We Need Humor — and Goats!

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Pam Lazos

We Need Humor and Goats
Earth Day 2017
March for Science

#WATWB

On Saturday, April 22, 2017, I stood in the rain with about 200 other people in the town square of sleepy little Lancaster  PA to promote science.

 

 

People all over the world marched, in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., in New York and Australia.  They showed up for science, they showed up for clean air and clean water, they showed up for answers in the realm of climate change, they just showed up because science is cool, and just about everything you have in your modern life you have because of science.  Vaccines, plastic, catalytic converters, umbrellas, the list is long.  So why do we no longer celebrate our scientists like rock stars the way we did with Albert Einstein and Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize and the first one to win it twice!  Curie was so popular that people would flock to the airport to greet her upon arrival.

Relying on junk science is like mimicking a flamingo with its head in the sand. Yet, too often, science gets a bad rap.  Science doesn’t live solely within the purview of liberals — remember conserve is the root word of conservatism and Teddy Roosevelt, a conservative Republican, started the National Parks Service.  Political affiliations should not get in the way of real science. and to fight over dollars, passing the responsibility to our children who will have to fight for survival shows lack of foresight and stewardship.

But back to my little town of Lancaster.  The signs were great, but the camaraderie even better.  The world should be this way always, coming together to make things better.  And humor always wins the day.

 

My personal favorite:

I was at the back of the crowd and since it was raining and umbrellas were blocking the sound I couldn’t always here clearly.  One speaker said, “We need humor and votes,” but my friends and I heard: “We need humor and goats.”

“Did he just say goats?”  It sounded reasonable to us.  Know why?  Because one hour of using a lawn mower creates as much air pollution as a 100-mile car trip. And goats?  They’ll come cut your lawn (with their teeth) for free without the air pollution!

If we knew our children were going to suffer from decisions we were making today we would change our behavior, right?

We can do this, people.  What are we waiting for?

#WATWB

Thanks to our great hosts:

Belinda Witzenhausen, Simon Falk, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal, Mary J. Giese, Peter Nena

Blessings, all.

pjlazos 4.28.17

About Pam Lazos

writer, blogger, environmentally hopeful
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26 Responses to We Need Humor — and Goats!

  1. Michelle Wallace (@mishy1727) says:
    May 7, 2017 at 8:03 am

    A march for a very important cause!
    Thank you for raising awareness via this post.
    Some great placards amongst the crowd…especially the “white guy” one… 🙂
    Writer In Transit

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Liesbet says:
    May 3, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    About the research for your book, I think that massive scene did improve your main character and therefore improved the book as well and therefore must have advanced it a little bit, at least in the reader’s mind. Great that you could do this research “personally”. 🙂

    I love that quote of the old, white, straight guy as well! It is sad in my opinion that science has to be “defended”. Science is proven, it is all around us, and, as you say, without science our lives would be completely different. Half of us would probably be dead already and never be able to go on vacation. What is so hard to understand about that?

    I love your remark about goats, since we were just having a family discussion about that yesterday. In California, we have seen goats being used (or hired) to cut road sides. Makes more sense to me! Better for the environment and cheaper! And, they are cuter than lawn mowers. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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    • pjlazos says:
      May 3, 2017 at 9:46 pm

      So true, Liesbet, although maybe just as smelly! I remember camping in the Alps in Switzerland in this really remote cabin that my friend rented from the state and we left the dishes out after dinner – there was, of course, no running water – and overnight the goats came through and licked all the plates clean, but broke most of them in the process! It was kind of funny and also crazy. 😜

      Liked by 1 person

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  3. Ken Dowell says:
    May 1, 2017 at 6:14 pm

    It really just blows my mind that we have high ranking government officials who willfully disregard the lessons of science. We’re going backwards in time.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. hilarymb says:
    May 1, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    Hi PJ – Vote for Goats would go with my recent blog posts … and the 7 generations of Stewardship of the world that the Iriquois adhered to and is revered by others – we need to adopt this non-lawnmower approach of yours … I included into my Rare Breeds Survival posts of the A-Z .. under X – I’ve linked below … hope you don’t mind.

    We had people marching in London and I’m sure a few other cities here … science is essential … as too intelligence and other common sense things… humour … and goats of course – they pop up the A-Z and in Britain as a “Goat Major” under K for Kashmiri Goat …

    Thanks so much – an important discipline that definitely does not need to be snuffed out by ‘big government’ … take care – Hilary

    http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/x-is-for-x-war-facts.html

    http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/we-are-world-in-darkness-be-light-2.html

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Michele Anderson says:
    April 29, 2017 at 12:20 am

    Wonderful post, Pam! I love, “We need humor and goats!” so funny. But seriously, I’m with you on this. We have to protect our beautiful Earth!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. K.L. Allendoerfer says:
    April 28, 2017 at 7:17 pm

    I didn’t make it to this march locally, even though I absolutely supported it and its goals. I was at the women’s march a few months ago and while I enjoyed it, it felt like enough marching for a while. I was glad to read this, and the many other blogs and posts on social media, though. It was almost as good as being there!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. Deborah Weber says:
    April 28, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    Wonderful post. It filled my heart to see so much support of the March for Silence all over, and seeing a peek from your perspective is delightful. And I can totally get behind goats – Votes for Goats would make a pretty good bumper sticker no?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. shehannemoore says:
    April 28, 2017 at 12:20 pm

    Ah… pics of what you were at last week . Great ones to of an excellent cause. When you avhe so much going on personally I totally admire you for getting out there just the same. I had to smile at the goats. On Tilos, I am known as dances with goats…

    Liked by 1 person

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  9. bikerchick57 says:
    April 28, 2017 at 11:52 am

    The sign from the straight old white guy cracked me up. Kudos to your group for standing up for science and mother nature!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  10. Peter Nena says:
    April 28, 2017 at 7:26 am

    It was a great march. I would march for science.
    Thank you for participating in the #WATWB

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. simonfalk28 says:
    April 28, 2017 at 6:58 am

    Thanks for this Pam. Great cause. Funny signs. Good for raising awareness. Interesting about the mowers and the goats. The poor old goats would have to generate a lot of methane to match such a carbon output 🙂 Simon’s Still Stanza #WATWB

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  12. robbiesinspiration says:
    April 28, 2017 at 4:46 am

    A brilliant post. Thank goodness the world has people like you who care.

    Liked by 1 person

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