Why I love Whole Foods' John Mackey and Lady Bird

Really, you've gotta love these two.

First, let us reflect upon John Mackey for a moment.

According to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, he's been online for awhile now, anonymously rah-rah posting to stock message boards about his beloved Whole Foods.

You've got to love a guy like this. Only someone so single-mindedly driven, dare I say possessed, could first invent, then grow something so deliciously countercultural as Whole Foods into the mainstream and Wall Street powerhouse and hipster darling that it is today. Are you surprised that he'd spend some of his free time having a little fun? I'm not.

I have so wanted to anonymously post to stock boards about companies I know something about, not necessarily positive stuff, but, rather, dishy, gossipy, negative, really fun stuff. But you know, I try to keep a lid on it.

That's why I'm not a zillionaire. Not John. He obviously walks the walk and talks the talk and, you know, that's what it takes to change the game. Okay, it's a tad cheesy (maybe kinda really cheesy) and of course, I hope there was no share holder deception going on there, and I hope it doesn't hurt the chances for the merger (sorry naysayers, but I do think the merger is a good idea) but you know what? People are eating a lot more organics now, and a lot of that has to do with him. That's why he's an American hero, IMHO.

Now on to Lady Bird. Another one. Anyone who knows anything about the 60s ... the early 60s, mind you ... knows that this was an era when today's eco-goddess and Silent Spring author Rachel Carson was generally vilified as a "hysterical woman unqualified to write such a book. A huge counterattack was organized and led by Monsanto, Velsicol, American Cyanamid -- indeed, the whole chemical industry -- duly supported by the Agriculture Department as well as the more cautious in the media." (Time Magazine, 1999) And there, in that very same not-so-very-enlightened era, the First Lady is getting her macho Texan husband to sign the sissy/prissy-sounding (at the time) Highway Beautification Act of 1965, a first for environmentalism, a first from what was to be an eco-activist of the first order. We have this marvelous women to thank for more than just wildflower preservation but also, the building of awareness of the importance of preserving America's landscapes and viewsheds, which led to, hell, Earth Day just five years later. Another American original.

Thank goodness we have them.

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