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Every April, an interesting juxtaposition of anniversaries occurs. Separated by three days, these two seemingly unconnected commemorations reveal fundamental differences between what the citizens -- and the government -- of our country value now compared to past generations. The disparate attention afforded each event by the media, our political leaders, the state-run educational establishment, and the average person tell us more than we might care to know about how and why we face the difficulties we do.
Founded in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson and organized by Denis Hayes, the first of these observances -- Earth Day -- becomes a national event every April 22. An unofficial national celebration, Earth Day even influences the decisions of our President. On April 19, President George W. Bush signed the "Convention on Persistent Pollutants" (POPs). According to a White House press release, the "United States is one of the first nations to announce its intention to sign this agreement"...just in time to deflect recent criticism over some of Bush's (rather tepid) environmental policy recommendations.
In the words of the press release, "POPs -- such as DDT, PCBs and dioxins -- are among the world's most dangerous pollutants. They are highly toxic, persist in the environment for decades without breaking down, and accumulate in the food chain." Oh, my. Such horrors we have unleashed upon ourselves. We should be so thankful that the white knights in Washington are riding to our rescue.
The President's writers also say that our government "has been a world leader in banning and severely restricting the production and use of POPs in the U.S. and in urging similar action by the international community. The U.S. already has banned or restricted the use of these chemicals and most have not been produced or used here for years." From such statements, it is obvious that these prohibitions are something for which we are supposed to be proud. The televised press conference announcing this signing definitely conveyed this impression.
How sad.
Oddly -- but not coincidentally -- the folks running Earth Day are also proud of what they do regarding these issues. On their website -- http://www.earthday.net/ -- they provide ample evidence of their activities. They offer guidance for those who also seek (in their words) to "help the planet." Whether at work, home, school, church or any other realm of life, they are more than happy to have you join in chanting their mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
There's the "Earth Car-Free Day" that "will draw attention to the problems of air pollution in the world" complete with their emblem: an SUV in a circle with a line drawn across it. In North Carolina, they tout the wonders of "a festival powered by the sun and wind." Of course, as any school child can tell you, in order to "Do Good," you must "take action for the environment."
They boast that their "network includes over 5,000 organizations in 184 countries" in order "to promote a healthy environment" and "to combat environmental ills." For the 2001 Earth Day, they desire "a rapid transition to energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy sources" and hope to achieve recognition of this goal via their "Clean Energy Campaign." According to them, we must face up to the "sobering evidence of the damage wreaked by fossil fuels and nuclear energy."
Before we examine these and other areas of dire environmental concern, however, we need to focus on some events that occurred on April 19.
That date is most noted now as the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995...an attack for which perpetrator Timothy McVeigh will soon (rightfully) be executed. The "168 seconds of silence" ceremony for the victims of that atrocity is televised as the survivors and relatives of those killed attempt to come to terms with this personal tragedy.
While McVeigh is responsible for this criminal act, it is also true that he would unlikely have gone to such heinous lengths for retribution if another debacle had not occurred two years prior to the bombing. On April 19, 1993, the FBI assault on the Waco, Texas, compound of David Koresh and his followers --which resulted in the fiery deaths of over eighty men, women, and children -- generated outraged reactions on the part of some citizens disturbed by this flexing of State muscle. The aftermath, however, further exacerbated the situation and doubtlessly contributed to McVeigh's anti-government rage as well as his obsession for vengeance.
Rather than admit their gross errors and over-reaction to a situation that did not fall under their purview -- and in regard to actions that should not have been illegal in the first place -- the agents of the State, from the lowest BATF and FBI flunky to the President himself, placed the blame squarely on those individuals incinerated in the Waco compound inferno. Saying, in essence, that these religious kooks brought down the wrath of Armageddon upon themselves -- that they got what they deserved -- the then-president began the cover-up that continues to this day.
Yet this holocaust that perhaps set in motion the chain of actions that culminated two years later in the Oklahoma City bombing -- by a man trained in the art of death by the State itself -- receives barely a mention on the news. No televised ceremony. No nationally indulged sorrow. No inspiration for a new president to launch an objective inquiry that will, at long last, bring the truly guilty parties -- i.e., the government minions -- to justice.
Worse than the media vacuum surrounding the Waco fiasco is how two uprisings against tyranny have fallen into the memory black hole of history.
