Uppity Wisconsin

 The Congressional resolution honoring Earth Day founder Sen. Gaylord Nelson,(pictured) noted in a post here last week, almost was killed by a right-wing Senator who blocked action until he got some of the language sanitized.

 Here's what the original said:

Whereas Gaylord Nelson sponsored legislation to ban phosphates in household detergents and to ban the use of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and he worked tirelessly to ensure clean water and clean air for all Americans;

Whereas in addition to his environmental leadership, Gaylord Nelson fought for civil rights, enlisted for the War on Poverty, challenged drug companies and tire manufacturers to protect consumers, and stood up to Senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee to defend and protect civil liberties;

That was too much for Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who puts "holds" on bills with abandon.

To satisfy Coburn, the language about civil liberties, McCarthy, the war on poverty,and consumer protection was eliminated.

I find it somewhat amusing in that it is a paragraph I wrote and suggested to Rep.

 

Gaylord Nelson photo by Fritz Albert

This resolution, sponsored by Gaylord Nelson's longtime friend Rep. David Obey, was adopted by both houses of Congress.

Whereas Gaylord Nelson , former United States Senator from Wisconsin, is recognized as one of the leading environmentalists of the 20th Century who helped launch an international era of environmental awareness and activism;

Our own Bill Christofferson talks about Gaylord Nelson in this book chat.

Happy Earth Day.

Maybe we should start with a disclosure that I am Gaylord Nelson's biographer, which may give me a somewhat different perspective on Earth Day, founded by Senator Nelson (pictured), than some others.

Earth Day, as some have noted today, has not solved all of the world's environmental problems. But it has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on how people think about and relate to the environment.

Gaylord Nelson's primary goal in launching Earth Day was to get environmental issues a prominent place on this country's political agenda, and it certainly accomplished that long ago.

On the first Earth Day, seven months after Nelson announced plans for what he envisioned as a campus environmental teach-in, 20 million people -- 10 per cent of the US population at the time -- participated in some way.