This past Monday the 22nd of April marked our 43rd celebration ofEarth Day. Every year at The Hagerman Group we remind ourselves of the importance of our environment with a friendly Earth Day competition. This year we hosted a blog writing competition, and today we highlight our lucky winner Tony Suter. Congratulations Tony! Thanks for keeping the Earth Day spirit alive in our organization.
Be sure to check out the 24th annual Earth Day Indiana Festival April 27, 2013!
-Karen Schutte, Sustainability Coordinator
Earth Day 2013. It seems surreal to think about the environmental movements and discussions that have taken place in my half century on this planet. Growing up in the early 70’s, I was certain that all of our planets’ problems would surely be solved for my children and their children. After all, the environmental movement had a full head of steam out of the 50’s and 60’s with the “Keep America Beautiful” campaigns. And in 1970 it all exploded. It was the year of the major part of the Clean Air Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. This year would also see the beginning of the most successful Public Service Ad campaign in history with the start of the iconic “Crying Indian” television spots for anti-littering and anti-pollution. We were constantly being reminded that we had to take care of our planet.
The times had many causes and distractions with wars, civil rights debates and political scandals. I’m sure glad those days are over! Even with all the distractions though, we were always conscious that nothing went out the window of the car except the smoke from my dad’s cigarettes and on occasion, a brightly colored head scarf my mom would wear to protect her artfully styled updo from the 2/60 air conditioning. We just knew that littering was wrong and there was never any question.
As I travel the highways today, it seems the side ditches are fair game for anything anyone wants to throw out from paper cups to full size bags of garbage. Did we just fail to pass along all the heart wrenching lessons we learned from the Crying Indian? Or is it a bigger social shift of some kind? I know we never ate as many meals out back then as we do today. And as the mandated sanitation engineer of the household, I know we generated much less weekly trash when I was kid than we do today.
Obviously the priority has shifted to global warming and the loss of ozone. But I think we can keep our eye on the prize and keep our trash picked up at the same time. All it takes is a conscience and an occasional television reminder that it’s not okay to line our roads with 32 ounce Big Gulp cups and Red Bull cans. All it takes is a snappy catch phrase to keep a movement going. After all, I may be a grouchy old man, but I give a hoot, I don’t pollute!
-Tony Suter, MEP Coordinator
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