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Flags on Old Main -- Red, White, Blue . . . and Green

Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009

There she flies over Old Main Tower! On the string below Old Glory (and temporarily replacing the blue flag of Mother Fair) is the Green Theta! On Earth Day, April 22, this unusual flag was unfurled on the mast for a few days and represents an original Earth Day symbol.

According to legend, the Greek Theta was adopted as the Earth Day symbol because it is a combination of the letters e and o, from the words "environment" and "organism." Another take on the adoption of Theta was published in Look Magazine April 21, 1970: "It is in association with the Greek letter, and the word Thanatos (death)". Why death? A warning symbol! If present trends were to continue, the death of the world as we know it would result from the deterioration of the environment! Earth Day was to be a wake up call! And over the years there has been some success . . . some awakening to the call. 

An alternate version of the Earth Day flag is the one that flies day and night at the Field Station together with U.S. and Westminster flags, all on separate poles. This version, modeled after the U.S. flag, has thirteen stripes alternating green and white and a Theta in place of the field of stars. Legend has it that this flag was created by artist and cartoonist Ron Cobb in 1969 as a result of the environmental movement of the 1960s. The colors represent "pure air and green land" and environmental action. 

Earth Day is not a holiday but rather a work day for the environment. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin is credited with establishing this day to thrust the environment onto the national agenda. He sponsored legislation to declare April 22, 1970, as the First Earth Day, a grassroots demonstration to aid the environment. 

Three individuals have birth dates that come close to or coincide with Earth Day. They are: St. Francis of Assisi, the world's first environmentalist; John Muir, the naturalist and founder of Sierra Club; and Julius Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, first commemorated in 1872. 

April 22, 1970, marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately 20 million Americans participated with a goal of a healthy, sustainable environment. Westminster College observed that day with a student-originated plan to clean up Brittain Lake. No one recorded the number of truckloads of cans, bottles and other junk that came from the edges of the Lake but they were numerous. Participants were students, faculty and staff. Each one who helped with rake or shovel was given a lapel button with the date and the letter Theta. 

Our stately Green Theta flag was flown over Old Main in the 1990s but not since. The Sierra Student Coalition at Westminster has agreed that this will become an annual tradition - the green flag unfurled as a reminder that together we can help "green the earth" with our enthusiasm and action. In between those excursions to Old Main, the Green Theta will hang on a special rustic rail in the Nature Center . . . where its message will be the same. 

Clarence Harms, Director
Field Station 

harmsc@westminster.edu
724-946-8520

The Green Theta, universal symbol for Earth Day, flies over Old Main Tower
Green Theta at home in the Nature Center
Green Theta flies day and night outside the Field Station