As Butterflies Die, So Goes a Way of Life
Logging in Mexico puts wildlife, livelihoods at risk
EL ROSARIO, Mexico - The dead butterflies came up to his ankles, an ocean of orange and black that spread as far as he could see.
On a mountaintop in central Mexico, Bill Toone stepped lightly. He had helped save the California condor. He had protected species around the world. But he was not prepared for this. The piles of monarch butterflies - estimates would put the figure at 250 million dead - were so thick that they were composting at the bottom.
The butterflies in the El Rosario sanctuary froze to death that winter of 2002, victims of a cold brought on not only by the vagaries of weather but also, Toone says, by illegal logging that is systematically destroying their habitat.
The forest acts like a blanket, protecting the butterflies from extremes in temperature. Without it, they freeze.
But the forest, like the butterflies, is disappearing. More than a thousand acres were cut in the butterfly sanctuary last year, and in the last decade the number of monarchs migrating to Mexico declined from 900 million to 340 million, according to scientists and the World Wildlife Fund.
The butterfly is a harbinger of larger human troubles facing rural communities spread across the mountains of central Mexico: extreme poverty, a scarcity of water, a lack of jobs. The loss of the forest, and the monarchs, could also mean the end for these communities. The forest traps moisture and releases it into canals built along the mountainsides. The communities use the water for cooking, washing, drinking and irrigating crops.
There is no other source of water. As deforestation has accelerated, communities have seen their water supply cut by half or more. Canals that once gushed now trickle.
“There’s this realization that the end is in sight,” says Toone, a gray-haired 51-year-old conservationist from San Diego. “There’s only so much land they own, and they’re watching it go empty. This can’t go on forever.”
Several of the communities that make up the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a rugged 139,000-acre sanctuary, are waiting no longer for the government’s help. They are arming themselves, forming patrols and standing up to the loggers who are taking their trees, and with them, their future.
Fighting backOn a bright morning this spring, Vincente Guzman Reyes gathered his horses and his guns. He packed soda bottles, tortillas, meat and vegetables into a bag. He tucked a 9mm under the waistband of his jeans. Then he climbed onto his horse and set off into the forest.
Every man over the age of 18 in his community, Donacio Ejido, is required to participate in the patrols. They are not paid. Several times a year, each man goes up the mountain in a group of seven. For 30 hours, they watch over their 3,000 acres - looking for tire tracks, for cuts in the barbed wire fence that marks their land, for any sign of logging.
“If we stopped patrolling for a day or two, nothing would happen,” Guzman says. “But if we stopped for a week, 100 trees would be gone.”
A few years ago, because of a miscommunication, the forest wasn’t patrolled for three days. In that time, an area the size of a football field was clear-cut.
One night on patrol this spring, the buzz of a chainsaw pierced the still, cold air. Guzman and six other men were warming themselves around a campfire, telling ghost stories. (One man insisted that if you point a gun at a coyote, it won’t fire.) But at the faint sound of the saw, the storytelling stopped and the men listened.
“It’s too far,” Guzman said finally, meaning whoever was cutting trees in the dark of the night was not cutting their trees. There was nothing the men could do.
The lure of logging is easy to see. In the mountainous region between Mexico City and the Pacific, jobs are hard to find. Some people grow avocados, mangoes and corn, but the cost of getting the produce to market makes it almost impossible to turn a profit.
The tall fir and pine trees are more valuable and, at one time, were plentiful. But many mountainsides are now bare. From the road, they look naked and exposed against the blue sky. Communities sell their trees to paper companies, but also use them to build homes and for firewood. In the butterfly reserve, 100,000 trees are cut every year for personal use.
But there are only so many trees. The World Wildlife Fund reports that 183 acres were deforested in the reserve in 2001. That figure rose to 1,139 acres last year. In just the last six years - the only period for which there is data - more than 3,000 acres of the reserve’s 33,000-acre core zone were lost to logging.
The loggers have become more aggressive - moving onto protected lands as other areas are clear-cut, and bribing officials to gain access and escape punishment, according to Toone and other advocates.
Donacio Ejido has taken the lead in protecting its forest. When Guzman became head of the community of 3,000 people several years ago, he banned logging and jailed those who continued to cut trees. He organized the patrols. And, with the other men, he dug ditches five feet deep in the roads that traversed the forest, so logging trucks couldn’t pass.
The stakes, Guzman says, are high: “If we finish the forest, we finish the water.”
He is a strong, compact man with the build of the jockey he once was. For years, he trained and rode horses at Mexican racetracks. He even cut trees once, from 1975 to 1985. The pay was good - sometimes up to $20 a day - and it helped him support his wife and nine children. But eventually he realized that short-term profit would mean long-term disaster.
“I thought to myself: My children, how will they eat? How will they live?” says Guzman, 50.
Other communities are following Donacio Ejido’s lead. They have planted thousands of trees. Several have begun patrols of their own, and at night the patrols from each community greet each other with a shotgun blast. Partly because of this vigilance, the acres of trees lost to logging fell to 603 for the last 12-month period.
Toone has also helped, using his San Diego-based EcoLife Foundation, to organize the communities to protest en masse and distribute efficient stoves that require less wood than traditional ones. Some communities at first distrusted outsiders, and some of the 200 stoves that were distributed were vandalized.
But now, Toone says, communities welcome the help.
“Every time a forest is cut to completion or a monarch butterfly colony disappears,” he says, “it’s a job that ends and it means that fathers will leave their families and children to make money somewhere else.”
To protect the trees that remain, the patrols are essential. Guzman goes up the mountain every few weeks, to make up for five of his sons who are working in the U.S. He takes their shifts to keep them in good standing in the community.
The patrols begin with a three-hour horseback ride up the 11,000-foot mountain. At the top, the new group meets the departing patrol group, trades information and sets up camp. The men find a clearing, toss blankets on the ground and set a fire for lunch using fallen branches. They travel light: food, water, blankets, guns. No alcohol is allowed.
Monarch butterflies flutter around the men as they continue through the forest. Guzman, who grew up here and helped build the canals down the mountain, knows the land better than anyone. He points out orange flowers that smell like tobacco and make delicious tea, and red flowers with a fluid in the stalk that tastes like honey. He plucks them as he walks.
A hike of several hours turns up nothing suspect. In some places, the forest is so dense that Guzman and the others must crawl on their knees to pass under thick canopies of vegetation. In others, where there has been recent cutting, the trees are only as high as the men’s shoulders, as vulnerable as children.
At night, the men gather around a campfire, warming tortillas on the embers and looking at the planes crossing overhead in the clear sky. The highest ones, they say, are going the farthest - to Washington, to New York, to San Francisco, cities that are only words to them.
Fragile beautyLincoln Brower remembers the first time he came upon a monarch colony in Mexico. It was 1977, and Brower had been studying the butterfly for two decades. When he learned that millions of them clustered together each winter in these mountains, he went to see for himself.
In 1974, an American businessman in Mexico read about butterflies sighted in the nearby mountains and passed word along to National Geographic magazine, which sent a reporter. The story ran in August 1976, and scientists finally learned where the monarchs spend the winter.
