Under the baobab: Earth Day remains important 55 years after it was first observed

“Let us dream then, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth, which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all.” - Pope Francis

Our beloved Francis has joined the ancestors. Many of us recall his visit to Philadelphia in 2015 for the World Meeting of Families when he celebrated mass on the Ben Franklin Parkway for hundreds of thousands of us “fans.” He was a living and loving moral authority on “issues of inequality, critiques of corrupted capitalism, and the need for all people to be good stewards of the earth.” It is fitting that on Earth Day his earthly remains lie in state in St. Peter’s Cathedral.

Locally on Earth Day: The Arboretum at Penn State hosted over 500 patrons in the children’s garden with various activities. Fifty or so grownups stayed around for a trivia competition afterwards. Eric Ian Farmer, The Cleary’s, Code Blue, Matt Marsden, and Dark Side provided live music at Sidney Friedman Park. Local environment organizations set up interactive workshops and engagement stations in the State College Municipal Building.

The Penn State Student Farm, which provides thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables to the campus and community, also held an open house, “Knowing, Showing and Growing a sustainable Future,” with music, fun nature crafts, workshops and local food trucks.

We remember our first Earth Day in Union Square in New York. We had moved to the Lower East Side from Harlem. At first, we were suspicious of the event. We thought it might have been intentionally designed to draw attention away from anti-war and pro-civil rights demonstrations. The largest deployment of U.S. military forces in Vietnam, over half a million, had happened the year before. Mayor Lindsay had blocked off Fifth Avenue. President Nixon was holed up in the White House. Governor Rockefeller was still agonizing over the fact that the “scandal” of his divorce was going to stop him from any attempt to become president. His real scandal, the complacency in the Attica prison slaughter, was still on the horizon.

The day was bright and warm. Millions of folks flooded Fifth. There was music and political speeches. There was general agreement that unless we took action the planet faced potential disaster in the future. We are in that future now.

Elsewhere in the community

Congrats to Abdul Carter and Tyler Warren, selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.

The One Hand Foundation held a Spring Social for Seniors at the State College Municipal Building, which included fine food, fellowship and entertainment by the Nittany Knights and a fun inspired magician.

The Restorative Justice Initiative held a screening of the film, “Sing, Sing.” Afterwards we discussed the realities of incarceration and justice reform with panelists JJ Velazquez and Dan Slepian.

The Student Film Organization held their annual Blue and White Film Festival, which highlighted films produced/directed by PSU undergraduates. The Civil War Era Center presented “Tangled Journeys, One Family’s Story and the Making of American History.” A conversation afterwards with author Prof Emerita Lori Ginsberg was facilitated by Hope McCaffrey and Adam Xavier McNeil. The departments of Communication Arts and Sciences; Women Gender and Sexuality Studies; Applied Linguistics, Psychology, and the Center for Democratic Deliberations, presented Sherena Razek, a Ph.D Candidate from Brown University, lecturing on “Nakba Ecologies or the Visual Culture of Palestinian Land Based Resistance.”

Hundreds of students attended the “P.O.C. Pep Rally” at the HUB-Robeson Center.

And the musical theater program is presenting a rollicking adventurous “Alice in Wonderland,” adapted and directed by Jenny Lamb with Drake Arielle as Alice, until April 26.

Stay strong; don’t forget to vote.