CACA IN THE MOVEMENT ROOM

The first Earth Day celebration I remember attending (outside of elementary school) took place in 1987, in Chicago's Lincoln Park.

It wasn't quite what I'd expected. A small group of hippies stood around an even smaller group of tables. There was a no-nukes table (which was what had attracted me in the first place) and tables representing various causes. The gray-bearded man behind the solar power table thrust a yellow flyer at me and started to talk. He said that Commonwealth Edison was buying up the small companies like his -- which made solar panels and related parts -- and consigning their inventory to the dumpster in order to retain their monopoly on electric power. I remember nodding in agreement and buying an Earth Day '87 button, which I still have around here somewhere...

If you'd told me 20 years ago that I'd be teaching yoga at the Chicago Earth Festival in 2007, I would not have laughed in your face.

No, I would have punched you.

And if you'd told me I'd be teaching it in the movement room , I would have kicked you, too.

And you would have felt it; my combat boots in those days had steel toes.

And if you'd told me that the festival was taking place in the indoor civic monstrosity called McCormick Place, I would have spat on you, too.

And if you'd told me that I'd have a friend named Gridlife who would tease me mercilessly about teaching in "the movement room" (which does indeed conjure up an image of a group of longhairs, squatting pants-down and enjoying a collective bowel movement), I would have gotten out my Mace and really kicked your ass.

On the other hand, if you'd told me Greg Palast and Amy Goodman would be featured speakers, and that my two favorite editors would be there, I may have given you a break.

Then again, maybe not.

For details on this weekend's festival, click here.