sonyamindnow: As Earth Day Approaches

I am hoping that younger people will look back in history to see what it was like to be alive during the 60's before Earth Day and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I hope that they do this before they believe the hoopla they are hearing on their television sets; namely that all government agencies are bad and a waste of tax dollars. I hope they will ask why it was created in the first place and do their own study on whether or not it is still viable.

I grew up during the late 50's through mid 70's. It was a time of change in the country. Television came into our living rooms for the first time, allowing us to witness history being made. We witnessed good events such as the first man on the moon and the arrival of the Beatles. Conversely, we witnessed events that were tragic and upsetting to us. There was the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, the Viet Nam war, the then assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968. There were protests against the Viet Nam war occurring all over the country and there was the Kent State massacre in 1970. Many kids were afraid of being drafted into a war they felt was unjust and unnecessary, and many turned on and dropped out as young men came home in body bags. It was a depressing time.

During the 50's and early 60's most families had one car; usually a gas guzzler that ran on leaded gasoline. As the need for transportation grew, more cars followed. The air was filled with the fumes and lead generated by them and more roads and freeways were built. To make matters worse factories were unregulated so they could spew toxins into the mix. We began to lose sight of the beautiful mountains that hid behind a smoggy haze trapped in the valley.

Earth Day was born out of the public uproar over an oil spill that occurred just off Santa Barbara, California in January 1969. For the first time people were seeing the effects of an oil slick on their television sets. You could see marine animals covered in slimly goo, thousands died. When Gaylord Nelson; a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin; saw how this impacted the country, he decided to do something about it. He along with others he recruited, formed a movement and called on the first Earth Day rally to be held April 22, 1970. It was supported by both parties and millions of people all across the nation. I was in the eighth grade and decided to do my own part in the process by typing up a flyer with ideas that would cut down on pollution and passed them out everywhere. My mother helped me make up earth day cards and I asked her if she could help me make a patch. I got some material together and she showed me how to use the machine. I can still hear the whirring sound as I zig-zagged around the edges. I planned out my design and used the embroidery paint to draw my patch. I was feeling activated and empowered in the process even though it was a small part.

The EPA was created in December that same year because of Earth Day. The passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts would soon follow. As the senator said, it was a gamble, but it paid off. I still believe it is viable and necessary. Corporations that want to change this are looking to cause harm to the environment all for personal gain. Personally, I feel that if you can't come up with a product that is safe for us, then you don't need to be in business.

Below are the patches I have from the 70s. The one I made along with a couple others. The Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. also got into the mix with ECO Action. The peace sign with the earth insignia within it was from a head shop near my home.