Tales of PEACE: Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology
YOU … will never disappoint
you can hurt me …
you can pain me badly
or have animosity toward me
and hate me badly
(though I, personally, could never hate)
but YOU will never disappoint …
(and i am excited that a longer poem will expand from this)
………………………..
pbm
7 S’s / VV-.^^
Personal Experience with Scholarships. I did receive a number of small scholarships in 1964 when I graduated from Devine High with the major one being to some extent based on grades …. but it was also a socialistic scholarship addressing the needs of my relatively poor family. This Opportunity Award Scholarship of $550 from Texas A&M took care of pretty much of all my expenses. (Of course, expenses were few … because I hitch-hiked for travel, initially I lived in a non-air-conditioned dorm, there was no TV in the dorm or for many expensive extra-curricular activities available in today’s universities, and my computer system was a slide-rule.) This scholarship was the reason I attended and eventually received two degrees from Texas A&M.
Personal Experiences with “Internships.” The scholarships were helpful, and the TAMU Opportunity Award Scholarship was life changing. But it was the “internships” through the years which impacted me the greatest. I was first under the strict tutelage of former Marine Master Sergeant Dad Alton Martin for which I received a place to sleep along with my five younger siblings and the good food of Mom St. Louise I learned to milk the cow at five years of age, and this was a duty each morning and evening. I learned to earn some plata in raising hogs and from part-time jobs directly or indirectly under Dad’s supervision at the diversified feed mill & store in Devine, Texas. And I learned to garden in a sustainable way, mostly with only a shovel & hoe as tools, and composted manure fertilizer from a nearby feedlot. Then at about nine, in the summers I experienced the relatively “cold” mornings going to the fields in the back of an old bob-tail truck and pulling a cotton-sack or wielding a hoe … working the hot fields of green beans, southern field peas, squash, peanuts, watermelons, hay bales, and irrigation pipes … under the supervision of two crew-leaders, super-kind & gentle Antonio (Tony) Cruz and tough, slave-driving, and hard-working Salome Gallegos. (Salome was tough to work for, but because of his sort of ruthless ways, he always had more work, and therefore more money for me! … I’ll also mention as an aside, but yes, as “a statement,” generally it was my brother Lawrence and I who were the only gringos working on these crews.)
Later there were many other “internships,” including under TAMU Food Services Dan Ruiz, my Master’s major professor Dr. Dick Ridgway, Doctoral Major Professor, Dr. Pete Lingren, and Department Chair at St. Philip’s College, Dr. Lanier Byrd. The scholarships and the “internships” in my life all provided funds for furthering my education, but the “internships” were the more educational and robust learning experiences “in and of ‘themselves.’”
The Road to Seguin LULAC 682 Foundation Garden, LULAC in general, and Internships/Scholarships. My first friends other than my five younger siblings were the Peñas across the road from our five-acre place. At about six years of age, Esteban, also about six, and Alejandro, a couple of years older, taught me uses of plants in the pasture, how to count and say the alphabet in Spanish, and bad words and phrases, which eventually got me in trouble in Catholic School. Mr. Peña who had a beer joint in town, also was an amazing gardener and kept bees, and provided my family with honey. We Alton Martins had no TV and rarely listened to the radio in the 1950’s, but I do remember the older (and beautiful) Peña girls (Tina and Rosa, I believe) introducing me to Elvis Presley while waiting for the school bus and later pointing out his music over in their home.
Good memories of good times!!! … But in the big city of Devine … all in all, a truly wonderful community … I also saw considerable disparity and discrimination. There was a socio-political force to stifle the speaking of Spanish at public schools, Mexican-Americans (actually called Mexicans in the 1950’s, then perhaps Chicanos, sometimes maybe Tejanos, now Hispanics or Latinx) seated to the left of the aisle and Anglos to the right, and segregated Catholic youth clubs at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. A separate but very poorly funded Mexican public school when I was in the first grade … in a poor “Mexican” part of town. More poverty and menial labor for Mexican-Americans. Pejorative words/phrases/attitudes for & toward Mexican-Americans … and the few black folk who worked in Devine, but did not live there.
