Earth Day is Friday. What are you going to do about it? How about clean up downtown Aberdeen and go to the Green Aberdeen Earth Day Fair?
Green Aberdeen is hosting its fair Friday, 5 to 8 p.m., at the Briscoe Building, 224 1st Avenue SE, right next to the big new playground at Central Park. For the first half hour, Green Aberdeen invites friends of the Earth to pick up trash around downtown. Then back at the fair, Green Aberdeen will have informational booths, commercial vendors, music, a silent auction, and a kids’ art display. Bring your earthy friends and celebrate our one and only habitable planet!
I well remember the first Earth Day. A warm, windy Spring day on the prairie and the enthusiasm of students was subtle but focused. The Vietnam war was taking our older siblings and friends without their approval. Protests were the headlines in Berkley and the West Bank.
We buried a time capsule at our High School in Watertown and one thing was for “damn sure”. It was agreed by liberals and Republicans that burning coal and filling our air with carbon kills fish and pheasants. What happened to that consensus opinion?
– The Koch Brothers inherited grand wealth in coal production. When it became apparent that their product was harmful to people and the Earth, they had a choice. Would they divest, diversify or slide to the dark side. Tobacco investors had diversified when proven to be harmful. Koch’s instead chose to use their billions to donate really big amounts to Republican political campaigns with the stipulation that the recipients (Noem, Rounds, Thune, Powers and their ilk) muddy the waters on scientific agreement and delay, delay and delay actions to move from coal and gas to renewable. Campaign money is the crack cocaine of the Republic Party. Enter Obama, their enemy and our champion and the champion of clean air, clean water and clean USA energy models. That’s it folks … but the facts remain. BURNING COAL KILLS FISH AND PHEASANTS