Like a silent Greek chorus, three of us anti-war activists, each over 60, held up a giant WAR IS NOT GREEN banner during the Earth Day festival in Santa Barbara organized by the Community Environmental Council. In the back of the crowd, amidst the trees at Alameda Park, we raised our banner to catch the eye of the keynote speaker. Actress Jane Fonda — a force of nature at 85, captivated the crowd with her rousing indictment of the oil industry and corporate demons, congratulating Santa Barbara for stopping new oil drilling off the coast.
I kept waiting, hoping she would also point a finger at the Pentagon as the largest institutional consumer of oil and emitter of greenhouse gases with its endless wars and 750 polluting military bases occupying foreign lands — but not a word did she utter about militarism as a driver of the climate crisis.
This-the madness of militarism — is the elephant in the room — or park.