“You just couldn’t believe it,” Brower says, describing the thick clouds of butterflies he encountered on his first trip. When the sun warmed them during the day, they would alight from the trees, the cumulative sound of their beating wings creating an audible buzz. “It was just the most incredible, amazing thing I had ever seen.”
But to get to that colony, he had to drive up a logging road. And even then, 30 years ago, he could see that the forest was disappearing. Brower, now 75 and a professor at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, had been fascinated by the monarch’s migratory pattern.
A complete migration - from southern Canada and the northern United States to the central Mexico sanctuary and back - takes three or four generations of butterflies. One of these is a “super-generation” that lives seven months - five times longer than the other generations - and travels 2,800 miles on the strength of its five-inch wingspan.
“There’s nothing like it anywhere in the world,” Brower says. “Unlike birds, the monarch is going back to the same exact spot, as if there’s some kind of computer program in their brain.”
But that amazing ability to return to the same place each year may also doom the butterflies because those places have fewer and fewer trees. “And then,” Brower says, “they freeze.”
He lobbied the Mexican government to protect the butterflies, and in 1986 a presidential decree created the butterfly reserve, an area about the size of Chicago. In 2000, Brower helped revise the plan to protect the reserve. But he said enforcement has been lax.
“I frankly think the Mexican government has proven themselves over 30 years of not being able to protect these butterflies,” he says. “They have had 30 years to get their act together, and they just haven’t.”
The country’s forestry police is stretched thin and susceptible to bribes, say local officials. The locations of checkpoints to stop logging trucks are widely known and easily evaded. The army is busy fighting the drug cartels.
The butterflies suffered two massive die-offs in recent years - one in 2002 where 250 million died and another two years later, when over 100 million died. All of them froze to death.
Brower said a perfect storm of events - a poor migration year in the U.S., followed by a cold winter in Mexico and then dry weather for the migration back north - could wipe out the monarchs entirely.
‘There is no forest’A lifetime in conservation has taken Bill Toone from Antarctica to Paraguay to Papua New Guinea. He helped develop and run the San Diego Zoo’s California condor recovery program, collecting eggs in the field and raising condors in captivity.
And ultimately, he realized that his work had to be about more than protecting animals and resources. “Conservation is about nothing,” he says, “if it’s not about people in the end.”
The monarch butterfly is the perfect illustration of that belief. Its fight for survival is also the fight of the small communities clustered on the mountains.
Not all of them are winning. In Escovales, a few mountaintops away from Guzman’s community, the swarms of butterflies that once came each winter are gone. Loggers took thousands of trees from this community in the past 15 years, without paying or asking permission.
“There is no forest,” says Alejandro Salgado Flores, 48, “and there are no butterflies.”
Salgado, who has lived in the community most of his life, says the butterflies were considered gifts from the spirits, and good luck. But they have vanished, and the water is going, too. Escovales is about halfway up the side of a mountain. Its water supply is dictated by the communities higher up. They take what they want, and when they cut trees, that means there is even less water to go around.
“There is going to be a war over the lack of water,” Salgado says, “and it is caused by the logging.”
Toone knew it wasn’t enough to tell rural Mexicans to save the forests for the sake of the butterflies. They had to do it for themselves.
The Eco-Life Foundation, founded in 2003, is helping in two key ways: First, it has set up a Web site (morethanmonarchs.org) in English and Spanish where residents, local governments and law enforcement agencies communicate with each other and organize.
Second, Eco-Life is paying for fuel-efficient mud and concrete stoves to be built and distributed. Two hundred have been delivered so far, at a cost of $150 each. Another 500 are due this year. The stoves are called Lorenas and come with a plaque that reads, “My name is Lorena and I’m a friend of the butterflies.”
The stoves provide an immediate impact by significantly reducing use of firewood, Toone says. Urgent action, he says, is needed. The communities are realizing they must stop the logging without waiting for the government to step in.
“If we wait until all the social programs are in place to address all the social ills in this part of Mexico,” Toone says, “the forest will be long gone.”
stephen.kiehl@baltsun.comStephen Kiehl traveled to Mexico on a fellowship from the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University.
© 2007 The Baltimore Sun
Last night I dreamed I saw the planet flicker
Great forests fell like buffalo
Everything got sicker
And to the bitter end
Big business bickered
Joni Mitchell / The Three Great Stimulants 1985
This subject was brought up to me at my meeting last Tuesday, people have been noticing…..no buttefly’s.
We all notice the lack of butterflies and bees. Perhaps the dramatic decline of most other inscects is not as noticeable. We don’t see the others as readily as the winged butterflies flying around our gardens and yards.
We have a large garden and small orchard, it is normal to see hundreds of butterflies and bees of several different specie, from early spring to late fall. Not this year, no bees, only a handful of butterflies and no lady bugs.
I don’t know the names of most of the bugs we normally have, but I do know when we don’t have them. We also don’t have any fruit or vegetables this year. Is there a problem?
I would say a big problem, the clues of a enviromental disaster are obvious.
What is the primary reason? Well, I don’t know, but I’ll bet we get a few different theories on this string if anyone bothers to come here.
P/s. Most of the birds aren’t here this year either. We have always had at least a hundred humming birds and this year we have seen five so far and this week only two of the five. There has always been a family of from ten to twelve Mexican Jays here year round. This year there were two and this month it dropped to zero. No difference in weather, no stray cats,__ and no birds, bees or butterflies.
Butterflies…..Bees…….Frogs……..
That is way oversimplifying things, for there are species that are extinct, gone forever, many that were no doubt never even taxonomically described.
The pattern is undeniable.
Yet the population of the human species, already far past the carrying capacity of the Earth, continues to grow exponentially. We have become experts at scientifically analyzing this and that. We have succeeded at creating miraculous new medications able to extend our lives, all manners of new technology, and weapons capable of mutual destruction, thousands of times over.
All of the aforementioned scientific developments rely on the availability of cheap fossil fuels. To continue this advancement necessitates our continued access to this lifeblood, this oil, which ironically just happens to permeate the strata of one of the most barren places on the planet, the Middle East.
So thus we have the real motives of “Operation Iraq Forever”, meant to strategically place ourselves as the police in this all-important oil-rich region, at a time when world oil production is generally agreed to be near peak or to have peaked already. Laying waste to a vast desert with our spent nuclear fuel aka Depleted Uranium simply doens’t somehow quite sit right with the notion we have “liberated” the Iraqis. Witness the alarming increase in cancers and birth-defects there and amongst our veterans.
Iraq just happens to share it’s border with Iran, #2 and #3 in total available oil reserves. The drum beat for the war on Iran gets louder, predictably courtesy of our friends at Faux News, CNN, and MSNBC (General Electric - bringing ‘good’ things to life).
Simply put we have been witnessing the wholesale destruction of our environment and the plant and animal species for decades in return for our shiny new cars, our 2000 sq. ft. refrigerated McMansions, our Super-Sized Big Mac and fries “Value” Meal. And not just us. The rest of the world demands it. The Russians and Chinese among others will not simply sit back as the US claims by way of George Bush that God personally approved of the invasion of Iraq for their oil.
