et tu, Earth Day?

I guess I was being idealistic. I had thought that in this over-merchandized, over-commercialized world we had a few pure holidays. By pure I mean holidays that are Hallmark card free, holidays that are still devoted to the original sentiments that served as the impetus for them.

I had always seen Earth Day is a somewhat "anti-establishment", "anti-big business" holiday where people could focus on the beauty of the earth, and learn ways to be more environmentally conscious. That naive notion has gone by the wayside.

In Leslie Kaufman's 4/22 New York Times article, "At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business" she addresses the rising amount of merchandising that has been targetted toward Earth Day. There are private business which are using Earth Day as a means of self promotion, yogurt, umbrellas, even banking has gotten in on the action. Kaufman states: "F. A. O. Schwarz is taking advantage of Earth Day to showcase Peat the Penguin, an emerald-tinted plush toy that, as part of the Greenzys line, is made of soy fibers and teaches green lessons to children" (para 4).

Perhaps I am being idealistic, but isn't the fact that landfills are overflowing with our detritis one of the major problems with the environment? If so, how is marketing and selling more "junk" working toward fixing that problem.

I say: Let's forget about buying more crap that will clutter up our lives, our homes, and our landfills, and get back to the original intention behind Earth Day. Let's focus on the important issues, the cleaning and maintaining of our beautiful planet.