Earth Day: Growing in Size And Lacking in Leadership?
I haven't heard much discussion from either the media or our politicians on Earth Day. Are we actually back to the place we were in 1969 when the state of our environment was a non-issue? Has Earth Day become a local weekend entertainment event where bands and celebrities play music and preach to the choir?
Earth Day was founded in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson to put the environment into the political "limelight." It provided a forum for Americans to express their concerns and tapped into the anti-war sentiments of America's youth. Earth Day 1970 drew more than 20 million people to demonstrations and teach-ins at thousands of schools and local communities. Today celebrations are worldwide and draw more than 500 million participants. But where are our leaders? How come when I listened to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton yesterday I heard nothing about Earth Day?
What an exciting community. Let's hope many more follow their lead.
Posted by Elisa | September 2, 2008 8:57 PM
Watching the video of Amy Goodman's arrest and the interviews with her producers this morning sent shivers up my spine. So reminiscent of the 60's and 70's. I hope anyone reading this comment takes the time to read this and related articles to see what is happening to journalists that are attempting to report actual news and not a sanitized version of it.
Posted by Elisa | September 2, 2008 5:10 PM
To Tom2:
To eliminate confusion regarding the meaning of words I use the prominent 20th century philosopher Wittgenstein's definition of meaning, "the meaning of a word is its use in the language." Since my understanding of the common English usage of immigrant, Latino, and Hispanic differs from yours, I consulted the online Oxford English Dictionary of Current English. As a noun "Hispanic" can be used to refer to "a Spanish-speaking person, especially one of Latin American descent, living in the United States;" and "Latino" can be used to refer to a "Latin American inhabitant of the United States." "Immigrant" refers to "a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country."
As I believed, none of the meanings for these terms have anything to do with citizenship or if the people come to the USA legally or illegally. "Legal immigrant" and "illegal immigrant," "documented" and "undocumented immigrant" are terms commonly used to describe immigrants' entry and status. These terms have nothing to do with activism, camouflage, or intentional misuse.
The term "alien," however, is commonly used to refer to "beings from another world," and the term "illegal alien" becomes offensive because it implies "otherworldliness," perhaps someone who is less than human.
Also, your suggestion that women fake abuse is untrue and contrary to evidence as Nancy points out. To me your statement is troubling. Domestic violence and child abuse are problems all citizens of all countries must work to solve.
Posted by Elisa | August 6, 2008 2:40 PM
Yes, these are striking images. Thank you for the link.
Posted by Elisa | July 28, 2008 2:30 PM
I absolutely agree that "women's issues"---hunger and poverty, education, healthcare, violence towards women and children, childcare, and all the other "family friendly" concerns---should be the political conversation this election year. Unfortunately, most media do not choose to keep these issues alive. What about starting a weekly blog on The WIP where we can address these issues on a weekly/daily basis? I am sure there are many women and men readers who have a lot to say on this topic.
Posted by Elisa | July 28, 2008 11:04 AM
I often fantasize what the world would be like if all children were given a good education, a nutritious diet, and preventive health care. How many Garage School's would it take? Thank you Zubeida for this uplifting story of a strong and determined woman.
Posted by Elisa | July 24, 2008 6:08 PM
What a wonderful interview! It's great to see Dolores Huerta's political and social sensibility has not changed over the years. She's a good leader and an inspiring woman whose views on education, leadership, and immigration should be valued and followed.
Posted by Elisa | July 15, 2008 10:14 PM
Thank you, thank you for this post. You have captured my thoughts these past few months. And I truly appreciate your last paragraph. As an activist woman of the 60's and 70's I am often dismayed by the attitudes of many younger women today---those in their 20's, 30's and 40's. I have to wonder too.
Besides the "core issues raised in the 1970's and still not settled: Daycare, healthcare, support for single parents, education, sex-education, and positive female role models in the news" --and we could add many more issues to the list-- what also appears to be "lost in the scuffle" is that the feminists of the 1960's and 1970's are their mothers, their aunts, their neighbors, their friends. Perhaps what the younger women and men don't get is that most of us are heterosexual, most of us do not hate men, and many of us have been happily married for years. And we are still feminists and often very offended by what we see and hear today. It would be nice to be accurately portrayed and acknowledged. Many of our daughters and sons are in a far better place, with more opportunities and healthier family lives, because of our efforts.
Please continue posting on this topic.
Posted by Elisa | July 14, 2008 11:33 AM
Thank you for posting this blog. I use the WIP as my homepage and most of my internet reading is The Wip features and portal inks. I appreciate your efforts to collect and summarize the information in your blog and look forward to future postings.
Posted by Elisa | July 11, 2008 6:34 PM
Interesting point of view. It is the people we should focus on. But with power hungry maniacal leaders in the way, I'm not sure how that is achieved without further harming the people. Thanks for the link.
Posted by Elisa | July 9, 2008 8:58 PM