The human species individually is capable of good, altruistic acts. As a whole, history shows us largely to be motivated by greed, achieving our ends through the use of violence. This administration is probably the most deceptive and manipulative of any our country has known.
What do the dwindling numbers of Monarch Butterflies, birds, bees, amphibians, and (fill in the blank with any life form other than humans) tells us? Everything. That a paradigm thousands of years old which informs us that man has dominion over all things living is self-serving, as all of life is interconnected. That a global population in excess of 6 billion and growing exponentially is not sustainable. That what each of us does to the environment as a result of our daily lives, has consequences.
Although I lament and am aghast at our plundering the plant and animal species of our home, the Earth, I know that for her we are just a “chalkmark in a rainstorm”. For the great dinosaurs which once ruled the planet, and whose remains are the emissions of our automobile tailpipes, their demise came about suddenly and abruptly with the mass extinction of countless other species. They could not foresee their own nuclear winter created by a huge meteor which left a scar on the Earth’s surface we now call the Gulf of Mexico. The difference is that we, being so intelligent as to see the pattern of extinction clearly and exponentially, with instant gratification and greed blinding us to our usurpations of the law of nature, will almost certainly succumb to the same fate.
Our ICBMs, our own creation will be to the human species what the gigantic meteor was to the dinosaur and what is now known as the 5th Extinction, as it was the 5th mass event of species extinction in the fossil record, Earth’s history book.
5th Extinction ….. meet 6th Extinction.
Kem…..what state do you live in?
Are you one of the bad people who will haul me away?
New Mexico. Up at 5,500 feet, in a beautiful hidden valley with two mountain streams and our own well of pure water. We used to live in Tucson AZ, out on Old Spanish trail. I retired from the Air force in 1976 and wrote humor for a weekly paper and then drove tour buses there and in New Jersey for 15 years.
I am afraid the depleted uranium the military has been using for many years, is now finally catching up with Mother Nature. Here are two websites that give some good info on the subject of DU. Be prepared to see some horrible pictures of children, born with deformities that were passsed onto the fetus from their infected fathers. DU alters DNA. all it takes to do so, is to inhale a single microscopic speck of DU, a speck smaller than a speck of pollen.
WE have fired off thousands of TOMS of DU since the 1970s. When DU is in a solid state, it is relatively harmless, when used as a weapon, it burns and the resulting smoke and dust are deadly uranium 238 isotopes, that will kill any living matter and it will be deadly for four billion years.
DU dust is impossible to clean up and the winds blow it all over the place and it gets into the upper atmosphere and returns to kill when it rains. It kills the birds and the bees and the phytoplankton in the seas.
The tiny phytoplankton plants, produce 60 to 70% of the oxygen in our atmosphere and our ocean’s waters. Have a nice week and don’t fret about DU, because it is far too late to worry.
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/DU/KYagasakiOnDU.pdf
www.protecthawaii.ws/page2.html
Dallas, Texas, 2008 - The Year The Bugs Disappeared. Here we are, end of one of the wettest Julys on record… and, still, almost no bugs at all. No bees, wasps, mud daubers, hornets (last year you couldn’t step outside without doing the mad dash past the swarms.) Nothing flying around the lights at night - a moth here and there, no butterflies to speak of, even the ants have chilled out. Last year - had to bomb for spiders. This year? Haven’t seen a one.
And there is a noticeable lack of color, because nothing is flowering (store bought already bloomed don’t count.)
All the canaries are dying… probably nothing to worry about. Just us anti-canary progressives with another one of our terrorist-lovin hoaxes…
Frank, it is not just us then, the same problem is occurring in Arizona where our daughter lives and in New Jersy where my sister lives. Turn out the lights, the parties over.
KEM PATRICK - Turn out the lights, the parties over.
WHAT?!? Did you know we already have the technology to go green for the entire economy and that would creat jobs and reduce the impact we are having on the planet significantly? Or am I really to believe you are actually choosing to shove your head up your proverbial arse and keep whining and waiting for the govt to come and save you? WAKE UP!!
In the late 1960’s the US developed the technology used by European and Japanese companies to build the Maglev or bullet trains which use no fossil fuel in their operation. You do not need to use a car in Europe except for the occasional cab ride which is still relatively cheap. Why are there no American companies doing this? Boeing or Lockheed anyone?
There was an electric car & light pick up which had excellent power, no fuel bills, could be charged overnight at home or on the road, and was in HIGH demand since 1996 UNTIL recently. GM & Ford killed ‘em off. See “Who Killed The Electric Car?”, the film is documentary that shows cars being crushed by the GM. The good news is that there are shops beginning to take matters into their own hands now. In both SC and CA there are conversion kits sold or you can bring your vehicle to these folks and they’ll convert it to electric.
Never before in the history of our nation has the government willingly given the people any rights or freedoms. So why now do so many people think the government can save you from terrorism, global warming or any other crisis we may face? It is time to once again pull up the boot straps and go to work in your local county government and go after building codes to require developers to go green. Where I live near Atlanta GA, huge energy hogs of a home are being sold from $350,000 to more than a million and they could easily use some solar power. We get tons of sun here in the South but we burn more coal than the rest of the country.
We need to be the change we want to see in our world, or we can choose to keep our heads buried in the sand and wait for Armegeddon. Frankly, if you want the latter, then just go ahead and take youself out of the picture and leave the planet for those of us who want to make a go of it still. While I am not afraid of dying, I do like living and see no need to hurry the process up. Let’s get busy instead.
I’m in southern Oregon, and I’ve also noticed some changes here, but not as bad as elsewhere. I’ve heard that our beekeepers aren’t having the die offs like other states.
My small back yard has been a haven for any lifeform, including those scary black widows. I don’t use any form of sprays, powders, etc., and haven’t killed an insect on purpose for nearly twenty years. I just work a little harder to get the pests and non-pests moved to more acceptable locations. This year I’ve seen enough wasps and yellow jackets (but the neighbor has a trap hanging only a few feet from my fence, so that keeps their numbers down. The spider population - all types - are way down this year; and I’ve seen only one ladybug so far.
The big black bumble bees that covered my honeysuckle bush a few years ago were down to only half a dozen this spring. I’d gotten so used to the steady buzz while working in my garden, that the absence of it made me feel deaf. The day I finally saw a lone honeybee working like he was responsible for the whole hive, I cried from happiness and dispair. Now there are quite a few of them in my white birch tree gathering pollan there.
One big thing I’ve noticed this year was the strange nesting pattern of the sparrows. They’ve usually raised three to five families in my birdhouses by the first day of June. This year several pairs tried, but nothing happened, and they left after a week. Then a pair came in the second week of July, and they’re busy feeding the first nestlings of the year now.
If de-forestation does not kill off the beautiful Monarch Butterfly than Monsanto and their Genetically Modified Food will. It is incredible how we are gradually destroying the beautiful natural things that make life worth living. We almost lost the Bald Eagle and many other species until we finally figured out that we cannot control nature with poisons, it destroys the balance of nature. This should be a serious wake up call to take action to prevent the loss of this magnificent creature.
