Closer to home, celebrants attended the "Walk for Environmental Excellence" and "Party for the Planet" at the Kansas City Zoo. These local events were held not only to commemorate Earth Day, but to kick off the "30 Days of Earth Day" (go to www.ea rthdaykc.org or call 913-earthday). More than 100 events were planned by area organizations and businesses to tie in with this event, which was conceived as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the original Earth Day, held in 1970. The 30 Days of Earth Day is facilitated by Bridging the Gap, the local environmental education organization.

The ongoing calendar of activities associated with the 30 Days of Earth Day includes a wide variety of topics ranging from recycling, local food production, green building, cleanups, wildlife, hiking, community activities, electric vehicles, ecology, landscaping, voluntary simplicity, and many others. It offers those in our community who support the environment theoretically, but are unsure of what they themselves can do, an opportunity to learn about topics which are of interest to them and have fun at the same time. It also offers those folks in the community who are really committed to helping the planet an opportunity to reach a wider audience than that which is typically listening.

More and more of our neighbors are coming to the realization that if we continue to degrade the environment on a worldwide scale in the way we have over the past century, our quality of life (and that of all other members of the community of life, and certainly that of our children and grandchildren) will be so compromised such important topics like the economy and education will shrink in relative import.

Albert Schweitzer stated, "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." E.B. White shared his gloomy vision: "I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially." Many of us have come to learn that our culture does not define the entirety of the human race. There have been many cultures (and a few still exist) which have lived in harmony with the community of life on our planet. Most have, in White's words, been beaten into submission. But if we listen carefully, it is they who hold the lesson for us, that we need not despair in the pessimism of Schweitzer and White.

For the optimists among us, Earth Day is every day. A good step toward an optimistic future lies in the activities of the 30 Days of Earth Day.