Saving the planet and still more crazy people

So, Josh's school has an artist in residence this week - Dan Dancer. Information about Dan, and the school encompassing art project he would execute while in residence was sent out a few weeks ago, and I was excited for Josh when I got this information. The kids are all wearing black and white and together will create the image of a huge panda on the school soccer field. A photo of this will be taken from above thus creating the art. A reminder of this event was emailed to parents earlier today (on my mobile address), but there were a couple of interesting side bars which made me question why such verbiage would be necessary. Basically they noted that some parents don't believe in global warming (laughable, I know), and that we should all use this opportunity to discuss with our kids the impact we have on the planet. The website for Dan (linked to above) was included, so I took a look. I was truly moved by all the great things this guy has done with art to enlighten folks to the state of our environmental demise. I was even more perplexed, after viewing the website, about why the school sent such an odd email. Once I got home and checked my home email I saw the reasoning. A parent, one who I believe I've met (her kid came to Josh's birthday party last year), emailed every parent whose email she had (at least that's what I'm guessing - she may have emailed the entire school like a true psychopath) complaining about how this isn't an art project after all, and instead calling it "propaganda." Now, the only thing I can take away from her short email is that she doesn't "believe" in global warming, or the fact that we as a planet are dealing with serious environmental issues. I sat and I thought, and I thought some more, and employing every fiber of my "let it go" being, I did not email her back and tell her how excited I was that my child was going to be part of something that heightened awareness to the environmental issues facing today's generation and most certainly tomorrows. Why on earth would this lady think that she was somehow of the majority in her thinking? That her opinion would be that of the whole school, or even of the other parents in her kid's grade? I can't imagine emailing people, encouraging them to hop on board my band wagon if I was to disagree with something overwhelmingly positive that the students at my kids school were taking part in. Now, if the US Nazi party was stopping by for a chat, I'd certainly have beef with it, but I really can't see how FCPS would in any way shape or form think that was positive for the kids. She ended about how mortified she was that the picture the students create (a panda) would be posted on the 350 website. That made me even more excited! Dan's website is nice and all, but it's nowhere near the publicity that the 350 site has. I even went and became a fan of 350 on Facebook. I think this project, and notoriety on both websites, is something Josh will be able to reference and look back on for the rest of his life. We do what we can to help the environment. We recycle, we use energy saving appliances and electronics, we use cf light bulbs, and we buy from the farmers market all summer. I hope that these things and more stay with Josh (and Brinley) throughout his life. I hope that learning about the environment and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint early on will help him to continue to learn about what he as an individual can do to make a change. He is VERY interested in biology, so who knows, perhaps he'll be our next environmental champion.