Doctor Curmudgeon® Please Welcome My Guest Editor!

With the gracious permission of one of my “daughters,” Doctor Curmudgeon, I am the guest editor of her column for today.

My name is Gaia. I am Earth’s personification.

I remind those of you who have ignored, neglected or forgotten me that I am the ancestral mother of this planet you call Earth.

You earthlings have treated me very badly.

I am the “Mother of all,” Yet, I experience disrespect.

You have given me only one day in which you grant me recognition.

My children, you have not been listening to me.

Your inefficient vehicles discharge unhealthy gases.

My clear clean air has become polluted with the wastes of your industry.

You have blundered into the creation of manufacturing enterprises with a careless disregard for the effects on me and on your own health.

I am ill from being affected by the ravages of oil spills that could have been prevented.

Hear my anguished cries about the pollution of our air and water.

And you have to be aware of toxic dumps, carelessly treated raw sewage, and our precious wildlife that has become extinct; and species that are now facing extinction.

I have been exhorting you to take care of me.

But there are rays of hope.

In 1970 the consciousness of the public was raised and Earth Day was created.

My children had finally begun to think about me. Senator Gaylord Nelson was concerned about our environment. An oil spill occurred in 1969. And, up to that year, it was the worst spill we had ever endured. A rig had burst off the coast of Santa Barbara, California pouring oil into the Pacific Ocean. Harmless dolphins, seals, sea birds and ocean life were the innocent victims.
21,000 gallons of oil!

Undersea faults were opened and the seepage continued into the water for the rest of the year. Once beautiful beaches were now covered over with sludge and a black sheen coated the ocean for hundreds of miles. This was the catalyst to establish Earth Day.

Earth Day. Only one day, when others are accorded weeks, or months. But I am a Mother and only concerned for my offspring, my beautiful Planet Earth.

I am thankful to my children, Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson and to his cohort, Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey for their recognition of me, their awareness of my difficulties and being among those who began a movement to promote environmental consciousness.

And I am hopeful for the increasing awareness of my plight and those who are working to help me recover.

Remember…. Always Listen to your Mother!

Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.

Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon