Published in:
Mother Pelican: The Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability, 2022
Summary:
Dedicated to Greg Jacobs aka SHKG Humpty Hump
“April is the cruellest month, / breeding lilacs out of the dead land, / mixing memory and desire, / stirring dull roots with spring rain.” — T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland
In April 1964, Rachel Carson was murdered by pesticides and the tyranny of chemical companies. The same year, Martin Luther King, Jr. published his heart-breaking, awe-inspiring Why We Can’t Wait. Exactly five years later in April 1968, Dr.King was assassinated. That day, April 4th, one year before his death, Dr. King presented his “Beyond Vietnam” speech in which he named racism, militarism, and materialism the dangerous triplets afflicting America. In April 1970, American environmentalists celebrated the first Earth Day. However, over fifty years later, we are still waiting…Waiting for racial justice. Waiting for ecological justice. The original title for Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech was “Normalcy-No More.” Yet, the constrictions of normalcy have calcified more than ever: conspicuous consumption, human rights horrors, ecological collapse beyond comprehension…
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