Global warming and
worldwide crisis are the messages as about 240 turn out for local piece of
nationwide event
By Rich Heldenfels - April 15, 2007
Beacon Journal staff writer
On a cold and overcast
Saturday afternoon, Rich Fein knew there was unintended humor in asking:
``Who believes the Earth is getting warmer?''
He still had to ask.
The painting contractor
was coordinating Akron's rally for Step It Up 2007, one of more than 1,300
events around the United States to call for greater attention and action
on global warming and climate change.
About 240 people
attended the two-hour rally at Buchtel Commons at the University of Akron.
Earlier, 30 to 40
people had attended a screening of the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient
Truth in the main Akron-Summit County Public Library.
That movie had helped
get Fein involved with the rally. He had gone to an earlier showing with
his sons Matt, 20, Jeff, 18, and Eli, 13.
``I wouldn't have taken
my kids if I hadn't thought that it was important,'' Fein said. But he
thought the movie had ``some pretty convincing evidence'' of the
environmental crisis.
``I made a promise to
my kids that I would do something,'' he said. That something was the Step
It Up rally.
Singer-songwriter
Rachel Roberts and other musicians performed. The Sierra Club, First Energy,
Environmental Akron, Greater Akron Audubon Society and Crown Point Farm &
Educational Center were among those with tables, displays and brochures.
Signs bore messages
like ``Cut Carbon'' and ``Be Part of the Solution Not Part of the
Pollution.''
U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton,
D-Copley Township, told the crowd that ``we cannot leave the problem of
global warming to our children and grandchildren.''
She vowed to continue
the fight for the environment in the Democrat-controlled Congress in spite
of resistance from the Bush administration.
``Global warming is not
a `theory,' '' she said. ``I, like you, will not allow (the
administration) to continue to live in a state of denial.''
University of Akron
President Luis Proenza, though out of town, sent remarks read aloud by UA
School of Law Professor William S. Jordan III (who also noted that he had
been Sutton's environmental law professor).
Proenza applauded
university faculty and others who had helped organize the event. ``For the
common good, we must exert our combined efforts and collective will to
address this critical issue,'' he said.
By the way, the crowd
answered Fein's question with a loud yes.
Rich Heldenfels is a reporter for the Beacon
Journal. Contact him at 330-996-3582
orrheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
Akron Step's it Up
By Candy Loya
Editor,
Walking the Green Road
"An Inconvenient Booth" was a better
title for the Step-it-Up Rally at the University of Akron Campus on
Saturday, April 14th. With temperatures barely reaching 40 degrees,
the term "Global Freezing" was jokingly being thrown about.
Meanwhile, a strange and odorous steam was pumping into the faces of
both exhibitors and attendees, being curiously compared to "Burnt
Ramen Noodles," and "Rotten Bacon."
But these peaceful rally folks,
dismissed the annoyance of this unsightly and disturbingly aromatic
pipe, and instead embraced it as a significant symbol of our
polluting factory stacks. The cold was just that, an inconvenience -
but not enough to keep those truly concerned about the state of our
environment from attending the rally in support.
The music was amazing, the speakers
enlightened and motivating, and the Mayor of our fine city? Well, he
was missing in action.
All things considered, it was an
exceptional turnout and I am very proud to have been involved! |
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