Also … in my formative years after my birth in a doctor’s office in Nixon, Texas in 1946, and “extended formative years,” I was strongly influenced by stories of World War II, by Vatican II, by the Civil Rights movement and the activities of La Raza Unida in Crystal City (a city which was in our UIL district, and by the way, Homer de la Rosa, the amazing lineman Geronimo de la Rosa, and I were on the same field one night when I caught a long pass for a touchdown in 1963), by Vietnam, and the ecological activism (and songs & music) of the 1960’s & 1970’s, as well as observing of community garden activity … and some personal work toward community gardens at the University of Florida, Austin, Krakow, and in Spain … and elsewhere. (And I will add that my classmate Richard Guajardo influenced me greatly and made me think about being more outspoken when one Wednesday evening in a catechism class in the 7th grade he gave “sort of ‘living hell’” to a num, Catholicism, and Christianity with a big “C” for hypocrisy in dealing with peoples of other religions.)
As a result of these experiences in my life, and work experiences in biocontrol, agroecology, sustainable agriculture, and sustainable ecological community, in 2006 I retired from teaching at the Historically-Black and Hispanic-Serving St. Philip’s College in San Antonio to organize the informal Siempre Sustainable Network (My wife Betsy came up with the name in one of our first meetings in our home.) with co-founder Marvel Maddox and to change Seguin, Texas to be a foremost local and global sustainable ecological community. However, the only thing which really got traction in our efforts other than our Seguin Earth Day event and curb-side recycling, was community gardens. Paul Castillo, former LULAC 682 president got wind of this effort, and approached me to start one on LULAC 682 land.
My tocayo’s LULAC community garden proposal excited me for a number of obvious reasons and including that in my “Sustainable Seguin Manifesto” of 2007 which I developed immediately after retirement, I had expressed the desire to actively collaborate with LULAC and NAACP. Now, I thought, the LULAC part might come to fruition!? Therefore, I rapidly began to invest my time and efforts and $16,500+ of my own monies, and $1550+ other funds raised from family and friends, into a LULAC community garden and community garden internship effort … in collaboration with a tried and true internship program through a solid NGO, Ogallala Commons (which had been started in by a former priest whom I had met while working for Jim Hightower and the Texas Department of Agriculture in Austin in the 1980s & 90’s). (Marvel Maddox and I also donated trees & seed, including a considerable amount of my Father’s seed which Mom had stored in her refrigerator.)
All of this just skims the surface of the complex of activities that went on concerning community gardens in the period of ca. 2009 to present. Nevertheless, I am going to wrap this up somewhat succinctly below in a list of major points (and this will basically be my oral presentation at the August 29th, 2022 meeting):
1.All efforts toward quality life in ecological community should involve sustainable livelihoods, or livelihoods which are socio-ecologically just and positively moral & ethical and support quality life for all, including other species, in local and global community.
(Sustainable livelihoods can be tough to wrap our heads around, and I believe Wendel Berry said it so very much better:
“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.”)
2. Scholarships for studies at universities are of considerable merit … IF they are qualified to be for development of sustainable livelihoods and community..
3. However, internships, especially for sustainable community gardens, are much more powerful, PARTICULARLY IF they journey us toward sustainable ecological community, are well-developed, and are structured with a solid work plan and good supervisor guidance.
Internships serve the same purpose of scholarships, and more! They provide funds for further study , but also result in work experiences and discipline and (robust) local (and global) community interactions. Moreover, they are more in keeping with the truism of ecological educator, David Orr, that all education is ecological education and my extension of this … that in order to begin to critically think, decision-make, and act as a community, we must begin to realize “positively ethical applied community ecology” across curricula & campuses of all human organizational entities.
4. In the case of Ogallala Commons Internships, there is also the opportunity for an orientation retreat and guidance in preparing the work plan and realizing effective supervision, and the mandatory requirement of publishing online blogs, doing extra community service, and producing a finalizing “Harvesting Ceremony” presentation. Moreover, there are opportunities for connecting to a more global community, especially with indigenous peoples, Latinos, and others in the area of the Ogallala Aquifer and nearby, from the Panhandle of Texas to northeastern New Mexico & southeaster Colorado, an on up to South Dakota and as far west as from eastern Wyoming to as far east as eastern Nebraska.
