Earth Day gets its revenge?

The typical Earth Day is full of the celebration of Gaia, where the tree-huggers get together and commune with nature and each other. Topics like renewable energy, global warming, hybrid cars, recycling, and organic foods are among many that get discussed at these get-togethers, while amenable politicians pander for votes by telling these folks that the government should force people into acting in an environmentally-friendly manner.

But in Wicomico County things are different. Whether by grace of God or happy accident of the calendar, Earth Day 2006 here gets celebrated by having dozens of gas-guzzling trucks and vans converge on an open park to bring and set up large steel charcoal pits, which are filled with the remnants of once-proud hickory trees that are ignited to pollute the air for the purpose of cooking a goodly number of God’s innocent creatures – just to win a barbeque competition.

To make matters worse, these barbeque competitors have to live there – at least overnight – so gallons of fuel are consumed to run electrical generators that power all the amenities to make the lives of these people who are cooking up the poor defenseless animals a little more bearable. Still more precious fossil fuel is used up to crank out the entertainment as several bands running the gamut from blues to country to rock are slated to perform. That noise will certainly scare off the wild creatures!

And all of this so people will come and eat way too many pork ribs and drink too much beer. No vegans need apply.

But tonight Mother Nature got her revenge. After one of the driest Marches on record and a fairly dry April, it decided to just let loose and rain all this weekend. At a time on Saturday evening when a good crowd of people were supposed to begin arriving to enjoy the ribs, beer, and entertainment, the folks at “Pork in the Park” were packing up to leave. Relentless rain finished the event after the judging of the competition.

To me, it was a complete bummer. I’ve been waiting for some good ribs but I couldn’t attend last night, so this evening was my best chance to make it over there. But it wasn’t to be, and I have to think that the Wicomico County tourism folks also got a financial bath from all this rain. Hopefully they had some sort of insurance for a washout, but that’s still not going to help make up everything that I’m certain they lost financially.

I guess the question becomes not just whether to maintain a late-April event in 2007 (I went last year on a cool, damp evening as well) but whether to have it at all, or if a different venue setup is needed. A better venue would have a more permanent stage and plenty of sheltered area close by the food vendors. I’m not sure that the date is going to be able to be changed in order to get better weather, since most of the summer weekends are booked up by older and more established barbeque competitions.

In looking at the 2007 calendar, we’re going to miss Earth Day if Pork in the Park is held on the third weekend in April again. Perhaps Gaia will smile on us and allow better weather if we don’t insult her on her celebration day. Or we might just luck out, it can’t rain every year they do Park in the Park – can it?

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

2 thoughts on “Earth Day gets its revenge?”

  1. So, you actually this decimation is good, or does it just warm your heart that ninny treehugging liberals are put off by this kind of activity? If the day comes that I sacrifice common sense for the sake of pissing off the opposition, I hope they burn my body.

    Yes, Mother Nature is pissed… at people like you (and me, but to a much lesser extent). It was no coincidence that when Criminal George went to lie about his conservation plans in the Smokey MTS of Tennessee, that he got rained out. Our planet doesn’t want parasites and destructive people who leave nothing of value in place of their destruction.

    Thumb your nose at global warming all you want. It’s simple though… Scientists study climate patterns for a living—- neo-can lackeys DO NOT. “Treehuggers” care about a healthy planet for all— Neo-con lobbyists and GW SatanSoul care only about money. Evil will be triumphed over in the end. I am proud to be on the right side.

  2. Dan, how old do you think the Earth is?
    Be reasonable. Please… try to not be angry or speak in anger. I can tell you hate people like Michael and myself, but nonetheless I’d like to try to have a civilized conversation.
    Thanks,
    ~TB

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