicare will be able to negotiate with suppliers for the most expensive drugs.

Hoping to have a post like this again next week.