5. Costs to LULAC 682 at this time for Ogallala Commons internships would be $1,700 for a $1,000-/100-hour internship or as high as $7,500 for a $6,000/500 hour-community apprenticeship. This is a wonderful investment in our local youth, in the growing of LULAC 682 toward quality life for all including other species, and in the amazing NGO, Ogallala Commons.
6. I will donate $5000 to a LULAC community garden internship, if I am convinced through a submitted, well-crafted proposal that there is the development of a solid work plan and dedicated supervisor for the internship and that it will likely move us forward toward socio-ecological justice (that is, if this crazy, broken neoliberal capitalistic system from which I obtain my retirement monies holds together long enough)
7. I will donate another $5,000 to LULAC 682, if a I am convinced that a solid, dedicated, & diverse LULAC Community Garden Steering Committee has been established and that there is some effort to work toward having a part- or full-time Seguin City Gardener who would coordinate local efforts toward developing sustainable community gardens which are sociology just and ecologically sound.
…………………………
And I will summarize …
Scholarships are a valuable tool toward socio-ecological justice and sustainable ecological community (what we all should be for).
Internships are a tool which serve the same purposes but can yield so very much more in terms of sustainable livelihoods, especially through the type of internship Ogallala Commons offers. However, an internship does take more of an investment—not so much in the way of monies, but considerably more in terms of planning, guidance, and learning by all of the players.
Dear Reza,
I don’t know if I would be considered “by most” to be “christian” or not. And to me it doesn’t matter.
But anyway, in a quasi-answer to your question about the Beto-Abbott race today at the Court Street Coffee Shop (in Seguin) …
……………………
I do believe Jesus of Nazareth, or the “personificated” focus of the myth of Jesus of Nazareth, … was a great humanitarian in a very profound and holistic sense. Therefore I believe true “christians”* support the values “attempted to be exemplified” by democratic eco-socialism, the Green Party, … and … less so, the Democratic Party.
……
(*versus the bunch of Christians we have in this world who do not de facto believe in socio-ecological justice and humaneness, or real efforts toward quality life for all including other species, for as long as possible)
…….
Now … sanctity of life, or sanctity of various life systems including–life stages immediately after conception, life forms of other species, and dynamic homeostatic symbioses–is of the utmost importance, and should be thus in the minds of every human! Nevertheless, in concerns with the life form in a human mother’s womb, decisions dealing with that life, the mother, and associated living systems … should be left up to the “informed, and morally- and ecologically-educated” mother.
(I tried to deal with this a bit in: http://www.paulpeaceparables.com/2018/10/17/to-kill-or-not-to-kill-by-paul-b-martin/ and in a slightly better-developed piece in our book on applied ecology, https://www.kite.pub/sustainability/games-we-play/ .)
Connected with this business of “sanctity of life,” I would hope that we immediately work much harder and smarter to get rid of (energetically-expensive & wasteful and socio-ecologically destructive) guns, arms, armaments, military, and War. AND BETO IS MUCH CLOSER TO THIS (christian) MINDSET THAN ABBOTT.
Moreover, even though the critical thinking, decision-making, and necessary policy-development & actions ain’t easy, making the needed decisions concerning the banning of guns, including AR-15s, is much easier than those dealing with aborting or not aborting.
THEREFORE, I’LL VOTE FOR BETO (AND MOSTLY OTHER DEMOCRATS) ON NOVEMBER 8, 2022. And I absolutely do not understand why all other Texans would not do the same!
……………………………..
Related newspaper article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/us/beto-orourke-texas-governor.html
Thanks,
paul
pbm
7 S’s / VV->^^
Seguinite Pat Hoppe … & Arthur Miller’s All My Sons … de facto lack of familial/”community” communication …
and the high-inputs of private & militaristic monies and resultant corruption
All My Sons opens this weekend at The Texas | Seguin Today
C-SPAN’s Discussion of Tocqueville’s insights into (U.S.) democracy and
of toxic polarization problems for our big-moneyed/ignorance-based two-party “democratic” system
[The Man Who Understood Democracy] | C-SPAN.org
Billie Crystal’s Tribute to Muhammad Ali … and his and Ali’s effective communication!
