| On April 22, Earth Day, millions of people will pledge to clean up our ailing planet. But, as River Phoenix shows us, every day will have to be earth day to save the world |
| We are the World By River Phoenix |
| Heavens mourn above us until dawn Weeping see her tears as rain they fall Winds whip through canyons Manifesting splintered wrath Mother knows that we've betrayed her Dealing with the aftermath. Sailing ocean cross the sea Floating vessel carries me Once I'm there, what is it worth If I'm betraying Mother? Stormy weather abruptly Changes my course suddenly Its so unfair starting at birth Still mistreating Mother Earth. So you see my friends what we have done Shadows linger overhead Heavy like the fog in the valleys Under heavy earth lay dead. In a boxcar hides an orphan Seeking shelter, nothing more Gliding now tracks lay before him Leading him to distant shore. |
| These lyrics are from a song called Betraying Mother. This year, 1990, the year I leave my teenage years behind, I realize that nothing else matters but this: We must heal our planet if we're to survive. Because my parents are so closely connected with nature and share the reality that Planet Earth is our home, I have always been conscious that we need to care for the earth as the living, breathing, supporting, feeding, nurturing home it is for us. As a young person, there were always other threats that seemed much greater to me along the way-nuclear war, the many hand-to-hand wars all over the planet, famine, poverty, crime, drugs, political prisoners, and an overall lack of compassion for every living thing. And closer to home, each of us has our own struggles with growing up. There's a lot packed into our teenage years. We go from childhood into a time when hormones start taking over. It all seems to come at us so fast-we are developing physically and taking on much more responsibility at home. We're dealing with our school workload, peer pressure, the continual "What are you gonna be when you grow up?" question, trying to set a good example for siblings, choosing a college -and the millions of other things on our minds that have really little or nothing to do with our relationship to Mother Earth and our true natures as human beings who have taken it upon ourselves to be "in charge" of the planet. With so much going on, it was quite a relief to think that our elected officials would take care of all of those major planetary concerns while we were just to concentrate on growing up. It's obvious now that not only was no one taking care of our home as we trusted, but that people were, and still are, perpetuating this planetary destruction. Now as I look ahead to my future, I'm amazed at how the earth itself is letting us know in so many ways that there has been a gross injustice done by humankind. The many recent devastating floods, landslides, and weather changes show the earth's pain and how out of balance our ecosystem has become. At this point, not only have we polluted the earth we live on, the waters we drink and swim in, and the air we breathe, but we have even altered the atmosphere itself. We are now in a global emergency, and for this reason I'm most thankful for Earth Day 1990, which hopefully will mobilize a worldwide massive citizen army to avert planetary disaster. There are solutions to these problems, but most of them will take a conscious effort by every human being to eliminate from his or her life the things that are leading us to impending disaster. I list the following problems and I ask you to join me and become a part of the solution. |
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