We should consider this major catastrophe somewhat analogous to the Canary in the coal mine.
Here in northern MN, the waxwing birds haven’t come for the pincherries like they always did years before. Two hummingbirds this year. Much fewer butterfies and bees.
Sad beyond belief. The growth mantra has prevailed. I sterilized myself but this is NOT an individual problem, it is a social problem. We have created an unsustainable economy based on growth, including growth in population, and finite resource infrastructure. The cool, methodical insanity of capitalism and short-term thinking prevailed over any future-looking vision. And now there will be ‘hell to pay’ in the near future.
http://globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/645
Dr. Albert Bartlett: Arithmetic, Population and Energy (transcript)
When we run out of oil, pollute our atmosphere with burning coal and our land and sea with radwaste, kill most other species, overpopulate the earth:
“When the earth is dying there shall arise a new tribe of all colours and all creeds. This tribe shall be called
The Warriors of the Rainbow and it will put
its faith in actions not words.”
- Prophecy of the Native American Hopi people -
“There will come a time when the earth is sick and the
animals and plants begin to die. Then the Indians will regain their spirit and gather people of all nations, colors and beliefs to join together in the fight to save the Earth:
The Rainbow Warriors.”
- Ancient Native American prophecy -
Warriors of the Rainbow
There was an old lady, from the “Cree” tribe, named “Eyes of Fire”, who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans’ or Yo-ne-gis’ greed, there would come a time, when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.
There would come a time when the “keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs” would be needed to restore us to health. They would be mankinds� key to survival, they were the “Warriors of the Rainbow”. There would come a day of awakening when all the peoples of all the tribes would form a New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom and recognition of the Great Spirit.
The “Warriors of the Rainbow” would spread these messages and teach all peoples of the Earth or “Elohi”. They would teach them how to live the “Way of the Great Spirit”. They would tell them of how the world today has turned away from the Great Spirit and that is why our Earth is “Sick”.
The “Warriors of the Rainbow” would show the peoples that this “Ancient Being” (the Great Spirit), is full of love and understanding, and teach them how to make the “Earth or Elohi” beautiful again. These Warriors would give the people principles or rules to follow to make their path right with the world. These principles would be those of the Ancient Tribes. The Warriors of the Rainbow would teach the people of the ancient practices of Unity, Love and Understanding. They would teach of Harmony among people in all four comers of the Earth.
Like the Ancient Tribes, they would teach the peoples how to pray to the Great Spirit with love that flows like the beautiful mountain stream, and flows along the path to the ocean of life. Once again, they would be able to feel joy in solitude and in councils. They would be free of petty jealousies and love all mankind as their brothers, regardless of color, race or religion. They would feel happiness enter their hearts, and become as one with the entire human race. Their hearts would be pure and radiate warmth, understanding and respect for all mankind, Nature, and the Great Spirit. They would once again fill their minds, hearts, souls, and deeds with the purest of thoughts. They would seek the beauty of the Master of Life - the Great Spirit! They would find strength and beauty in prayer and the solitudes of life.
Their children would once again be able to run free and enjoy the treasures of Nature and Mother Earth. Free from the fears of toxins and destruction, wrought by the Yo-ne-gi and his practices of greed. The rivers would again run clear, the forests be abundant and beautiful, the animals and birds would be replenished. The powers of the plants and animals would again be respected and conservation of all that is beautiful would become a way of life.
The poor, sick and needy would be cared for by their brothers and sisters of the Earth. These practices would again become a part of their daily lives.
The leaders of the people would be chosen in the old way - not by their political party, or who could speak the loudest, boast the most, or by name calling or mud slinging, but by those whose actions spoke the loudest. Those who demonstrated their love, wisdom, and courage and those who showed that they could and did work for the good of all, would be chosen as the leaders or Chiefs. They would be chosen by their “quality” and not the amount of money they had obtained. Like the thoughtful and devoted “Ancient Chiefs”, they would understand the people with love, and see that their young were educated with the love and wisdom of their surroundings. They would show them that miracles can be accomplished to heal this world of its ills, and restore it to health and beauty.
The tasks of these “Warriors of the Rainbow” are many and great. There will be terrifying mountains of ignorance to conquer and they shall find prejudice and hatred. They must be dedicated, unwavering in their strength, and strong of heart. They will find willing hearts and minds that will follow them on this road of returning “Mother Earth” to beauty and plenty - once more.
The day will come, it is not far away. The day that we shall see how we owe our very existence to the people of all tribes that have maintained their culture and heritage. Those that have kept the rituals, stories, legends, and myths alive. It will be with this knowledge, the knowledge that they have preserved, that we shall once again return to “harmony” with Nature, Mother Earth, and mankind. It will be with this knowledge that we shall find our “Key to our Survival”.
This is the story of the “Warriors of the Rainbow” and this is my reason for protecting the culture, heritage, and knowledge of my ancestors. I know that the day “Eyes of Fire” spoke of - will come! I want my children and grandchildren to be prepared to accept this task.The task of being one of the……..”Warriors of the Rainbow”.
Haven’t seen but one butterfly this summer and it is one that my brother is nursing along as it wasn’t able to fly. He finally took it to a protected area and placed in on a milkweed plant hoping that it would make itself at home. No ants, no bees or wasps, only earwigs which appear to endure just about anything. (Northern Michigan)
Anthropocentrism.
Dominion.
“The human species individually is capable of good, altruistic acts. As a whole, history shows us largely to be motivated by greed, achieving our ends through the use of violence.”
Bullshit.
As a whole, civilized human history only covers a “chalkmark in the rain” compared with human existence. You must only be referring to civilized humans otherwise you would not be taking the salvationist approach.
Growth, development, economy, bullshit. These are civilized concepts. We respect civilized human laws more than natural laws. But nature cannot conform to human law. We stopped listening to natural laws long ago and we became lost. But there are plenty of examples of how to find our way home. Human nature is not to be civilized. Man existed hundreds of thousands of years. Civilized man has existed for what?12 thousand years at most? Which way seems better? Living in relationship with the world, or living while we objectify the world (and each other)?
Even the article had the anthropocentrist theme to it: save the critters to save the humans.
Again and again, civilized people dismiss primitivism as a model to look towards in reducung our destruction. Again and again we look to technology to save us from our technology. Are we really serious about our concerns? Or do we wish only to philosophise about some science fictitious future that might be right around the corner to allow us to continue doing whta we’re doing. Claiming the moral high ground has it’s responsibilities. It does not require talk. It requires action. Pacifism, while certailnly a desireable lifestyle is not automatically morally superior.
“They travel light: food, water, blankets, guns.”
At least these guys are willing to risk their lives to take action.
I’ve heard it asked, “What are you going to do about it?”
“We need to be the the change we want to see in the world.”