(2666) Billy Crystal’s Muhammad Ali tribute – 15 Rounds (1979) – YouTube
(First you must establish connections/credibility …
hand milked since I was five, taught important basics by the Peñas and Cruzes, we Martins raised hundreds of Durocs & crosses, Uvalde & San Diego, saved in the Mill accident by the Haywood brothers, Aggie & Animal Eight, did loops & immelmans & spins & slow-circling stall-prone landings and damn near killed myself a couple of times in Naval Air in the late 60’s/early 70’s, sé comunicarme en portuñol bastante bien, wonderful Helen, neighbor, in the very first Master Naturalist class, requested to testify to city councils, commissioners’ courts, school board, state legislator committees, Sunset Commissions, Federal District Courts.
Be careful! Don’t overdo it paul bain!!!
Then keep it short and succinct. Speak their lingua … about …
communication with humanity* and nature**, connectivity, climax communities, evapotranspiration rates, biomes, second law of thermodynamics, topsoil, H2O, photosynthesis & net primary productivity, energetics, biodiversity, succession and r & K-strategists, negative & positive feedback***, evolution, giants of the education process, communicate, …
Well! You pretty much screwed that one up paul bain martin! This is not their type of jargon.
Maybe hit ‘em hard with the “morals and ethics.” …
Malala Yousafzai, Dorothy Day, Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, Jesus of Nazareth, Confucius, Siddhartha Gautama told us to do this be socially just, humane and ecologically sane and to strive for socio-ecological justice.
Sort of superficially at least, many, many agreed with these great humanitarians. Nevertheless, percentwise, fewer and fewer are truly practicing the Golden Rule, or Ethic of Reciprocity, in 2022!)
……………………………..
Well anyway, a matriarchal-agrarian ecosphere in concert with dynamic homeostatic symbioses, and abiding by the Golden Rule, Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Precautionary Principle and practicing agroecology & “Less Is More,” including less artificialization, is the only way to quality life for all for the longest period of time. … That’s it!!!
I hope the elementary youth who come to the 69 and Lambshead Ranches to hear about ecological principles and processes in September & October eventually learn this.
I hope the elementary youth I learn with at the Seguin Outdoor Learning Center in October & November learn this.
I hope the Master Naturalist class in Schertz near where I used to teach biology at the “Mark Twain” high school … have learned this.
I hope the few folk who read Games We Play & Less Is More & Doughnut Economics & Prosperous Way Down & Small Is Beautiful … & a Rice University graduate’s Steady-State Economics … learn this and begin to critically think and decision-make!.
I do hope our local governmental entities and all of our local population all learn this through “positively ethical applied community ecology” across curricula & campuses of all our local human organizational entities. … Nevertheless, I am well aware that being deep in the rut of an economic system of growth which is rampantly headed over-the-cliff in a world of almost eight billion humans who do a poor job of interfacing with the 10+ million other species and who are becoming more & more disconnected with the Land … makes it difficult to effectively initiate communication locally and globally in a sustainable ecological fashion.
Many hopes!
………………………………
*Mostly the poor, powerless, disenfranchised, havenots.
**Try a week-long bicycle ride from dawns to dusks through the Hill Country of Texas in the spring. Smell these hills and the Land. Taste the fresh air. Hear the insects and birds and mammals communicating. See the beauty of diversity. Feel the wonder of dynamic homeostatic symbioses. (I have.)
***Positive feedback—you create global climate change with local high input/high throughput systems, and you simply produce more air-conditioning systems which augment the deadly climate change problem. Negative feedback—You realize growth is the problem … and climate change and other socio-ecological destruction is the manifestation. You implement anti-growth strategies & tactics!
pbm
7 S’s / VV->^^
I do hope we will all work hard and smartly … and contribute in every way possible toward “positively ethical applied community ecology*” across curricula & campuses of all human organizational entities.
