Forty five years ago this week, twenty million Americans took part in Earth Day celebrations nationwide.
There were festivals and parades and seminars, all part of a national drive to focus on the environment and do something about the smogged in cities, burning lakes and dead rivers that were becoming normal in our country from sea to oilslick shining sea.
Twenty million. How's that for a flash mob? No facebook or twitter, no world wide web or cell phones, either. Pre-internet man was resourceful and shrewd.
Here's the part some of you might find hard to believe: Earth Day wasn't radical. It wasn't leftist or rightist. It was, in the jargon we love to use in these days, bipartisan. There were more than two partisans in the world before infotainment. Back then it was just called common sense.
That groundswell resulted in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air and Water Acts, and many other laws designed to protect our most vital resources. Something else you may find hard to believe is all those laws were signed by a Republican, Richard Nixon.
It's important to note that Mr. Nixon was not a leftist, definitely not a communist, although he did fly to China to shake hands with Mao. For you younger readers, Mao was the leader of the People's Republic of China. He's best known for starting a hipster hat revolution. Today our cities enjoy mostly clear skies while Mao's greatest city is shrowded in an impenetrable black haze. If not for that little plumbing problem at the Watergate, we'd probably be flying into Nixon National Airport on our trips for D.C. But I digress.
Common sense and Republican environmentalists are distant memories now, but thanks to both we can swim in the Russell Fork without the mandatory tetanus shot it once required.
My neighbor Meat dropped by the house Wednesday morning. "SJ, let's go fishing." He had a big burlap sack tied around his neck.
"I'd like to Meat, but you broke my best pole last time out trying to swat those hornets."
"It's dry land season, SJ. You don't need a reel nor a license. That's the best kind of fishing!"
I knew Meat was talking about dry land fishing, but he needed to be reminded he owes me a new rod. I'm pulling for a Popeil Pocket Fisherman. It fits perfectly in my kayak.
"Well happy Earth Day there Meat, I can't think of a better day for it. But I've got to write a column, go on without me today."
Meat looked at me and shook his head. "Earth Day my foot. You treehuggers are all alike." He turned tail and headed out the door.
As best as I could tell, there wasn't much Earth Day celebrating in Pike County or any of our neighbors. It's a hard sell here and I get it. Unlike most of our urban and suburban countrymen, we truly are of the earth. We live from it for our income, for our food and drink. We live from it like generations before us and hopefully after. It isn't simply a day for us.
Maybe that's Meat's point. What's a day to the planet that sustains us? I don't know, but what are we to the planet we take for granted the 364 other days of the year?