Hmmm. Nice Gandhian quote. Unfortunately, corporations love that most “protest” especially here in the United State of America, is peaceful. The time of symbolic protest is over. The clock it winding down. You getting arrested in an agreed upon format doesn’t save any life at all (except maybe yours). “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” But are we not blind already? If corporations are killing everything, don’t we need to stop them by whatever means neccessary? Or will signing petitions save what you care about? “Dear Weyerhauser, pretty please stop cutting down the trees…..” Yeah. Lemme know how that’s workin’ for ya. Oh wait! I can see for myself……it’s not! Back to the drawing board……
You wanna drive electric cars? Jesus. That’s not changing shit.What are electric cars made from? Where do you need to go anyways? To work? You’re putting band aids on a hemmorhage.
C’mon people, we’re taking on water here……if only we had the intelligence of rats.
Why is it that so many of us start our premise by using the ” greed/violence is human nature” line? This is nothing more than a salvationist religion viewpoint, “Man is inherrently evil” ideology. Put your religious baggage away please. It’s killing us.
If I sound pissed off, I am. You should be too.
Salvationist religion.
Technology.
Dogmatic pacifism.
Civilization.
Anthropocentrism.
Bullshit.
Anyone identify with any of these as good things?
Hey Ezeflyer-
Thanks for your post. Good stuff!
-Punk-
Thank you NEOCONNED for telling us all I have may head up my ass.
If you check the archives, you will find that I have posted over 600 blogs here on CD, under the name of Kem Patrick and Evelyn Smith. Over three hundred were on the subject of DU and few have responded to that most serious subject matter.
You did not respond to that subject either and my blurb of turn out the lights is appropriate. I have been green for over forty year BTW and have written over a hundred blogs here at CD, pertaing to wind and solar power and have designed an improved method of producing electricity from wind power, which we use.
Please don’t accuse me of giving up, because I write a sentence with a slight hope it may wake up those who ignore DU as the most serious problem we face and it appears that we have come close to running out of time.
Every day tons of DU is fired off here in the United States on military gunnery ranges and in Iraq and Afgan Killing terrorists.
You can take your insults and jam them up your ass neoconned, or whatever your name may actually be. I see you fear using yours.
KEM PATRICK July 30th, 2007 1:03 pm
You post under two pseudonyms, why? Now you know I hate DU too however in this case the butterflies “froze to death” so DU is not the culprit this time. That does not make DU good but at the same time multiple pseudonyms hinged with DU is the root of everything is simply not the case. The industrialization of the world coupled with expanding population is the root of everything. DU is just one of many horror stories written by mankind that may have sealed our fate?
Hi Shadow, thank you for asking, it was a mistake. When I first signed in here at Common Dreams two months ago, I meant to use Evelyn Smith for my password, my first girlfriend. I screwed it up and just reently discoverd how to correct it and so now I use my real name. I lost an eye in Vietnam and have macular degeneration in the good eye, so I do get confused at times trying to read with this damn magnifing glass and my spelling is terrible too.
Any pollution we humans create is not good for the enviroment, coal burning is about the worst. the problem is, this serious decline in ALL types of inscects and bird populations has become EXTREME in just the past six months. The daily use of DU in weapons is the only thing I know of that could account for that dramatic change in such a short time frame. The continual buildup of DU in our atmosphere has finally reached the breaking point and we continue to use it with reckless abandon and few seem to care.
Most of humanity is oblilvious of the problem. There wa a very good article about DU here last weekend and after 36 hours, CD buried it in the archives. There were about 130 comments on it. Several mundane articles stayed on the front page and have few comments. Why?
Well thanks again for helping to clear the air between you and I.
Puts a new spin on the old “Bird’s and the Bees” talk…
“Son, It’s time I told you about the birds and bees.”
“The what???”
“The birds and the bees, son. Flying mammals and flying instects. They used to pollenate the trees and flowers”
“What are trees and flowers?”
“Never mind kid, They’re all exinct anyways…and we’re next. So you better go out and get laid while you can”
Well, in southern New Mexico the wild honeybees finally came out. But, something feels strange, I notice fewer everything except for large mammals.
Thanks Punk
punkassbeotch
Considering the username, I don’t know why I am wasting time in response to your tirade. You seem to be full of anger without having the intellect to make any logical criticism. My comment in no way can be considered to be anthropocentric. My argument is that our continued invalidation of other species of plants and animals has led us to the point we are in and you scream about how anthropocentric that is?
You also say that that I use a ’salvationist religion’ approach throughout. My point was that Western religions have been the basis for a paradigm that places humans at the top and lets him have dominion over all other living things, which I point out is self-serving, as all of life is interconnected.
To your credit you make a couple of points one being that electric cars are not really the solution without going into the reasons. They depend on large amounts of fuel to be manufactured in the first place, not to mention the electricity they run on has to be generated somehow, usually leading back to the combustion of fossil fuels.
Your anger is understandable. Your logic behind your anger is fallacious as you are labeling ideas on this site with concepts you obviously don’t understand. Education helps with that problem.
You are mad as hell and you’re not gonna take it anymore. Good for you. Get back to us soon and let us know how your one-woman (the s/n punkassbeotch implies you are a woman) renegade justice turns out. Good luck with that.
VanishingEarth-
Judge a book by it’s cover
I am a man
It’s not all about you
If I was “screaming” I would have used all caps, something that I never do, because I find it quite unpleasant to read in others.My rant is at the general feel of this “discussion” not you in particular. That is why I didn’t address it to you. I quoted you as a good example of the common statements I hear all the time that say something to the effect that human history and the historical record began at the same time. This is so prevalent on this site that while people like to label themselves as progressive, they still lapse into the “it’s human nature to be violent” ideology. This is what I termned “salvationist” because I believe it stems from the main monotheistic faiths of our time- we are “tainted”, inherently bad/evil and need some sort of saving.
You said: “You also say that that I use a ’salvationist religion’ approach throughout.” I never said that. So if you’re now directing anger at me for something I never said, I can only deduce that it’s misplaced. May i ask you what your faith is if any? I’m merely curious because of your apparent defensive reaction.
You also said:”You seem to be full of anger without having the intellect to make any logical criticism.” While your reaction seems almost as illogical as you claim that I am, I must ask, what is your basis for this comment?
You imply that I am uneducated. Without getting into a pissing contest,I have had some institutionalized education.Let’s not confuse education with knowledge though. I believe I have the neccessary education required to participate in this conversation.And I have some experience too.
Thanks for giving me “points” on the electric car issue. While they were neither required nor desired, I think my overall point was missed. Perhaps I am inarticulate as well as ignorant? My point wasn’t so much about environmental issues (which are common enough knowlege), but lifestyle issues, like - why do we need to drive in the first place? I’ve read enough to know about just the manufacturing process alone (I know that one firsthand being a production manager myself). And I’ve seen some of the darndest documentary movies on that topic.
Speaking of movies,I see you’re a movie buff too with your reference to “Network”. Great scene that. And thank you for pointing out to me that my username can be offputting. I’ve often wondered if people were deriving some personal meaning from it that I could not possibly be in tune with. It seems like prejuduce? Nobody has ever asked, so I have never explained. I just figured it didn’t bother anyone….why would it? Guess I was mistaken. It happens.
Well, even if you don’t consider yourself anthropocentrist you certainly just came off as self-centrist.