Past letters to editors here in Seguin concerning critical thinking and decision-making with respect to school bond elections:
“605 Elm
Seguin, TX 78155
October 14, 2013
Seguin Daily News/KWED office
609 E. Court St.
Seguin, TX 78155
Subject: Critical/Creative Thinking?? and the Nov. 5th Bond Elections
To the Editor:
I say “YES!!!” to the youth and for quality of life into the future of Seguin, and …
Even though I will vote “No” on two of these proposed bonds, I would encourage you to vote “Yes” on all three, especially if you are simply worried about self and the cost of education and taxes (We, even in Seguin, Texas, are a part of a very wealthy and powerful nation which should be less concerned with maintenance and increasing of extravagant funding of defense, arms, and Homeland Security, and more with well-funded/smart education systems, protection of the natural resource base and helping others in the world who are truly poor, disenfranchised and lack power.).
I encourage you to vote “Yes” on these bonds because most all of my friends and others who are well-meaning citizens of integrity and some who are wonderful educators and/or real leaders, are certainly better informed that I about the short- and long-term needs of Seguin. They must know:
Thanks for your (hopefully) well-informed votes on these bonds involving critical thinking for the short and long-term good of an appropriately globalized Seguin.
…………………..
April 24, 2008
Seguin Gazette Enterprise
PO Box 1200
Seguin, TX 78155
To the Editor:
I have decided to vote against Propositions 1, 3 and 4 of the Seguin ISD School Bond election. And I encourage other local citizens to do likewise.
(I will vote for Proposition 2 supporting the new elementary school. … Moreover, I participated in a very gracious, open, professional and convincing presentation by Mr. Rene Ramos, SISD Chief Operations Officer, which indicated to me that we should vote for all 4 propositions–i.e., if we are going to continue to be a very high-input community with a very extractive and overall, non-sustaining economy. … Hence the rationale for my votes for and against may be quite different from that of other folk who have studied and reflected upon these 4 school bond propositions. Nevertheless, I’d like for you to read, reflect upon and consider what I’ve detailed in the following paragraphs, as you prepare to vote.)
………………………………
In his classic paper, What Is Education For, David Orr of Oberlin College emphasizes that “no student should graduate from … any … educational institution without a basic comprehension of:” ecological principles, processes and ethics, carrying capacity, least-cost/end-use analysis, appropriate scale and limits of technology, and how to live well in a place.
With this in mind, our lifestyles are indicative of the fact that we haven’t done very well at educating toward ecological literacy in the U.S., nor in Seguin. Our biocapacity in this country is about 11.6 acres per capita, yet our ecological footprint is 23.7 ( http://assets.panda.org/downloads/living_planet_report.pdf ). (And this precarious difference is worse for south central Texas.) (Numerous other indicators of sustainability also point to the fact that we are not realizing ecological literacy.)
Moreover, we consume per capita considerably more than 200,000 kilocalories per day, yet over one billion powerless folk consume less than 5,000 per day
( www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/220original.html & others.). Our consumption pattern here in Seguin cannot yield quality life for most of the billions of folk in the world—for now and certainly not for future generations.
School planners, educators and school systems are obvious pools to tap for leadership that will move us toward a mindset and toward a Natural and agricultural green space which will facilitate and enable livelihoods of conservation and sustainability. In order to foment these pools of conservation and sustainability, we need more neighborhood and rural schools (including high schools) built in concert with Nature and the Land which have no more than 500 students
( www.wested.org/online_pubs/po-01-03.pdf ). The landscapes of our schools should be of mostly native plant communities (possessing placards with species identification/information), some agricultural production, living and rainfall-catchment roofs, and limited parking space (encouraging walking, bicycling, bus transport and car-pooling). Buildings should be sustainably built of mostly local materials and should be designed and strategically placed for passive cooling and heating, and for comprehensive, holistic education that is lived and breathed on the campus. Food and drink—and fibers and other materials used on campuses– should be mostly locally produced, processed, and prepared for consumption.
