May 17, 2011
Greetings to all!
On Sunday, May 15th, the Center sponsored its annual Fair Earth Day at Sacred Heart Church here in Camden. As you know, Earth Day is in April, but with the celebration of Easter on April 24th, and other celebrations during the next two weeks, we had to postpone our celebration until this past Sunday. Earth Day was first marked in 1970 by a group that were certainly set apart as “hippies.” Now, with each April 22nd that goes by, this celebration becomes ever more a truly global phenomenon.
There is always something a bit awkward for me in Earth Day. To have an Earth Day is like having an Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15), a Black History month (February) or a Women’s History month (March). We carve out a day or month in which we focus on a particular aspect of our history and culture. We have to carve out this time because there is no assurance that, if we didn’t have these periods of time, children and adults would appreciate the richness of the history and reality of women, Hispanics and African Americans, among other not well represented people in our common story. While celebrating our past is a good thing, while raising the consciousness of all people about the wealth of the tradition bequeathed us by women, by Hispanics and by African Americans is a good thing, I wonder if it’s a good thing to have these special time periods when we remember those who ordinarily, without such a month long celebration, may be overlooked and forgotten. I wonder if it’s a good thing if we have a single day, or part of a day, to remember and celebrate Earth. Is that adequate?
On Earth Day we call on people to rethink how they live their lives, in terms of their carbon footprint. This involves modes of travel, food choices, waste creation, energy consumption and consumer choices. We point out the impact that our lifestyles, cumulatively, are having on the planet earth: on the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil we depend upon for food. We hope that setting aside one day each year will be effective in reaching the tipping point that will mark the beginning of the end of a destructive and unsustainable way of life.
I must say I’m skeptical. I am not skeptical about the what science tells us about the human impact on the environment, nor about the consequences of the pervasive desire for ever increasing rates of production, nor about need for change in our lifestyle. What I am skeptical about is that we human beings take seriously enough this time in history when we are presented with an opportunity to act contrary to our immediate ancestors, and some contemporaries, who did not, and do not, think twice about the pillaging of nature to satisfy the consuming thirst of human desire. The wonders of our technological capacities, coupled with the insatiable desire for more and more, is a deadly combination for human beings, as well as for all other species that depend upon the earth for sustenance. I’m skeptical that one day a year is enough to move the hearts and minds of human beings to adopt a caretaking attitude toward all of creation. I’m skeptical.
But I take comfort at the small, yet cumulative, steps that our celebration of Earth Day marks. More people are talking about carpooling, more are taking public transportation, more are choosing vehicles with low emissions and high gas mileage characteristics. More people are eschewing the plastic grocery bag in favor of the reusable cloth bag. More people are purchasing energy from renewable resources. More people are eating locally, and organically. There are lots of points of light, as it were, in the human world that speak to a new and deeper appreciation of the earth and her resources. Each of us, committed to a new way of living on the earth, can do his or her “bit” to lighten the burden that the earth bears. This is what gives me hope. Thanks to Betty Musetto, Cathy Nevins, Jean and Bill Harden, Andrea Ferich, Ted Fox, Eileen Borland, Barbara Hopkins and all their helpers in making the 2011 Fair Earth Day at Sacred Heart such a success!
On the website of the Earth Day Network there is a post by Elam Stoltzfus of Florida State University. He wrote on April 17th, in part: We should ask ourselves: "Am I making a difference to enhance, protect and invest in the quality of life for future generations of this planet we named Earth?" This is a key question. If Earth Day focuses our attention on this question, then perhaps the awkwardness of an Earth Day is misplaced. Each year Earth Day challenges us to review our lives, to examine our consciences, and recommit ourselves to answering this question affirmatively, creatively and in community.
I commit to living in a way that enhances, protects and invests in the quality of life for future generations of this planet we named Earth. Will you join me?
Sincerely,
Mark Doorley
President, Board of Trustees
The Center for Environmental Transformation
NEWS AND NOTES
1. There will be a June Work Day on Saturday, June 4th from 9AM til Noon. Please contact Andrea Ferich at aferich@gmail.com if you are planning on joining us. We meet at 412 Jasper Street, which is the entrance to the Greenhouse, at 9AM. Please bring along work gloves and a supply of water.
2. On Saturday May 7th our Work Day was part work/part celebration with Fellowship House and the NJ Tree Foundation. With our friends from Sustainable Cherry Hill, as well as neighbors in Waterfront South, we planted several very large shrubs as part of the new butterfly garden behind Fellowship House. This beautiful spot will host gatherings for the community and those who benefit from the work of Fellowship House. Thanks to all of you who took part in this event. Thanks, in particular, to Jessica Franzini of the NJ Tree Foundation who supplied the trees and bushes.
3. SAVE THE DATE: The Third Annual Thomas Berry Lecture will be held on Thursday, October 6th at 7:30PM at Sacred Heart Church. Our speaker will be Judy Wicks, founder of the White Dog Café in Philadelphia, on Sansom Street, near the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the founder in 2001 of Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) In addition she founded the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and Fair Food. For a suggested contribution of $10, tickets for this event will be available in late summer. Please put this on your calendar. You will not want to miss this fantastic person, nor her reflections on our responsibility to the environment.
4. This Sunday our friends at M’Kor Shalom, a synagogue in Cherry Hill, are hosting M’KorStock, a festival of Music, Arts & Shalom. This is on Sunday, May 22nd, from 11:30AM til 6PM. Please visit their website at http://www.mkorstock.com/ for more information. Come out for the music, the art and the fellowship.
5. Do you have old printer cartridges, cell phones and chargers that you don’t know what to do with? Give them to the Center and we will take care of getting them to the appropriate recycler. This also produces some revenue for the Center. Contact Andrea at aferich@gmaill.com for information on where to drop these items off at the Center.
6. Are you celebrating a birthday soon? A wedding anniversary? A great way to mark your birthday and/or anniversary is to ask your friends to make a contribution to the Center in your name. Have them send a check payable to the Center for Transformation to 1729 Ferry Ave., Camden, NJ 08104. Have them put your name in the memo line! This is a great way to avoid bringing more stuff into your home and enables your friends and family to support the work of the Center in your name.