Here’s how I began my Earth Day: Wanting to kill a bird.
A woodpecker, more specifically. He has grown very comfortable on our roof, and greets the (near) dawn with his rat-a-tat-tat on the metal vent stack rising from our bathroom.
Not the brightest woodpecker, I’m guessing. But even though “Dick” (so named by me because he’s a real pecker) may not be damaging our wood, he still is sending me around the bend.
No need to worry, though. I understand that no harm can (intentionally) befall Dick. Because he is a migratory bird, he is protected from foul play by the likes of me under the auspices of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Good thing for Dick I’m a law-abiding man.
And that’s just one way that the law interacts with the densest of the Solar System’s terrestrial planets, also known as our blue marble named Earth.
- April 22 is also the birthday of actor Eddie Albert of Green Acres, who was a staunch environmentalist and spokesperson for the National Arbor Day Foundation. Albert spoke at the inaugural Earth Day ceremony in 1970.
- April 22 is the birthday of Vladimir Lenin.
That last may be the funniest factoid of all, due to all the fallout that ensued. By selecting April 22 as Earth Day, the progressives irked a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who said, “Subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them.”
So there.
The Wikipedia entry adds that Lenin was never noted as an environmentalist.
Really? I guess they’re not counting ethnic and other cleansing, as evidenced in at least one poster from his time.
And while I was meandering on the Earth Day/lawyer nexis, I came across one other person: Kathleen Rogers.
More to the point, she previously held the position of … wait for it —
Chief Wildlife Counsel for the National Audubon Society
Holy scat, that’s a great title. I mean, who among us hasn’t had to herd a few cats. But “Wildlife Counsel”? That’s ridiculous.
And if Earth Day isn’t about aspiring to a job with a cool title, what is it about? To say otherwise is simply pessimistic, political ideology.
So happy birthday, Vlad … I mean, Gaia. You may be a mother, but you’re our mother.
April 22, 2011 at 8:12 am
[…] Last year on this day, I wrote about Earth Day with at least some degree of optimism. […]
April 22, 2013 at 9:32 am
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