Earth Day in Jim Thorpe

This afternoon I worked the Earth Day festival in Jim Thorpe, getting signatures on an anti-fracking petition and registering voters.  The booth was sponsored by The Carbon County Democrats for Change, and my co-workers and I enjoyed the experience, even though in two hours we only registered one person.

I drew three conclusions.  First of all, I believe most Jim Thorpe residents avoided the whole event.  They are probably tired of the traffic, the noise, and the general disruption of their lives.  We talked to people from all over eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and even England, but only a few from Jim Thorpe.

Secondly, I realized again that I miss California.  The dreadlocks, tattoos, patchouli oil, and tie-dyed shirts would have been right at home in Marin County.  The only thing missing was the scent of marijuana smoke.  

Thirdly, the marginalization of the environmental movement was brought home.  The people at the Jim Thorpe festival were not mainstream voters.  The fact that the place looked like a hippie festival was not reassuring.  Where were the people without tattoos, with families?  Where were the senior citizens?  Where were the kind of people you see at firehouse breakfasts or in church?  

We will not win very many environmental battles until the movement grows into what it was when the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970--a broad-based coalition of people of all ideological persuasions.  We need to build our coalition.  I like hippies, but you can’t win an election with them.