-Punk
ps “Renegade justice”?!?!? Maybe you’ve been watching too many movies.
pps notice we still haven’t really gotten around to talking about primitivism? Deaf ears?
PUNK ASS, I am quite impressed with your command of the English language and your obvious intellect. I’m not an over educated idiot, just a regular guy who is concerned about the sudden and dramatic loss of wild life, and espeially those who would be the most succtable, like insects and birds, to poisons such as Deleted uranium and emissions from burnig coal.
I personally don’t care to read a debate on primitivism here, l would like to see some comments on the published issue and some possible suggestion to help solve a very serious global problem.
Of course I am not about to tell you or anyone else what to, or what not not to blog, just in a nice way, reminding you that you have wandered off of the subject. Why do people do that? To feel superior, or have some sort of warped, inner self satisfaction? I don’t know either.
How abut going to Google and ask for deplete uranium, read some of the one million, three hundred thousand articles, and see what you think. Beware of the denyers who make money from selling or using DU for weapons. Just a friendly suggestion Punk.
I know this sounds simplistic but I think it is potent; the best way you can immediately help the planet right now is by being nice to one another. Yes, kindess, generosity,– responding to faults, slip ups, and ignorance of others with grace, wisdom and patience, is something that we can all do right now. And it actually facilitates the growth and understanding of each of us better than whipping and slapping each other with words. And moves us all into a place of harmony and cooperation. And it is imperative that we have harmony and cooperation amongst us to get things done.
Now as to us invading Iraq for their oil. I do not believe that it was for the oil. No, if we had other forms of transportation we still would have invaded. America was looking for a permanent military base in the mideast. Everybody and their mother was wanting to get our bases out of their countries, Germany, ireland, Saudi Arabia, and it was all so messy having to get them to allow us to base all of our missiles and weaponry on their soil. So we looked around to see who would be the easiest country to topple. Why it was the third world country of Iraq. We planned to go in and crate a stir, then pull back into “permanent military bases” over whom nobody but ourselves could oversee. It worked. We started puring the cement for 14 permanent military bases in Iraq years ago. AND in July of 2003 we began pouring the cement for the builidng of the largest United States Embassy in the world, in you guessed it, Baghdad, with a permanent staff of 2,000 employees. Phew! how good it must have been to finally have gotten that baby off of the drawing boards and into the delivery room. You notice this compound was begun before the Iraqi people had their first chance to vote?
Pearline7 July 30th, 2007 6:53 pm
Being nice will get you killed faster. We are “allowing” the war to continue. We are “allowing” the government to go off in a cull tangent. We are allowing the military to torture. We are allowing the tuna plunderers to crush the ocean floors with rollers. We allow the seals to be clubbed to death. We allow the uranium mines. When will it be time to be furious at the apathy around us as our leaders seem to be intent on making the Book of Revelations into real history? When? When will we do anything? Why be nice when we should at a minimum be in tears?
Pearline, Since you have brought up the subject of Baghdad, if you would like to read about some things that could help the planet, scroll back and check out the above two websites pertaing to DU. July 30, 5:58am.
The radiation readings in Baghdad are 2,000 times above normal. At 200 tmes normal, it would be very frightening. Every single person there and any who have been there in the past five years, will suffer from lung cancer. That is an un-arguable fact, which is stated by some of the world’s leading scientists, doctors and experts on the subject of depleted uranium isotopes.
Personally, I am certain DU is killing off the birds, bees and the phytoplankon in our oceans. Read up on phytoplankton on Google, those ocean plants supply us with most of our oxygen. Being nice to one another is always nice. It won’t stop the phytoplankton from becoming extinct. Do you have family? Be nice to them, because they may all be history in a very few years if the signs of extinction are actually how they now appear. The clues of it are clearly obvious. Sorry.
Hi all-
Being nice to each other is the pacifistic view. I truly wish that we were there. This is the “be the change…” quoted earlier. Corporations love that we debate over this issue. Shall we fight? Or shall we hold hands and be the change we wish to see? Chain yourself to a tree? Or sign a petition? Blow up a dam? Or write letters to a politician? Which will save salmon? We’re so conditioned that all violence is bad. Meanwhile corporations hesitate not one milisecond in their violence towards the living organism - the earth.
So with that…back atter:
Kem Patrick-
Hey! I’m just a normal dude too! That’s cool! We’re like, like brothers!
I am a child of a Marine who is a Viet Nam Veteran.I am a high school drop out. An old school punk rocker who lived on the streets back in the reagan years,I became an alcoholic and a drug addict. I haven’t been drunk or high in 15 years. There. Now I’ve said it. I feel better already. Hence the “punk” in my username.
You said:
” personally don’t care to read a debate on primitivism here, l would like to see some comments on the published issue and some possible suggestion to help solve a very serious global problem.”
I’m sorry. I thought I was suggesting some possible solutions here. But hey, let’s all just ignore the fact that primitive peoples didn’t screw up the planet anything much to speak of so what the hell could they possible know about how to live well on it? But if you don’t care to read it…well…they say it’s a free country. No one’s forcing ya to.
You said:
“Of course I am not about to tell you or anyone else what to, or what not not to blog, just in a nice way, reminding you that you have wandered off of the subject. Why do people do that? To feel superior, or have some sort of warped, inner self satisfaction? I don’t know either.”
I don’t perceive that I’ve wandered off topic by suggesting primitivists may have solutions to some of our problems. But in the same breath you “wander off” subject by talking about depleted uranium….again. The article wasn’t about DU either now was it? And it’s not like new news to most of us on this site. Everytime you suggest that someone google something,you are presuming that they haven’t ever heard of this shit. It’s not enlightening, it’s condescending. As was stated up thread, those butterflies froze to death. Stopping logging and deforestation would be on topic. Stopping mining uranium while a very similar problem (exploiting the landbase) probably won’t save the Monarchs. Kinda reminds me of Walter from “The Big Lebowski” who just can’t help but bring Viet Nam into every conversation. “Why does everything have to be about Viet Nam Walter?”
Anyways…I think some solutions to mining and deforestation and exploitation of the land-base are in the article itself. Vincente Guzman Reyes has helped to set up patrols in the areas in question. They bring guns. They appear ready act should the coroprations try to do their thing. Are we as Americans/westerners ready to do this?
I merely submit that a primitivist view may have something to offer our civilized way of life that could solve some of our very serious global problems. I think our end result is the same- we want the destruction to stop. Whether it’s mining DU or being good to one’s landbase (which butterflies are a part of of course), it’s the same thing. Literally.
I am not understanding your problem here.
Perhaps said a different way: How would primitivist peoples treat the Monarch Butterfly? They would never have knowingly, if at all destroyed their habitat. How did primitive indigenous people treat war? Well they certainly wouldn’t have dug around in the earth for poisonous crap to obliterate everything with. They didn’t see forests as a resource to be exploited. They didn’t see the earth as a resource to be exploited.
This “green movement” seems to be all about finding alternative resources to exploit so that we can continue our very cherished, coveted, extremely dysfunctional way of life. I thought it was appropriate to bring into the conversation ways of life that worked for hundreds of thousands of years. I don’t think it’s off topic. I think it’s considerable.
