“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

The animal characters Walt Kelly created for his classic newspaper comic strip Pogo were known for their seemingly simplistic, but slyly perceptive comments about the state of the world and politics.

None is more remembered than Pogo the ‘possum’s quote in the poster Kelly designed to help promote environmental awareness and publicize the first annual observance of Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970:

       “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.”

In the poster, under the quote, Pogo is seen holding a litter pick-up stick and a burlap bag.

He appears to be getting ready to start cleaning up the garbage humans have strewn over Okefenokee Swamp, the part of the planet where he lives.

Kelly used the line again in the Pogo strip published on the second Earth Day in 1971.

The words poignantly highlight a key concept of environmental stewardship: we all share part of the responsibility for the trashing of planet Earth, so we should all do our share to help clean it up.

Pogo’s quip was a pun based on the famous quotation “We have met the enemy and they are ours” — one of two famous quotes made by American Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry on September 10, 1813, after defeating a British naval squadron on Lake Erie during the War of 1812. (Perry’s other famous quote that day was “Don’t give up the ship.” )  

Kelly had used a version of the quote in the foreword to his 1953 book The Pogo Papers, but it was not as pithy or memorable as the line he coined for Earth Day.

The environmental issues we face today are clearly daunting.

However, since the first Earth Day in 1970 many environmental battles have been won and there has been notable progress in addressing some of the problems that seemed daunting in the past.

Back then, for example, it was perfectly legal to dump untreated sewage and industrial waste into local waterways or turn irreplaceable natural areas like Okefenokee Swamp into toxic waste dumps.

Indeed, the types and levels of pollutants and environmental damage allowed in 1970 now seem shocking in retrospect.

Current environmental laws are much stronger. And, with some notable exceptions (like worldwide carbon dioxide emissions), most types of water and air pollution have been significantly reduced during the past four decades.

That is due in part to the grassroots environmental movement which was symbolically launched and celebrated by the first Earth Day.

Walt Kelly died in 1973, just three years after his Earth Day poster was published.

The quote used as the poster’s headline is still famous today — and the concept embodied in the poster still holds true.

We can’t just blame the big bad corporations for the environmental problems we face.

Most of the time, they are just giving us what we “demand” as consumers at a cost we are willing to pay, and abiding by laws created by politicians we elect.

We all need to our own small part, as consumers and voters.

If we do, we can collectively have a significant impact on addressing the environmental problems that threaten our local communities, our country and “Spaceship Earth.”

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Related reading, listening and stuff…

On this date in 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry launched two immortal naval quotations...

On September 10, 1813, American ships under the command of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry engaged a British naval squadron on Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

Perry’s flagship was a 20-gun brig that had recently been renamed The Lawrence, in honor of his fallen friend, U.S. Navy Captain James Lawrence.

On June 1, 1813, Capt. Lawrence was mortally wounded during a fight between American and British ships near Boston.

It was reported that, as he lay dying, Lawrence said: “Tell the men to fire faster and not give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks.”

Commodore Perry helped immortalize the pithier, more famous version of this quote.

He had a special battle flag made that said “DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP.” And, during the September 10th battle on Lake Erie, it was defiantly unfurled on The Lawrence.

It the June naval engagement that the took the life of Capt. Lawrence, the British had prevailed.

But in the Battle of Lake Erie, the Americans won a decisive victory and captured all of the British ships.

Commodore Perry quickly scrawled a brief report on the back of an envelope and had it sent to U.S. General William Henry Harrison.

He wrote:

Dear General:
We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, 
O.H. Perry

The first line of his message, “We have met the enemy and they are ours,” became one of the most famous Naval quotations in US history.

And, the special battle flag Perry flew that day made turned short version of Capt. Lawrence’s dying words an immortal naval motto.

Perry’s flag is now on display at The United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland.

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SEPTEMBER 10 - I want to believe the truth is out there!

It has been a year to the day since Barack Obama uttered his controversial “lipstick on a pig” sideswipe at John McCain and Sarah Palin, on September 10, 2008. But I covered that quote in another recent post.

So, for today’s post, I’ve picked two of my favorite TV quotes: “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE” and “I WANT TO BELIEVE.”

Those quotes didn't start out being uttered. They were words on our TV screens, first seen in the pilot episode of The X-Files, which first aired on September 10, 1993.

The glowing words "THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE" memorably loomed against a dark sky at the end of the show's opening credits sequence.

They soon became a well-known and oft parodied phrase. And, since the show was a big hit, its stars soon became stars in the bigger Hollywood sense of the word.

They were Gillian Anderson, playing by-the-book FBI agent and scientist, Dana Scully, and David Duchovny, as her polar opposite partner, Agent Fox Mulder, an alien-paranormal-conspiracy-theory buff.

One of the things that helped establish Mulder’s persona was the poster on the wall of his office. It showed a picture of a flying saucer with the words "I WANT TO BELIEVE."

That became the second famous catchphrase generated by the show. (There was a third. Do you remember it yet?)

The X-Files aired for nine seasons, until 2002. Like Star Trek, it has lived on in movies. The second X-Files movie released in 2008 was titled I Want to Believe.

I did want to believe the second X-Files movie would be better than the kinda blah first one. And, it was.

But my fondest memories are still of the monster-of-the-week X-Files episodes, like “Squeeze,” “The Host” and “Home.”

Trust no one who tells you that the "mytharc" episodes that focused on the show's ongoing mythology-conspiracy arc were as good as those gems.