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The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!
Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here.
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."
~Mahatma Gandhi
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
~John F. Kennedy
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
~ Chief Si’ahl (Seattle)
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
~ Chief Si’ahl (Seattle)
Brian May, the former lead guitarist of Queen - and quite an accomplished man besides - wants another concert like Live Aid, only this time, to combat climate change.
Live Aid, as you might remember, was the 1985 concert held in both London's Wembley Stadium, as well as Philadelphia's JFK Stadium, and which featured some huge names like U2, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Elton John, Madonna, and Phil Collins, who actually performed in London, and then flew out to perform in Philadelphia later on for the other part of that concert, as well. The Live Aid tried to raise money for the Ethiopian famine, which was one of the most horrifying news stories of the day. And the concert was truly huge, reaching a television audience of about 1.5 billion (which sounds a bit much, truth be told), but which shattered all sorts of records at the time.
May told the Daily Mirror:
"It probably would take the younger generation to take that bull by the horns. We'd help in any way we can, but I think that's what it would require."
May did admit that a concert festival would not be as easy as it was back then, given the overabundance of concert festivals and such these days.
Not a bad idea, but not exactly an original one, either. After all, there have been two Live Aid concerts already, plus there was the Live Earth concert in 2007, which I was fortunate enough to attend.
It was a great concert, and I, for one, felt very privileged to have been there.
Yet, my memories are, at least to some extent, tainted. Because heading into it, I had assumed that it was for a good cause. In fact, that was one of the main motivations for me, and I felt good about getting the tickets. Not just excited about seeing a concert, mind you, but a belief that maybe this was helping raise environmental awareness, and that this issue, which had been almost staunchly ignored by most Americans, frankly, to that point, might finally help awaken some kind of consciousness. After all, Hurricane Katrina had only been two years prior, and even every official in the Bush administration - an administration not known to take climate change seriously - admitted that global warming was real. So maybe, just maybe, this might help to build some type of momentum. That, at least, was what I hoped. Having been disappointed by inaction and indifference for quite a long time already by that point, that might very well have been the last bit of youthful idealism that I still had in hopes that people might finally wake up.
But during the concert, I felt that most people were there only to see great musical acts, and they did not take the idea of trying to do something positive for the planet seriously. These suspicions were confirmed when we walked out of the concert, and I saw more refuse and empty and often broken bottles of beer all over the place, even more than I think I had ever seen before, even after other concerts and sporting events. It almost as if the people in attendance were making a point of going out of their way to say that they were just their for the entertainment, and not for any notion of improving the planet any.
Heaven forbid, eh?
So, while I applaud May for this idea, and think that maybe, it might even help to some degree, my own experiences and observations have lent me a more cynical perspective, at least especially living here in the United States of Donald Trump.
Hopefully, I am wrong. Believe me, this would be one of those instances when I would just love to be wrong.
That said, I have some reservations. But I guess at least it could not hurt, right?
In any case, here is the link to this story:
Queen guitarist wants another Live Aid concert to fight climate change Lauren M Johnson By Lauren M. Johnson, CNN Updated 5:44 PM ET, Tue May 7, 2019
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