-Punk
ps god(s) save me from turning every conversation into my favorite topic of primitivism.
punkassbeotch
I must admit your response was very well written. In answer to your question, I consider myself an agnostic. My background is in Earth Sciences and I tend to be somewhat analytical in thinking, and never paid much attention to politics until my vote for Al Gore was discounted in 2000. So everything I know about politics I have learned on my own, and the more I learn, the more cynical I become about the subject. I would like to believe there is a “God”, however, I think it unlikely there would be a God that would create only man and give him a soul, and not give souls to the other animal species that share some or most of our DNA. Nothing really points to a God as far as I have been able to observe, but I can’t rule it out. Eastern religions, especially those that focus on karmic cause and effect, seem more sensible to me than Western religions, which I consider to be mythology. I do detest those, such as the President and countless others that would invoke the name of God in their self-serving agendas.
Actually I thought my comment was rather pessimistic and fatalistic and was expecting comments to that regard, and instead the CD community largely posted comments more fatalistic than mine.
I really don’t see an answer to the predicament we’re in. Yes a return to more primitive lifestyles, such as those the native Indians had when our ancestors set foot upon this land and ‘tamed the savages’ might be the only way to halt the exponential destruction we are causing to the Earth. That won’t happen as long as we have access to the fuels to sustain our present lifestyle though. And we, as well as the other superpowers will use all their military might to lay claim to those energy resources. As a society we have become complacent with all of our modern conveniences which we take for granted. This is probably the biggest reason that people have not taken to the streets in great numbers to send a message that ‘business as usual’ by our unaccountable politicians is not acceptable. We can do our part in the comfort of our homes as Keyboard Warriors to try and spread the message, but much of it is largely preaching to the choir.
As someone noted recently in their comments, it’s all about power. Politics, defined as social relations involving power and authority, is our civilized way of warring with our opponents. When this mechanism breaks down, which seems to be the situation currently with our Constitutional Crisis which is predictably being downplayed by the MSM, who knows what will ultimately happen. Lots of comments here on CD address this coming almost apocalyptic event and they are fascinating to read. And scary. And quite possible.
Oh and about the butterflies. With every vanishing species, the 6th Extinction is well under way. I personally think mankind’s ability - unique among other creatures - to deceive even himself, will ultimately be the demise of Homo sapiens as a species. I also believe the Earth will carry on as it always has, and some other species will evolve to replace us. And that species will probably create their own religion, as most human cultures have done in their quest for the answer “Why are we here?”. And if their answer is to respect and take care of what has taken billions of years to evolve, much as the native American Indians did, rather than to selfishly exploit it for their own gain, perhaps they won’t face the massive mess we do now.
EZEFLYER: Love the Indian parable, a work of mystical art close to my own heart! I believe that it IS prophetic, and already happening. Again, thanks for posting it!
PEARLINE: Since all the masters teach the catharic cleansing power of forgiveness, that is a more powerful demonstration of “and be kind to one another.” Either way, as Carlos Casteneda’s teacher Don Juan put it, EVERY GOOD act, every kind altruistic gesture constitutes a “payment to the spirit of mankind” which Don Juan related was always a rather LOW account. (Let’s do our parts!)
I live on the adjacent rim of a huge state park and there are TONS of butterflies, however, not monarchs… we have a wonderful display of swallowtails, several species. I also see TONS of bees (although not necessarily honey bees) and TONS of spiders… and never use ANY poisons in my yard. I have not yet used a motor driven lawn mower either. Yeah, it takes stamina (but I love exercise) but I use a machete when the weeds get high and just let the grass be. It’s very Zen (or shades of putting into practice what I learned from reading about the Findhorn Garden)… if I leave the grass alone, it doesn’t bother me, either and seems to keep itself at a fairly respectable height. (I am serious… I watch my neighbors mow week after week like some neurotic ritual demanding the grass adhere to their specifications, and it grows all the faster. They probably think I am the eccentric one, but I dig the fact I don’t have to mow!)
punk & earth
very nice
have not seen a monarch this yr..
ken
VanishingEarth-
That’s funny. That was the one and only time I voted as well. ‘Cept I voted for Nader. I lived in Hawaii @ the time and knew my state would “carry” Gore, which they did. Little did it matter. Makes ya wonder tho’ if it matters at all anymore? Did it ever? I never paid attention to politics much until 911. Everything I know has been away from institutionalized education and media. I guess it was Zinn’s, “A Peoples History” that kicked it off for me. Then on to Chomsky. Then onto Ward Churchill. Then onto Derrick Jensen.
Oh Yeah, Joni Mitchell…thanks for that. I especially like it when Robben Ford is playing with her.
Sh@dow
Nice. I’m with that. Both tears and furiosity( is that even a word?). A favorite quote of mine by Derrick Jensen is, “We have been too kind to those who are destroying the planet. We have been inexcusably, unforgivingly, insanely kind.”
Siouxrose
I’m still waitin’ on that shakra thing……but y’know……I don’t think Bushco is gonna get there in time. Maybe we can do something whilst we wait? Besides meditation that is? If I offend….forgive me. I just think that spiritual cliches have not and will not save the planet. But they are an convenient excuse to not have to act. What is it the Christians say? ”Faith without works is dead.” I’m hearin’ alot of faith….I think in a utopian world filled with spiritual masters, theres a long way between here and there.
kengarjagalouski
Ummmm. Thanks? Me neither. No Monarchs.
Loveya Siouxrose.
Hi Punk, I’m really sorry I sounded off there, I hope you will accept my apology for being rude.
I get wrapped up with DU because I do believe it is the most serious problem we face and time is running out. I get terribly frustrated because I don’t believe most people understnad how serious it is and sometimes I sound off like that.
For example, there have been several here who state that they have not seen butterflies this year of any type and no other inscets, and or few if any birds. That has all transpired within the past six months. It isn’t as if it has been a slow reduction one would expect from our long lasting pollutions from burning coal and use of vehicles. It is a “dramatic” reduction in a very short time span. It’s like a poison causing it.
It is not just monarchs that have literally disappeared, it’s all species andbirds anbees etc. The only poison I know of that has been spread around the planet that is deadly for all life in a short time frame is DU. Well, we will soon know. Remember when Rachiel Carson penned Silent Spring? People listened then. Now the doctors and scientists are teling us about the even worse danger of DU and who cares? Not near enough of us.
sh@dow
“The industrialization of the world coupled with expanding population is the root of everything. DU is just one of many horror stories written by mankind that may have sealed our fate?”
What absolute nonsense!!!Mans’ inhumanity to man (and all living things) is the root of the problem. Caring not for life, but for profit as the priority.
Depleted Uranium is the worst of all heinous war crimes denied continually in the face of horrendous evidence which the American military has refused to properly investigate.
Only money and the greed for same prevents the ceasation of D.U. production. Only America has succumbed to this temptation to “use” nuclear waste and save money by permanently poisoning the planet.
This is not just another of mans errors!!
It is THE major War Crime of all History, because they know!!!
