Global Family on Earth
By Hannah Kim
The very first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 drew support from one out of 10 Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, from farms to cities, rich and poor, all who simply shared a common desire for a healthy and sustainable Earth.
Roughly 2,000 colleges, 10,000 primary and secondary schools, and thousands of community groups in towns large and small across America organized and participated in the ``teach-ins" at the urging of Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin, who was adamant about spreading awareness of the environment and wanted to force this issue onto the national agenda (after his eye-opening visit to the oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969). Much to his credit, Sen. Nelson's vision ``brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform" 40 years ago.
In the wake of the initial 1970 Earth Day, the U.S. Congress passed many historic laws, including the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts, and created the Environmental Protection Agency that has since been the cornerstone of ensuring public health and environmental quality for all Americans. But to me, Earth Day is more than just the momentous day that awakened the consciousness of millions of people to care for our planet. It is a fateful day that transformed the life of a very special person who consequently has had a profound impact on me as well as those whom I may have touched.
Linda Grover, my dear friend and a woman extraordinaire, was inspired by her three children to later establish Global Family Day after participating in the first Earth Day celebration, in Central Park, New York. It was as they were walking home when the kids asked, ``If we have a holiday for Earth, why don't we have one for all the people of Earth?" Linda never forgot this question.
In 1995, at the age of 61 and after many colorful stints ― as a congressional legislative aide and subcommittee clerk; caseworker for the International Rescue Committee; wife of a Broadway singer-actor; author of ``The House Keepers" (a humorous account of her seven-year struggle to save her Manhattan apartment serialized in the New York Post); co-author of a NYT bestseller, "Looking Terrific"; a television scriptwriter for several networks, including NBC, CBS and ABC ― Linda turned her attention to actualizing that millennium celebration of all cultures and races she and her children had envisioned 25 years ago on Earth Day.
The result was ``Tree Island," a novel about four young friends who dreamed up and created an annual day of peace, sharing and reconciliation for everyone to celebrate at the start of each year. The book, which she had hoped would launch the holiday, won a special award (from the Romantic Times Magazine) but never achieved much distribution, so Linda decided she would have to take the part of her fictional heroine and make the holiday happen herself.
As the counsel of Congressman Charlie Rangel's staff member, Linda relocated to Washington, DC in early 1999 to lobby Congress to declare One Day of Peace and Sharing to start every year. Linda enlisted 99 schoolchildren to help persuade Congressman John Conyers Jr. to introduce her resolution, which passed in 2001 (later again in 2006), and was also adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. She received congratulations from President Bill Clinton and was named ``DC's Mother of the Year" for her victory.
But Linda did not stop. When I first met her in 2007 shortly after I moved to Washington, Linda was belaboring to widely publicize the holiday. ``Unless we build the kind of shared traditions that will bond us as one human family, we can't hope for a world of peace and sharing," said Linda as she recruited my assistance. "Global Family Day urgently calls upon all people to recognize and experience the reality that we are one human family."
These are also the words she murmured to me the night she had surgery for her uterine and ovarian cancer in 2008. Although she did not win the Purpose Prize for which I had nominated her, Linda to me is the ultimate champion who fulfilled her purpose until her very last breath on Feb. 20, when she finally succumbed to earth at age 76.
Born a beautiful blonde, Linda was a compassionate individual who, at ten, used to sneak a drink from the ``colored" water fountain as she "dreamed of someday having the courage to do more." Linda not only displayed such passion but also passed it on to everyone she encountered. It was she who inspired me to meet Congressmen Rangel and Conyers Jr. (both of whom are Korean War veterans), and muster up the will to push a bill through Congress.
At least 1.5 billion people worldwide are expected to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this week. It may take decades before that many to observe Global Family Day, but perhaps you and I can honor Linda's dream and remember some of our global family members on April 22. It will make Earth healthier as well.
Hannah Kim is a 2009 master's graduate at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, specializing in legislative affairs. She spearheaded the passage of the ``Korean War Veterans Recognition Act, U.S. Public Law 111-41," which was signed by President Obama on July 27, 2009. She can be reached at hkim@remember727.org.