AP Features, July 2nd, 2007
On what some consider the luckiest day in 100 years _ the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year _ a northern Wisconsin community farm near Luck, of all places, is celebrating two decades of activism against nuclear weapons and for a cleaner earth.
Anathoth Community Farm, a center for the study of nonviolence and sustainable living, is hosting Wisconsin's version of Live Earth, a series of concerts around the world on Saturday to draw attention to the global warming crisis that former presidential hopeful Al Gore is helping promote.
"People are excited. There are not very many things like this that happen in the area," said Barb Kass, one of the organizers of the 20th anniversary celebration.
The theme for the party is "give earth a chance, give peace a dance," and the music headliner for the concert that will take place in the farm's hay field is Buckwheat Zydeco, an accordion playing self-described rocking, stomping, good time Creole party musician from Louisiana.
"I know people who are changing their vacations to come and see Buckwheat Zydeco," Kass said. "We have put 5,000 flyers out in the last 2 1/2 weeks."
Anathoth Community Farm, located about 90 miles northeast of the Twin Cities, is home to five families devoted to peace and justice, sustainable living and energy independence. Two members recently spent six months in a federal prison for civil disobedience at a military base in Georgia.
All told, people at the farm have spent years in jail after getting arrested in protesting what they believe in, said Mike Miles, 53 and a founder of the farm who began his political activism in opposing the war Vietnam war.
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