Mother Earth - Statement For Earth Day April 22nd

Mother Earth

We take Mother Earth for granted
and pretend that She can't die

We walk on the earth,
we breathe the air,
we drink the water.
We take it for granted.

The sun shines, the rain falls,
plants grow and give us food,
forests grow and give us shelter.
We take it for granted.

Young women and men are fertile,
they produce perfect children,
the human lifeline is strong.
We take it for granted.

The Earth, is a Garden of Eden,
that is only slightly spoiled:
We can breathe most of its air,
we can drink most of its water,
most of us have food and shelter,
most of us can have children,
most of the children are perfect.
We take all of this for granted.

The raging furies of a nuclear war
could blacken our green Eden
in just a few short hours.
We pretend it can't happen.

One missile firing submarine
can burn up all big cities in
America, in Europe and in Asia.
We pretend it can't happen.

One-hundred megatons of nuclear blasts
could shroud our Mother Earth
in Nuclear Winter’s icy darkness.
We pretend it can’t happen

Yet Russia and America deploy
more than four-thousand megatons
in war heads ready to be fired right now.
We pretend it can’t happen.

Flash, blast, smoke, darkness
Nuclear Winter, deep freeze,
starvation, fallout and disease
even now, can be short days away.
We pretend it can't happen.

The radar warnings give
scant fifteen minutes to decide:
“To launch, or not to launch.”
We pretend it can't happen.

These Cold War dangers
never went away
and Doomsday still remains
poised on hair-triggers.
We pretend it can’t happen.

We sent men to the moon;
it is a lifeless ball of rock.

We sent robots to sample the sands of Mars;
the Sahara desert has more life.

We have sampled the rain on Venus;
it is hot sulfuric acid.

Jupiter and Saturn, we know,
are giant balls of frozen gas.

Our messages to the closest stars
remain unanswered.

Mother Earth is very rare.
Mother Earth is very precious.
Mother Earth is sacred.
It is time for us, Her children, to grow up.
We can no longer take Her for granted.
We can no longer pretend
that She can not die.
We must stand up and defend Her
We must abolish all nuclear weapons.

David Morgan, Vancouver, BC, 11 March 2001

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* David Morgan, National President, *
* Veterans Against Nuclear Armes (VANA) *
* 240 Holyrood Road, North Vancouver, BC *
* V7N 2R5, Canada Tel:(604)985-7147 *
* Fax: (604)985-1260 *
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