Earth Day Notes 2025
Continuing on his psychotic warpath of breaking the government and society….wait, didn’t I already write this? Yes it turns out that things have not gotten better politically. We managed to eke out some little wins: the liberal victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court on its 10 point margin was enough to critically embarass right wing oligarch Elon Musk who is now whining that he wants out of politics since he did not get his way, and people are being too mean to him. Nevermind the real reason he was likely slapped down was interfering with Peter Navarro, Trump sycophant and policy advisor on tarrifs. Musk has decided to cross Navarro and therefore Trmp offending perhaps the only actual belief Trump holds about anything: that tariffs are good for America.
Unfortunately, DOGE continues apace at dismantling government institutions and now we’ve risen a new spectre of disappearing immigrants and even US Citizens to detention centers in the United States or to a jungle gulag in El Salvador. The likes of which turn us from a respectable, if only barely functional, democracy into that of a hybrid regime that we must prevent from getting much, much worse.
So where does that leave someone like me on Earth Day? Well, taking a walk today in the perfect midwestern spring weather several epiphanies have dawned on me over the early spring and I am going to consolidate the ideas in this post.
The first thing I realized is, I am not ashamed to be a deeply liberal person. I always have been; since I formed my political identity in middle and high school. The nuances have changed but my core ideals and convictions have not. Especially from about 2009 onwards it was clear that my political identity would be what it remains today. I am a progressive liberal who believes in science, is not conventionally religious, accepts my LGBTQ+ community members and who fights for a better world and marginalized people. There is no point to hiding behind this, I should fully embrace it.
On the heels of that declaration, the second point: I should present my values openly. To a bit of shame, I have always tried to play peacemaker in my social world. I’ve held onto my views but I don’t put them on blast in an effort to hold up now quaint notions of civility. Meanwhile the world around me changed; it raelized I am upholding a truce that was broken years ago by friends, family and neighbors alike. While I tried to play polite and quiet, my next door neighbor (who I am very friendly with) has erected large Trump signs. While I nod politely, my parents will veer into full-on conspiracies about vaccines and immigrants in unprompted rants. I was duped into thinking that being quiet was the same as being agreeable but the truce about “religion and politics” is forever broken. I am pushing back more than I used to. I am not hiding who I am on my socials. I am boldly putting forth my liberal view.
My third realization: caring about stuff is cool. I’ve seen a strain of nihilism and cynicism infect every facet of society both left and right where nothing matters, so why bother? No, that’s stupid and lame! Stuff DOES matter, people matter, animals matter, the planet matters, our society matters. I am tired of pretending that its cool to let everything burn while people suffer. This is the crux of my attack for my second point: convincing people that things still matter. This is almost harder than actually arguing policy or worldview I’ve found but is totally worth it. I want to leave a better world for my kids and everyone else’s too. Surely that resonates with people still.
My fourth and final realization is all of these musings need to be turned into action. The best way to stave off the cynicism is community. Real, in person community. There is nothing wrong with being online, but it tends to distort our social relationships a bit. I am getting involved in my local liberally coded institutions to build up some sense of sanity: my library, my universities, the local Unitarian Universalist church, the local protest organizations. This is where change starts and where I can feel like I am making a differance so I will be doing more of it. In my home I have espoused my ideals more clearly and tried to give a framework for them to my family; this is where Earth Day comes in. Earth Day is an ostensibly global liberal non-religious holiday that anyone can celebrate so I am making an effort to bring these things to the headspace of my wife and kids.
Then looking at myself: Earth Day is a reflection to me about how important this fragile world is. It’s a reminder that evil forces are trying to destroy it but that hope is not lost. When Earth Day was founded in 1970, American cities were smog filled nightmare zones where you couldn’t even see clear skies on some days but now look at how much our air quality has improved with the rise of the EPA, climate consciousness and environmentalism. In 55 humanity has (slowly, often with failure) started to take these problems seriously and fix them as a global community, for the good of the global community. Today, that gives me hope that we too can rise above our current national nightmare. We just need to stop, show up, and smell the flowers.
On that note I leave you with some short additional references:
We light this chalice for the Earth,
Of which we all are part;
We pledge to care for what it needs
And hold it in our heart.
