Earth Fair is Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big Earth Fair in San Diego's Balboa Park. San Diego's Earth Fair bills itself as "The world's largest annual environmental fair and Earth Day Celebration – produced by volunteers." It's free and fun. Environmental booths, music, a kid's parade, and the unofficial mondo drum circle. This year, I'm working a booth for the Rose Creek Watershed Alliance, of which my local community group, the Friends of Rose Creek is a part. I'll be there all day long, so stop by and visit if you like. We'll be on the east end of El Prado in front of the SD Railroad Museum.

If you've never been and you're nearby come on down and celebrate Earth Month with us!

One Person at a Time

There’s been a growing movement of churches and other mainstream groups engaging in social justice and issues of environmental protection. From the UN Summit for Religious and Spiritual Leaders to the various incarnations of the Social Forums, people of faith have been creating grassroots movements that focus on what we, the people, see as critical issues of social justice, equality, health care and protecting the earth. That’s the beauty of a right wing president who doesn’t understand the web of life or society for that matter – it forces the people to rise up and create a better world.

When Senator Obama stepped onto the world stage, he was riding the wave of thousand of activists with the dream that a better world is possible. Instead of telling people to work for him, he plugged in to swells rippling throughout our society and caught the wave to shore. A few wobbles here and there, but basically a clean ride.

But the shout out goes to all the people organizing on the ground for a future befitting the vision of the American dream. You are my heroes. And a brief word of warning. Just because we elected a Black man as president doesn’t mean we can let up on what we are doing. As Senator Obama said in Grant Park on November 4 "… you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead." So let the celebrations ring out and then let’s get back to our social forums and activist community meetings, our habitat restoration and sharing food with the hungry.

For as someone wise once said, "if the people lead, the leaders will follow." And lead we did, one step at a time, one person at a time. The only way that change is possible.

Peace out!

Election Day & The Credit Crises

Today is election day and the influence of the recent credit meltdown is driving some people to vote for change.

In an ironic twist of fate, many people I spoke with this morning used their credit cards to donate to the campaign of their choice in an attempt to influence the election - myself included. It will probably take me a couple of months to pay off my donations to No on Prop 8, No on Prop 4, No on Prop D, and donations for both presidential candidates of interest to me: Cynthia McKinney and Barak Obama.

It was raining in San Diego when I went to the polls - the rain as unusual as two African American presidential candidates on the ballot. When I entered, two fabulous young people were working the area waving No on Prop 8 signs and passing out info cards. When I exited, the number had grown to 5. It's a close race, but I have hope. I have hope because in the last couple of weeks I have met so many young people putting their feet where their beliefs are. Young people standing up for equal rights. Straight, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender folks united in the quest to guarantee equal rights for all Californians.

I've been doing phone banking for the No on Prop 8 campaign and on Sunday I spoke to a young woman, R.M. Well, R.M., I'm counting on you to beat this proposition. You didn't know anything about the issues when I called, but once you found out, you promised me you would vote No on Prop 8 because you believe in equal rights for everyone. We only need one more vote than the opposition to defeat this ballot and I've put my faith in you. Don't let your children's, children's, children, me or yourself down.

Saving the world, one vote at a time.

YES! Magazine and What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

YES Magazine's tag line is "Supporting you in building a just and sustainable world" and when the latest issue arrives in my mail box I inhale the stories of the rebirth of Students for a Democratic Society, a female president in Chile, autonomous social movements in Argentina, the real scoop on energy usage, and the solutions to the health care crises in this country and I want to be one of the heroes between the covers of the 100% recycled, post-consumer waste, process chlorine-free paper, example of journalism that digs deep and uncovers the peaceful but dramatic social movements taking place under the radar of mainstream media.

As I read, I look for career opportunities that would allow me to pay my mother's caregiving bills while blending my skills in communication with my desire to be one of the people creating a future that respects the planet and the creatures who scurry across her belly. I analyze the careers people have created in their quest to save the planet and each other and try to figure out where I fit in while putting in forty hours a week in the computer trenches as a database administrator.

