earth hour, a photo by markboscariol on Flickr.

I have been celebrating Earth Day since its inception at my downtown restaurants. I admonish no one to do the same, but invite people to celebrate with me and my staff. There are those like the writer of Today’s Letter to the editor who choose to assign nefarious motives without even seeking to understand why I celebrate Earth Day

It all started in the Northeast blackout of 2003. It was one of, if not the most wonderful memory I’ll ever have of Downtown Windsor. The limitations of my writing cannot describe what that evening felt like. At the time I owned another bar on Ouellette called Automatic Slims. As an sloganeer it had my favorite slogan “where the beautiful people come to get ugly”. (Both were copied)

At the time, people were pretty down on our downtown, more than I’ve ever seen in my downtown history which began 2001. Morale was where I felt an alltime low. All the results were in about how much traffic plummetted. Little known fact that some traffic actually returned after 9/11 and it was near SARS pandemic that was the final nail in the cross border traffic coffin. With the U.S. Border handing out Beware of SARS Warnings and putting them on windshields of anyone coming to Windsor. In 2003 the negativity seemed to peak

When the lights turned off the Downtown turned on. People came down from their apartment buildings who I’ve never seen. I personally served beer in the dark at my bar telling everyone that I could only continue if they disregarded what type of beer they wanted because I couldn’t no longer read the labels. This was met with resounding cheers of acceptance (Probably not legal but it was a special circumstance.)

Restaurant owners and staff were running around helping each get the contents of their freezers on ice. Neighbors meeting neighbors and coming together rising to the challenge and the uncertainty. This is what True Human progress is all about, this was what human life was about. This is what probably planted the seeds for me to scaledown and perform all the community volunteer work I have. The first time I saw what it was like to be truly connected to the businesses, and people in my neighborhood. I became one with my community that night.

On Earth Day, we will turn out the lights, and we will provide an optional uncooked meal that will be better, Acoustic guitar entertainment that will sing, and a romantic candle light atmosphere. There will be no sacrifice by our customers this evening only the triumphal cheers that have concluded earth hour every year.

Earth Day for me represents a better quality of life through simplicity and connecting with my community. Nothing could be more pro-life than that.