Hey all, especially Americans,
Wyoming and Iowa are about to start a mass slaughter of wolves, using planes and helicopters. There are only a few days left to submit
comments on this. If you care about wildlife, PLEASE visit: www.nrdc.org/naturesvoice/feature1.asp
They have made it really easy to submit comments on this and give you a lot of good info as well.
Thank you.
I so agree with Sh@dow, man’s inhumanity to mand (and all living things) is the ROOT of the problem.
To Kem, I loved reading the swetness coming out of your mouth to punkass- I love him and his passion and concern, too.
Yes, i am aware of the DU problem. i was almost over the top flipping out about it years ago when I read an article in YES! magazine interviewing a Major (hmmm, forget his name:(
who was hired by the government to find out how to protect our soldiers from it. He reported DU’s insidiousness and more and went on to advise the needed protection required for our soldiers, all of which was promptly shelved and the inquiry dissolved. I wrote letters to the editors passed on articles on DU to friends etc. It is such a juggernaut.
“Faith without works is dead” Yeah, so what cha gonna do? For me when I push against the mountain with all of my strength and it doesn’t move, I usually vent for awhile, then sit down and weep for awhile, then I pick up my goddamm pick and chip away at the mountain blocking the path to a peaceful, sustainable, fun loving world where all the waters are clean and the natives are friendly. And I hope that others are chipping away at it too in their small corner of the world.
The chipping involves for me, [Externally], working in my local politics, buying organic milk and produce, voting with my dollars as it were, writing letters to the editors, learning more about multimedia, developing my talents and skills as to be more useful in the public arena. [Internally] it involves, working on not letting my fears paralyze me into giving up, (if I can’t run, i can walk, if i can’t walk I can crawl, and if i can’t crawl I can bellyache;)) Being kind to others and allowing them to contribute and grow as they see fit without censure. (I do have firm boundaries though, as a rape victim and a former molestee of the church, I do believe in the death penalty.) And I respect others who want to do more vigilante stuff with certain multinational corporations who defile our land and waters…yeah, if one did an “illegal” but morally righteous act, and came to me for cover and refuge I would help them a la the French Resistance. It was illegal at one time to feed or help Jews in Germany. Hitler, it is said, never broke a law. He just changed them first, Sorta like the habeus corpus law recently junked by the Bush administration.
Anyway… the point is, we do what we can, and trust the process. I am thinking more and more that Gaia has a mind of her own and we are all evolving and dying, being composted back in and re-emerging in another time and space (Sort of like in Robert Wright’s book NONZERO- HISTORY, EVOLUTION And COOPERATION and that growth to full awareness (and kindess) is the purpose.
P.S. As a recovering born-againer I believe I do know where the God of the Bible is. He is OUT TO LUNCH!
Am I reading too much into things when we say, “Mans’ inhumanity to man (and all living things) is the root of the problem.”? Is the parethetical “all living things” kinda like a side note? The obligatory, “oh yeah…and all of them too”? We live in an heirarchical culture. We catagorize usually by what’s most important to us.
Now. You can take an out and say, “yes, you are reading too much into this.” or, you can look deeper and ask yourself if perhaps there is a pecking order in your mind after all. Only you know the answer for sure.I sure don’t. I only know how it appears.
Again, seemingly, overtones of anthropocentrism appear to exist.
While we can be kind to each other (and all living things), and practice forgiveness, how is this protecting the environment? How is this protecting non-human life? Is this like the Rodney King quote,” Can’t we all just get along?” How does this save the wolves mentioned upthread? Do we forgive those who continue to slaughter with impunity?
Example of forgiveness: your most precious loved one is being brutally attacked right before your eyes. You can:
A.) Let it continue and hope the attacker will realize the error of his/her way and forgive him/her.
B.) Try to stop the attacker by whatever means neccessary.
C.) Sign a petition and/or write a letter to a politician to see if they can stop the assault.
D.) March in protest to the assault.
E.) Pray and/or meditate.
Your loved one will die if you don’t try to stop this assault. You may die if you try and stop it. If you don’t try, you will probably die anyways. If you don’t try, then perhaps the expression of (self)forgiveness will be helpful.
This is how I see our situation. Our “loved one” could be Monarch Butterflies, Salmon, disabled war veterans, forests, mountains, living bodies of water, clean air, the earth, life.
Pearline7
Lastly, I am so sorry that those terrible things happened to you. I also have had some of these things happen to me. And rape has touched too too many of my immediate circle as well. The statistics are staggering. I do not however consider the death penalty to be either forgivness nor healthy boundaries. It sounds like good old fashioned vengeance to me. I guess i’d like to think I draw the line at “immediate threat” as opposed to retribution. But when I envision the face of the man who raped my loved one, I also imagine what I’d do to him. It passes. I see him from time to time. I also know that his life situation is not stellar. He has his own troubles…..
Thank you for sharing,
-Punk
Eric Stevens, you told it like it is. July 31, 6:05am
Hi Punk, for a high school dropout, your writing is as good as it gets. If you are not penning books or novels, you are in the wrong line of work. You may be sucessful in whatever you do, but the world needs writers like you and Shadow too.
Pearline, you are a swell person. Your thoughts remind me of Siouxrose and Ezeflyer.
Now, how do we get the use of DU stopped? Most of us likely have children and even grandchildren. Is a sterile world with no chance of life in the future our final gift to them? ___ Apparantly it is.
I have a difficult time believing I am writng this, it honestly seems to be so unreal, as if it truly is not happening. It’s like a bad movie. Then I go out to the garden and search for ANY type of insect and or a humming bird on the feeders and it’s very real. There are none__ and now I learn it is happening everywhere. Tomorrow the sun will rise and it will be the same, or___ maybe worse, more DU will be used, either in Iraq, or on military firing ranges in thirty different countries.
One of the troops service manuals concering DU advises the troops, who are in an area where a DU shell has been used, to avoid inhaling. That would work for anyone.
I went out to our garden this mornig, not a single inscect was found,__ none! The humming bird feeders were vacant, no birds, hornets or bees, which has never happened until just recently.
Is this what we are leaving our children, a sterile poisioned world?___ Apparently it is.
The sun rose this morning, just like it always has, and that is an old saying, and then the added phrase, that we should not worry, life will go on as before. Well, that is what worries me, it will go on as before, only now it goes on with over thirty nations using DU, either in wars, or at military firing ranges. And the ocean’s phytoplankton are dying off and time is qickly running out for all life on this once beautiful and most rare water planet. That is both true and tragic, and few don’t know, and or don’t care.
Thanks Punk, True the death penalty is neither forgiveness nor always healthy boundaries.
Good thing we have the trial by jury thing in place for people like me who sometimes can be too “in the moment” to think straight.
I am sure there is a pecking order in my mind…my kids first, sorry can’t hardly help it…
we’ll chalk that one up to hormones.
I believe in action, I think we go backwards though if we hurt others in the process. I am not agin hurting their profits, (oops o.k.,o.k. being put to death might hurt a little…)
Damn, I find I am neither consistent nor logical at times. Oh well, I am pulling with ya’ll the best I can.