Once upon a time I had a quote over my desk that talked about the future as something not found, but created, the roads to it are built by those taking the journey and the journey changing both the traveler and the destination and believe it to be true. As Robert Frost said all those years ago, "I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

My zig zag journey from the streets of San Francisco to the mission of restoring the native habitat in my ten foot by fifteen foot front yard leaves me middle aged and plodding through the woods, creating a path and dragging a hundred and twenty pound weight behind me. I tramp through the jungle looking for paths between trees and tigers and wonder how I ended up in the this part of the jungle and why. Some days I am weary and I sit down and contemplate finding the energy to climb over one more rock, traverse one more mountain range or swim across another river.

Then I read about tree sitting in South Central Los Angeles, interfaith movements of environmental activists and the purpling of America in the latest issue, grab a hold of a tree and pull myself up and get back to writing and tree planting and caring for another generation while I figure out who I want to be when I grow up.

April aka Overwhelm Your Local Environmental Activist Month

So April is drawing to an end thankfully. I used to really love April. All the flowers. The cool ocean breezes. The promise of warm ocean water and nights of fog.

Since forming the Friends of Rose Creek I've renamed April to "kill you local environmental activist month" (I left kill out of the post title as it seemed to easy to take it literally). San Diego Earth Fair is behind us. Great day. Lots of people stopped by our booth eager to learn about Rose Creek and our vision for the future. It was a twelve hour day for me not to mention the eight hours of preparation time over the prior two days. The last two hours at the fair I was doing squats in hiking boots and picking up cigarette butts, beer bottles and scraps of plastic.

Saturday is the Creek to Bay Cleanup - yet another massive day. We have a 40 yard roll off dumpster coming and hopefully 75 + volunteers to fill it in under three hours. Plus raffle prizes to give away, an ice cream social to plan. So I'm out humping for volunteers, trying to find people whose idea of an awesome Saturday morning is hauling sofas, tires and spray paint cans out of the creek. Logistics on this are huge and I haven't tracked my time.

There's trees that need to be watered weekly and a host of events I had to say no to because there is only so much a middle aged worn out woman can do. So I ask everyone, why does it have to happen in April? I know April 22 is Earth Day and having earth related events is cool. But what about March? Don't we love the earth in March? Or November or May?

I secretly suspect it is a plot to kill off environmental activists - maybe give us a heart attack or a nervous break down or leave us babbling in the corner. With the new greening of America, I would hope that loving the earth is an twelve month affair, but so far, the only real change I've seen is in corporate advertising. Go figure.

Rebirthing in Wyoming

We all know the annual gathering of the tribes of the Rainbow Family of Living Light is taking place in Wyoming this summer.

Many people have been commenting on the ways in which we have been failing to live up to the vision in recent years. Some of us have been talking locally in San Diego and we’re having weekly circles in April and May to try to at least bring our higher energy to Wyoming. In conversations with others across the country, I sense this feeling of wanting a time of rebirth is felt by many.

I hope to share some of the thoughts and ideas that come out of our local circles with people as this journey progresses; however, in the hopes of jump starting energy towards reclaiming our vision, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts.

At the last Wyoming gathering in 1994 (and many other gatherings circa the 1990s and earlier) a few kitchens served breakfast in Main Meadow to help focus our morning energy.

Communal breakfast in the meadow served many purposes including but not limited to:

• creating positive energy in the center of the gathering mid-morning,


• making it easy for people to find breakfast,


• providing an opportunity to meet and great with each other and share the Rainbow way,


• allowing camps and kitchens that need help that day with shitter digging, food preparation, or other activities to get volunteers with full bellies and immediately go off and do the work,


• connect people with workshops that are happening that day.

I believe it would go a long way to helping us rebirth our energy if a few kitchens would be willing to go back into the future and find ways to bring us all together in the morning. Of course it’s easy for me to say. But a couple of large pots of oatmeal in the morning and some granola served in a circle would go a long way to helping us raise our vibrational energy and uniting our camps.

On Volunteers and Coolness

OK. I admit it. I suck as a volunteer recruiter. Maybe if I was recruiting volunteers for a cookie eating contest I might have some success. But, I am a failure at getting people in my neighborhood or any neighborhood for that matter to volunteer to help pickup trash, plant natives or water the recently planted black sage or lemonadeberry along Rose Creek.

I think it’s because I’m not a bouncy cheerleadery type of person. I don’t jump up and down with enthusiasm. I don’t wear cute outfits. I’m middle aged after all and cute outfits make us older women look slightly pathetic. So I stick to the basics for outdoor work: Levi’s 501 jeans and a t-shirt from my last environmental volunteer opportunity.

