Here lies the motto

I participated in the Earth Walk yesterday, which is a little parade to celebrate Earth Day. It seemed like a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, despite having to smell all of those hippies.

The group met at the legislature building in the morning and listened to a small band play before the walk. The band was about as hippie as is humanly possible, to the point of being a cliche. Most of their songs were about flowers. I particularly liked the one about Helianthus Giganteus.

After we got our flower power on for a little while, the organizers gathered the group and we began the walk through downtown. These events really bring in the crazies, as well as everyone with an agenda to push, so we spent the entire walk trying to distance ourselves from anyone with a flag or banner, because 95% of them were completely unrelated to environmentalism. We didn’t want to be associated with the Communist Party of Canada, the numerous churches, the crazy environmental holocaust guy, or even the New Democrats, but it’s easy to find yourself in a flag group while walking in a crowd like that.

I was surprised to see that only about half of the stands in Centennial Square, the finish area for the walk, had anything to do with issues surrounding the environment. I can see there being random unrelated banners during the walk, since they’re essentially just showing that they support environmental concerns (and publicity), but you’d think they’d want to keep the booths relevant.

Despite these gripes, it was a fun little event. I’d like to say I’m a strong activist, but to be honest I was on my way downtown anyway and the walk covered my exact route.