A broad swath of San Diego celebrated Earth Day at Balboa Park Sunday. As KPBS reporter Andrew Phelps discovered, anyone can be an environmentalist.
All the usual suspects are here: The Sierra Club, San Diego Coastkeeper. There's a guy walking around in a lizard suit, and a bunch of Mexican wrestlers. And then there’s a booth for GHU: Goth Help Us.
James Howard : My name's James Howard. And I'm the chapter president of the San Diego chapter of Goth Help Us.
Howard wants people to know that Goths care about the earth, too.
Howard : Just because we like darker science fiction and darker horror and things of that nature, doesn't mean that we want a murky, scary, deadly world or environment to live in. That would be suicidal.
Moving along the main promenade, I can't help but notice this booth: Californians for Population Stabilization. I meet Stuart Hurlbert, an SDSU professor known for his politics. He points to a sign with an anti-immigration message.
Hurlbert : Yeah, this is former Senator Gaylord Nelson, who's now dead, but he's the person who actually got the first Earth Day started back in 1970. He's saying, “In this country, it is phony to say that I am for the environment but not for limiting immigration.”
Farther down the road, a bunch of Hare Krishna monks are rocking out. Gopal Das tells me the joy of monkhood.
Das : He is a phenomenon in nature itself, because he's perfectly cooperating with all the forces of the entire universe. When we wake up as monks, one of the first things we say is a prayer to Mother Earth. We say, “Please forgive me for putting my foot on you.”
Andrew Phelps, KPBS News.