On Wednesday of last week, I went to the California Coastal Commission (CCC) hearing to protest Orange County’s attempt to build a toll road through the Donna O’Neill Land Conservancy and San Onofre State Park. Don't forget, the proposed road would have put a six lane highway twenty feet from Panhe, which is an ancient Acjachemen village, currently used for ceremonial purposes and as a burial site for the Acjachemen people.

With a turnout of between two and three thousand people protesting the building of roads through parks and open space preserves, I want to know how Surfrider does it. They consistently turn out crowds for clean ups, paddles and now a recording breaking crowd for a CCC meeting. And what a turnout it was. Babies and ninety year old grandparents. Tweens and teenagers in body paint. Even Ronald Reagan was resurrected for the event. Not only was February 6 his birthday, but as Governor of the State of California, he signed the legislation creating San Onofre State Park. This is the first rally I’ve ever been to where Ronnie spoke out to protect the environment. But speak he did from t-shirts and cardboard signs and even human lips wearing Ronnie masks.

Not to go off onto a tirade against our former governor, let’s get back to the matter at hand. How to recruit volunteers? Was it the t-shirts? The free food? The surfing legends like a gray-haired Shaun Tomson who spoke in opposition to destruction of parks?

I’ve wrote newsletters, flyered the neighborhood, held ice cream socials and even provided a band – and a few people did show up, but …. At any rate, I’m decidedly uncool and not succeeding in getting the community to rally around Rose Creek.

So is there a cool event school I can go to? Maybe I should show up at cheerleading camp this summer and get a few pointers on being enthusiastic. Is there a secret handshake to get people to care about their community and volunteer to pull a weed, pour some water, pick up a piece of trash or attend a meeting?

If so, can someone please provide me with the key?

On Trees and the Future

Yesterday was the big day! Eleven trees in all planted along Rose Creek. It’s amazing how much bureaucracy goes into planting eleven trees.

First, there’s the permit. Luckily, that one was easy as the City of San Diego’s Environmental Services Department had a permit and approval from the California Coastal Commission to remove invasive plants and replace them with natives.

Then there’s the matter of the trees. So this grass roots group I’m involved with, the Friends of Rose Creek, decided we would raise two thousand dollars to purchase ten 24” box trees – trees about eight feet tall. Given that we were planting Coast Live Oak and Torrey Pine and they take forever to get big enough to throw a shadow, we wanted to start as large as we could afford. After all, if I die of old age, I only have another thirty years left; I yearned to see the oaks looking regal and majestic before someone tosses me off a boat into the sea or composts me in the backcountry.

Unfortunately, our dreams were a lot stronger than our fund raising skills and our funds amounted to ten percent of our target. So then what?

Environmental Services hooked us up! With trees and labor to plant the trees. The local utility company, Sempra, paid for seven trees. The youthful crew of the San Diego Urban Corps dug holes, planted trees and picked up trash – they even yanked a very dead duck out of the weeds. San Diego Earthworks and the Friends of Rose Creek united to purchase the two 24” box Torrey Pines that were not donated. Two small Mexican Elderberry trees were donated by me.

The tree dedication ceremony was a success with local business owners promising to donate trees in the future, local residents volunteering to help water the trees, and the local paper sending out a photographer to capture the event on film. I even discovered that one of my neighbors is also an aspiring novelist.

Yesterday was the culmination of endless meetings that seemed pointless at the time. Efforts to outreach to the community had failed to inspire people. Quarters thrown into a glass bowls at public events amounted to purchase of branches not trees. And all along, I tried to remind myself that process creates progress. One foot in front of the other with a goal in sight creates the momentum needed to move if not exactly mountains, then at least eleven trees from a nursery to Pacific Beach and eventually into the ground between Bayview Terrace Elementary and Rose Creek.

The oaks won’t mature for another twenty five years – a very long time in our instant gratification culture. While some might consider me sentimental, knowing that the children of today will explore Rose Cree and climb trees with their children in the year 2033 is one small step in my feeble attempts at creating a positive future for the seventh generation.

I know that Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai changed the course of history by motivating thousands to plant trees in Kenya and across the African continent. Well as I learned yesterday, even the planting of eleven trees has a galvanizing effect on the community.