SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Last month, thousands of people gathered at El Chorro Regional Park on April 22, to celebrate the 42^nd annual Earth Day where the theme was Get Down to Earth. For the 22^nd year in a row, the Earth Day Alliance has successfully hosted San Luis Obispo County’s annual Earth Day Festival, and this year was no exception. With a musical line-up lasting throughout the event, including nationally known performer Brendan James and local superhero Mr. Eco, members and visitors of San Luis Obispo enjoyed a day in the sun celebrating the most environmentally conscious day of the year.

This year's festival saw the most attendees in the event's history. More than one-thousand people visited the park throughout the day. Event parking for festival-goers was made available at the nearby Cuesta College parking lot, while San Luis Obispo City Transit shuttled busloads of guests to and from the parking lot every 15 minutes on the Trolleys. In addition to RTA, SCAT and SLO City Transit providing free bus rides from every corner of the county; the Double Decker bus transported from downtown SLO to the festival. “Throughout the day the park was constantly being refilled with new visitors. The people that arrived by bike, carpool or bus truly wanted to be there. We’ve had nothing but good reviews”, said Sandra Marshall, Program Coordinator.

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 Midwifery: Pronounced like a whiff of smoke 

Feeling a contraction wave building, the young woman's eyes frantically search about the small space looking for escape. Her glance is caught and held by the gaze of the older woman standing before her. Placing her hands firmly on the new mother's hips she gently guides her into a squat and in a low voice encourages her to follow her natural instincts and push. Step by step, together they work to bring the baby closer to being born. As the wet head emerges the older woman carefully cradles it waiting for the shoulders to rotate and pass through. The mother reaches between her legs and together they bring the baby's slippery body to her breast. This is the ancient practice of midwifery; the oldest profession for women. Across cultures, across the generations, and around the world women have been helping, supporting and guiding other women during the birth process for centuries.

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 "It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions." - Harvey Milk

The immortal words of Harvey Milk from 1973, still echo in a clarion call for equality for the civil rights of the LGBT community today. We may have thought that we have come a long way from Stonewall, but as Californian’s have learned in painful reminders of Proposition 8: Civil rights won, CAN be civil rights undone.

Harvey Milk’s gift to the Gay and Lesbian community was not only in raising awareness that “gay” was beautiful and natural, but proposed the radical notion that we shouldn’t live closeted away, nor to pretend we were anything other than what we were. He gave Pride to the community to fight for their rights within the very system that was oppressing them, a very risky and controversial move at a time when Televangelists held the ear of much of the nation.

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