Trite and Truancy

Okay, so before I get all Happy Earth Day, hemp is great and rainforests rock-I must share the greatness that was the play that Rum Punch and I caught on Saturday. If you are in the DC Metro eurra you should check out “Am I Black Enough Yet?” We laughed, cried and cosigned on most of what the actors said. Typical black folks in a sea of white folks but we didn’t give a fcuk and laughed out loud anyway! So I say see it! It’ll be worth the 25 bucks.

And now back to the planet. This post was originally going to be about why Black folks aren’t buying into the whole Green Movement thing…or at least, why I don’t see them hugging trees on tv. I mean for most of us, we’re just happy we are able to finally afford that nice car. So we are going to drive it. Everywhere. Corner store and all, because, hey we deserve to shine. Shoot, some of us are just happy to be able to afford groceries, who cares what type of bag I carry. But since Stormy touched on some of that yesterday (read: I’m too lazy to come up with another clever view on the subject) I'm moving on.

To be honest, I’ve “celebrated” many an Earth Day, but I don’t recycle consistently and I still ask for plastic at the grocery store. And so sometimes this “holiday” feels a little trite because on the other 364 days what am I doing? Or what are other folks doing after this day of awareness? I will say that I do get a little misty eyed when I see a seal covered in oil or a baby duck with a plastic six-pack ring around it’s neck. So I try to do my part and cut those plastic rings before I trash them. But Al and ‘em say I need to do more than that, and that is the truth. Inconvenient as it may be.

When I was in seventh grade my school (read: everyone but the students) was pumped and excited to show their love for the planet by allowing us kids to select how they wanted to spend Earth Day with the Earth. So that year I chose to go clean up a lake (read: the boy I had a crush on was doing it). The environment was complete with smells, garbage, a nasty bagged lunch and salamanders (a minus before I knew how cute salamanders were). I was upset that I spent a day with nature with no cabin or car to separate us. And ire only increased the next day at school when all the kids who went to the zoo talked about the great time they had had. Looking at animals, making out in front of the monkeys, and other general tomfoolery. They didn’t pick up trash or plant a thing.

So in eighth grade, the school was exciting again and the same Earth destinations were offered and that year I was going to the zoo! So there I stood at my locker getting myself ready for a day with the Earth when Rum Punch came up to me and launched her master plan of not going on the field trip and going to the mall*. Rut Roh. “But Rum Punch” I said, as I was dusting off my halo, “that’s wrong, I’ve never skipped school before”. She called me all sorts of names**, and you know how it is when you’re 13, you’ll believe anything. And so away we went. At least we did our part and took the bus to the diner (Earth-1 human selfishness-0). We ate our breakfast there and didn’t get nasty styrofoam containers or plastic bags (Earth-2 human selfishness-0). We didn’t use hairspray from aerosol containers (Earth-3 human selfishness-0). We had a good time at the mall and ensured that we threw our trash in the bins and not on the streets (Earth-4 human selfishness-0). And then we hung out at our friend’s house because her momma wasn’t home and we could watch cable (I’m sure something about saving the planet) for the rest of the day…when we could have been cutting trees down with our chainsaws just because (Earth-5 human selfishiness-0).

But I don’t have to state how important going green is. Even though I think this day can be trite, and I skipped school and went to the mall, and I’ll probably be dead when the next generations are roasty and toasting; I think if everyone did a little bit a big difference could be made. As for me, I volunteered to pass out the tree seedlings to my co-workers, they all had WTF expressions as I handed them their tree, but no one can say I’m not doing my part (Earth-6 human selfishiness-0).

*It wasn’t solely Rum Punch’s idea to skip school that day, she was blamed solely for entertainment purposes
** Also added, well made up for entertainment purposes

See You In Seven