SLO County’s tax dollars supported Earth Day charlatans

April 29, 2017

OPINION by MIKE BROWN

During this past weekend in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Davis, Berkeley, and elsewhere across California’s leftist archipelago we were again subjected to the annual day of indoctrination or ersatz pagan right of spring known has Earth Day.

The event content, usually billed as a festival, provides exhibits by government agencies, not-for-profit environmental groups, and vendors of “green” products and services. The usual fare includes entertainment in the form of some local bands and rituals conducted by self-appointed shamans claiming sacred status on the basis of their alleged ethnicity and superior mystical insights.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive by bike, mass transit, or other non-polluting conveyance.

The festivals are partially sponsored by government agencies, vendors, and businesses attempting to project an “environmental” corporate ethos. These supporters’ logos and government seals are prominently displayed on promotional materials and during the actual events. Government agencies donate the use of parks and other facilities as the venues.

Occasionally, a mayor or county supervisor will drop by for a few minutes during the busiest time to pay homage and pledge support for a green future without fossil fuels and industrial facilities.

It is doubtful that individuals and organizations which question the prevalent revealed green enviro-socialist doctrine would be invited or granted equal time and space, even though the events are being conducted on public facilities supported by all taxpayers. This lapse, at a minimum, would seem to require that the donating/supporting public agencies clearly stipulate publicly in advance that the festivals are open and that the sponsors must provide opportunity for contrary opinion and representation.

The SLO Earth Day Alliance, a not-for-profit which runs the local version, states on its website that it will reject any applicant for a booth or display for any reason. Mind you, this event was conducted on El Chorro Regional Park, a tax supported San Luis Obispo County-owned and operated facility. What if the North County Tea Party applied for a booth, paid the fee, and was rejected?

Tax funded government sponsors listed on the Alliance website include the City of San Luis Obispo, the Regional Transit Authority, the County Parks Department, SLO Transit, and the City of Paso Robles.

Government exhibitors  included: EmPower SLO (a County run energy loan program); First Five San Luis Obispo County, ( a county run children’s program); County of SLO Public Libraries; City of SLO Public Utilities, the SLO County Integrated Waste Management Authority, and the Questa Sustainable Resource Center. Were the government staff people who manned these exhibits paid on the clock (by the tax payers) or did they volunteer?

If they volunteered were they management employees exempt from overtime? After all, the event was on Saturday. Or were they rank and file employees who worked on the clock and received overtime pay?

Other featured exhibitors, whose key missions are not exactly environmental education, included the Atheists United SLO, The SLO County Cannabis Business Association, SLO Mothers for Peace, and the SLO Democratic Party. Also listed were the usual suspects, including the Sierra Club, Surf Rider Foundation, ECOSLO, and the SLO County Botanical Garden, as well as a number of commercial vendors.

The SLO Earth Day Alliance, in outlining the theme of the event (People, Planet, and Peace), states:

“People –  There is only one race, the human race. it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across the human spectrum.  We all should be helpful to those around us. Especially the strongest need to help those in greatest need. People are symbolized with the Earth in our hands; we must encourage respect for all life forms, and increase attention to the preservation of biodiversity.

“Planet –  People are the stewards of the planet and our responsibility is not only for creation care, but also to protect and celebrate earth’s environment. We need to teach our children to have an understanding of the earth based on science, that all living things are interconnected and anything we do to that web of life we ultimately do to ourselves. Planet is symbolized as the Earth which everything revolves around; we need to give and live with love, respect and gratitude for all Earth’s creations.”

Obviously, many of the sentiments stated here have been components of religious, philosophical, scientific, and ethical thinking throughout the world and in many cultures for millennia. But disturbingly, part three of the theme statement attacks our national defense in the most pejorative terms ( especially the highlighted sentence below):

“Peace – Our country’s long wars and worldwide military presence are immoral and unsustainable (our emphasis). World Peace doesn’t just mean for all to be in a place where there is no violence or war, it means for all creation to have the ability to be calm in heart and mind. It’s mutually beneficial to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors. Peace is symbolized as the Earth’s water; we must strive to thrive with peace and clean water for all.”

Just why are “our country’s long wars and worldwide presence immoral and unsustainable?” Hogwash!

Were it not for our successful and bloody sacrifices in these wars, we would not have the freedom to conduct Earth Day. In all likelihood, and in most of the regimes that have fought wars against the United States, the Earth Day Alliance people would be taken out and shot.

Was the American Civil War to free the slaves immoral and unsustainable?

The Confederacy never would have given up if Union General Sherman hadn’t burned half of Georgia and South Carolina to the ground.

How about War I to stop the German Kaiser and Austro-Hungarian Empire from conquering Europe? Or what about the Korean War in 1950’s to stop the current North Korean dictator/warlord’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, from enslaving the democratic and capitalistic South Koreans?

Was it OK that, in the vacuum created by the United States abandonment of South Viet Nam, that the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot committed genocide against 3 million of his own people? Was it OK for the trained soldiers of Al-Qaeda to seize commercial airliners and fly them into office buildings in New York City, killing thousands of innocent civilians and responding public safety officers? And what if Korea’s current dictator Kim Jong-un is successful in mating nuclear bombs with long range ICBMs? Are the Earth Day Alliance and its supporters suggesting that we ignore them? Or that we not counter these acts of aggression? Or that we not be prepared to defend ourselves?

Was the long war to destroy Nazi Germany immoral and unsustainable?

Or what about the long cold war, which ended in the collapse of the murderous and genocidal Soviet dictatorship? Was Hitler, backed by tens of millions of compliant and supporting Germans, practicing tolerance and peace?

Could millions of Jews and other captive peoples been saved if England and the United States were not isolationist and pacifist in the 1930’s and, as a result, on their military heels in the early years of the war? Had they been better armed and prepared, they could have surgically bombed the sections of the death camps which included rail junctions, gas chambers, and crematoria at Auschwitz, Treblinka, and the others , thus saving the lives of millions of innocent victims.

What exactly is “immoral and unsustainable” about defending our families and homes or rescuing victims from genocidal dictators?

The Earth Day charlatans’ political science is even worse than their so-called natural science. Taxpayer-supported public agencies shouldn’t be supporting them.

Mike Brown is the Government Affairs Director of the Coalition of Labor Agriculture and Business (COLAB) of San Luis Obispo County. He had a 42-year career as a city manager and county executive officer in 4 states including California. He can be reached at mike@colabslo.org.