About six weeks ago I needed to pick a date to launch the Lily Point Calling Campaign. I knew I would be on the road until after the 4th, so I just picked the 14th of July with no more thought then it being enough time to get ready after my return. A few days before I left to return home, a friend of mine said, “that’s Bastille day”…. Oh!!! I said, not really having French history very fresh in my mind, so with a quick Wiki stop, I realized that all the symbolism of Bastille Day dove-tailed right into today’s challenges of getting people to care, and to start to actually do something about our interests that are being ignored today, just as they were in 1790 France…

Not enough people realize just what is at stake, and many of the organizations like People For Puget Sound, and Puget Sound Partnership constantly talk about the fact that the problems and issues are a tough sell, when people look out across the waters of the Salish Sea and it still looks beautiful. There are many people taking action and doing great things to restore the health of our environment… but it’s not enough; we need more people involved and we need to raise awareness to the voice of the wild that is being suffocated by the corporate influence on our government and our media.

I kept asking myself, where are the top artists on this?, why don’t we have songs like in the 60’s and 70’s? There seemed to be no voice speaking out for the Salish Sea on the radio waves…. but with radio station ownership now dominated by Clear Channel Corporate type program directors and the shift towards internet downloads radio has been sanitized to the point of obscuring the rock and roll roots that inspired artists to speak out.

In the late 70’s The Clash emerged as the “socially conscious” and politically charged leader of the music world. With the line, “Phony Beatle mania has bitten the dust” the leader of the band Joe Strummer penned songs that struck a nerve all over the world… and he was keenly aware of the issues and who was behind them. Unfortunately Joe Strummer went on a 15 year hiatus, came back in 1999 and produced 3 CD’s with the Mescaleros and then died of heart failure in 2002.

Strummer sang about global warming, unemployment, discrimination, racial tension and drug use, and wrapped it all within the responsibility we have as adults to do something about it. I’ve been shocked at the language and cautionary rants that have been the same for the last 30 years on all these issues. When you dig into the facts, one quickly realizes that not only have environmental issues become worse, but the rate of environmental decline has steadily accelerated in the 80’s, 90’s and 21st century….

Einstein once said, “You cannot solve a problem in the same state of consciousness that created it.”, and that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” So it seems we are stuck in just talking about the problems and not really doing enough to change things, and continually thinking that elected officials are going to solve our problems because of campaign promises. So there is a grass roots movement that now says… “If we wait for government to solve our problems, it will be too little… too late; if we try to do things on an individual basis… it will be too little; so only by private citizens working together with government can we solve our problems.”

But there are no simple slogans or dictates that are going to mobilize our fractured cultural masses towards reconciliation with our environmental excess. So Lily Point Calling is about getting reconnected to nature, to hearing the call of the wild, a call that comes from your heart. There are many paths to making this connection. For me it was the research I did on eagles that brought a new perspective and comprehension of our history and the collateral damage caused by the American empire, and each empire that rose and fell before it. When you learn about eagles, or Orcas or walk in forests, or see the cycle of life, one can then start to see the value of these things, and when you see that these values are not being respected, hopefully it will compel you to join us.

So today is the starting point. I wrote the lyrics to Lily Point Calling to update the issues that Joe Strummer and The Clash made popular with London Calling, and changed the focus form from London, the center of measured time around the world, old wealth and fallen monarchy, etc. to Lily Point — the jewel of the Salish Sea and the heart and soul of the natural world — that is surrounded by the land sharks who, continue their pursuit of profits at the expense of the natural world.

The State of Washington paid $4.2 million to protect the eastern portion of Lily Point in 2008, after 24 scientists explained how important the ecosystem of Lily Point was, and now the Point Roberts Conservation Society is fighting a legal battle to stop the western portion of Lily Point from being decimated by development. Lily Point Calling is about sending a message to everyone in the Salish Sea watershed to identify your sacred land and start working on a plan today to save it. We’ve posted the lyrics to the song Lily Point Calling, with hyperlinks that will take you to articles, videos and blogs that explain the meaning behind the words. This is a living document that will be updated and changed as new and important information comes in from around the Salish Sea. We will be connecting the dots of activity in each community and linking new communities into how they can get started and what types of actions are working in other communities.

Lily Point Calling is about erasing borders between us: American/Canadian; Native American/First Nations… and coming together as true brothers and sisters of our mother the earth.

So in the spirit of Bastille Day, please join us in a peaceful uprising for the rights of nature… I don’t believe that it is possible to be neutral, to continue to deny the direction consumerism is taking us. To be passive in today’s environment is to cooperate with whatever is going on. We need to intercede in what is going on, and we need to change it. As Thomas Jefferson said,

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to = remain silent.”

Lily Point Calling is nothing more then listening to a voice that is not taught in schools or reported on the nightly news.

Lily Point Calling is a voice coming from the natural world.

It is a voice that is getting very faint…. so we’re trying to give it a little help…. we need to pay attention to the cry from the birds and animals, and end the assault on our marine life.

Thanks to Ivy, Mel, Dave, and Victor for bringing the spirit of The Clash & Joe Strummer back into the fold… and I hope that Joe will forgive me for changing the words to his song, but I couldn’t resist, “phony credit mania has bitten the dust”

Viva la natural world!

For more information & the lyrics please go to: Lily Point Calling hosted by Lily Point Defenders.