The first Earth Day was 50 years ago. I was 17. I had already seen the changes in the Chesapeake Bay as it became less pristine, and witnessed all the woods around me fill up with housing developments and the capital beltway take great swaths of woods and pave them over. the air over cities already hung grey and foul making breathing more difficult. Mountain tops had been blasted and dug away so more coal could burn creating even worse air. The amount of plastic in the seas and oceans was not nearly as bad as now, but debris of non perishable trash was already visible in the waterways. My dad had already gotten me to read 'Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson, which detailed the destructive nature of DDT, the first broadly used insecticide, on the life cycle of birds and other creatures.

The effort to safeguard natural beauty and keep some open spaces pure and vast for the experience of us all, and of our children and grand children is fought tooth and nail by those who see only immediate profit and personal gain. Some people cannot think in futures of the race, futures of the world. The struggle to create Assateague Island as a National SeaShore and protect it was hard fought. I remember both sides. Even though my family had land there, which the government bought at a bit of a discount, I am glad that the sea shore is preserved. There is value beyond money and there are freedoms that financial affluence cannot buy.

Today is Earth Day. In this time of the machines of the world being at rest for even this short while made mandatory because of this corona virus, we see the forces of life other than human, becoming more visible. We are a powerful race, this human race. We should use our power with awareness and consideration of all of life.
"Cut down too many forests, foul too many rivers and seas, mess up the atmosphere and we have had it." , L. Ron Hubbard.

www.thewaytohappiness.org @waytohappinesstampa