On April 19, 1943 -- fifty years to the day before Waco -- the Jews in the Nazi-established ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, took a handful of weapons and held their Nazi masters at bay for nearly a month. This practical demonstration of the power of personal arms against presumably overwhelming force is not something the State wants to broadcast to an over-taxed and over-regulated society. Citizens might actually begin seriously contemplating active resistance to their oppression. Less understandable is the silence of the "mainstream" Jewish community and their sickening support for more and more laws designed to disarm their fellow citizens.
Less excusable even than this widespread ignorance are the blind eyes turned to the event that launched our very country on its long path to independence. On April 19, 1775 -- informally known as "Patriots Day" by many -- the "common" men who constituted the militia -- the Minute Men -- stood face-to-face with forces representing the then most powerful country in the world. The Redcoats of George the Third of England did not expect much of a contest against the untrained citizen-soldiers. They were wrong.
The battles at Lexington and Concord turned on the issue of gun control. The English understood only too well that an unarmed country was one more easily controlled and exploited. The "shot heard 'round the world" merely confirmed the truth of that belief and the resolve of simple men who dared actually to stand up for their rights in the stark face of death.
I guess I missed the national celebration of this historic triumph of the human spirit in the struggle for liberty. Oh. Right. There was none. Instead we got the sorry spectacle of our President signing an asinine "Convention on Persistent Pollutants" as he kowtows to the politically correct forces behind "Earth Day."
Once upon a time, we enjoyed leaders who appreciated the glories of human achievement; men to whom "progress" was not a dirty work; men who sought the truth regardless of where it led.
While the State-school-educated-and-brainwashed children and adults who flock to the Earth Day banner generally seek -- as they should -- a clean environment, they do not comprehend the realities motivating the organizers and promoters of this Ode to Gaia nor the complexities of the issue involved. In a world where "Independence Day" is transformed and diminished into the anemic "Fourth of July," this ignorance is not surprising.
Unlike the people who created a land favorable to freedom, progress, and human dignity, the activists behind Earth Day are fundamentally anti-reason, anti-science, anti-technology, anti-progress, anti-freedom, and, ultimately, anti-human.
Consider that the language on their own site promotes the "environment" for its own sake (thus revealing a reliance on the false theory of "intrinsic" values). They do not proclaim that what they are pushing for is "good for people." No. The "good" is designated as that which is good for the "planet" or the "environment." People are merely the purveyors of pollution and assaults on Gaia, pesky pests whose natural proclivities must be reduced or even curtailed. Human needs? Forget it! Humans are the agents of all that is bad in the eco-fascist's world. The "environment" would be much better off without us.
Since they cannot obtain their obscene goals via persuasion, the "radicals for the planet" must appeal to the power of the state to throttle human genius, human enjoyment, human life. It is little wonder then that they glorify a State that has done more to devastate the landscape, to spread pollution, and to impoverish human life than any individual or corporation in history. Independence, freedom, and personal responsibility are the enemies of their warped agenda. Fear marks the core of their appeals.
Consider a few brief "problems" they harp upon endlessly -- and blame people for -- in their endless quest for control over humanity and civilization:
These issues form the vision symbolized by Earth Day: mankind is a scourge upon the earth; people cannot be trusted not to kill themselves and others because of their greed and negligence; only the State has the power and the wisdom to prevent wholesale destruction of the planet; only the State is the proper steward of the environment; people must surrender their property rights and freedom to the benevolent State in order to preserve Gaia.
Some extremists in the environmental movement would be overjoyed to see human beings totally wiped out through a virus or some other natural disaster. Others merely want to restrict people to tiny reservations of tightly packed urban life while the rest of the world is left to revert to "unspoiled" wilderness. Nearly all of these self-righteous defenders of the environment -- who view their actions more as a religion than a policy demand -- applaud the routine violation of property rights and freedom.
What we need is not zealotry to correct problems. Strict protection of property rights is the best way to deal with any environmental problems. The State has consistently proven to be the worst despoiler of the land and in precisely the degree to which it has abrogated property rights.
We need to abolish the EPA and reverse its destructive policies. We need either to abandon the hypocrisy of an Earth Day that defends the earth while attacking people or change it into a celebration of how freedom, capitalism, and human initiative have sculpted the environment to make human life better.
We need to stop elevating the State -- an institution that murdered nearly 60 million innocent people in the past century -- to sainthood and return to extolling the virtues of those individuals willing to confront the snarling face of tyranny and defend their right -- our right -- to fight back.
We need a nationally recognized "Patriots Day" to honor and praise those who gave us a world that the acolytes of Earth Day are doing their best to destroy.