All folk involved in school systems—students, staff, faculty, administrators, school board members, the larger community—should be knowledgeable about the energy and material inputs/throughputs and outputs, and ecological footprints of the school and school system, and involved in changing them for the better (effective communication, participatory/hands-on, decentralized/site-based management, lifelong learning/critical thinking). Various “renewable” energy sources, holistic and preventative systems of student health care, composting toilets and simulated-wetlands sewage-treatment systems and LEED certification at the highest level also need to be considered. (And of course we should have additional systemic and holistic “greening of the curriculum.” http://livegreenlivesmart.org/library/articles/campus_greening_movement.aspx )
The picture I’ve painted in these previous two paragraphs is part of a dream, … a vision for moving toward a conserving and sustainable Seguin. It most certainly won’t happen over night! … But it will never happen in an effective and efficient manner if we don’t start now!!
No one likes to hear that the schools and other components of our built environment–on which we’ve worked so hard, and sacrificed and struggled to build in an ethical fashion–should have been smaller and developed in concert with Nature and the Land. Established people in a local region don’t want to hear a relative newcomer (our arrival here was 1985) spout off that the high tech, high-energy and -resource input ways of doing things—that we were particularly manipulated toward, taught and lived after WW II–were way off base. And we don’t want to hear and know that we can’t just tear down what we’ve built, and cannot just throw energy and resources and the “American”/can-do attitude at it, … and then magically fix it.
We Texans and Seguinites are a proud people, set in our ways. And all of us, young and old, in the US, Western Europe, Japan and other “developed” nations, and among the elite in the less-developed nations, have really become addicted to “big” and “consumption” and “wasteful lifestyles”–conventional air-conditioning and water heating, cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks, eating exotic product from all over the world which costs much in energy-units, etc., etc..
Nevertheless, we need to reach down deep and get some humility, all of us—the “wet behind the ears” and the “wise and experienced”—and begin to critically think about how to begin to lead our community into conservation and sustainability. We’ve got to learn to live lightly on the Land and compassionately attempt to provide quality life for all–everywhere and forever.
Therefore, let’s be brave, ethical and critically-thinking as community, and cautiously begin to accept the monumental challenge to develop a long term plan that involves a revamping of local Seguin school district toward holistic ecological literacy.
Vote “No!” on Propositions 1, 3, and 4!
And whether they pass or not, let’s begin to work hard to build small neighborhood schools in concert with Nature and the Land, that teach and promote ecological literacy and that give us hope for providing quality life for all for years to come.
(This wasn’t an easy letter to write. I sort of would like to just be a part of status quo–and doing a little gardening and picking dewberries, and looking at the beautiful new calf crop, and recycling, and bicycling to the Wellness Center regularly, and helping my wife, Mom and Mom-in-Law, and kids and grandkids—and not worry and struggle with real issues and real change toward conservation and sustainability.
But … .)
Sincerely,
paul b. martin, ph.d.
stockman, gardener, biologist, teacher”
****************************************************************************
*PEACEmaking (socio-ecological justice)
Note: This “Please Vote” ad below was from a previous election.
But … PLEASE VOTE!
what is totalitarianism?
murders in ukraine all murders recent biden-ordered terribly-artificial murder of zawahiri War
terrible sexism in afghanistan socialistic militarism from the u.s. totalitarianism in nicaragua
neoliberal capitalism, human- nature-extractive, usury-driven overshot inequity
disrespect of teacherspreacherspoliticians(statespersons) elders science humility frugality really humane just humans nature PositivelyEthicalAppliedCommunityEcology/PEACEmakers
prevalent ecological ignorance
trump orban jung-un putin …
pbm
7 S’s / VV->^^
yes i love americana music & poetry & tunes in general especially the chirping singing of a bird or a cricket, wildflowers insects nature, water sunshine topsoil “tomatoes on vine” a diverse ecological community especially climax any simple piece of organic art, humble earthly smart engaged people, grandkids the innocence of children or a youthful being, beautiful not made-up/”put-on-type” people, ALL people, all of life earth, dormindo nu or almost so (i really don’t care for clothes … or shoes or boots especially showy “cowboy” boots), bicycling/swimming/running (now I simply watch animals/people run or let things ping around in my head … sort of like i am doing in this poem), medium-rare venison backstrap only with salt & pepper seasoning dewberry-pecan cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream, politics connecting with people engaging with nature, simple low input balanced throughput sustainable output Less Is More easy on dynamic homeostatic symbioses functional
yes I do believe in abiding by the necessary guidance of golden reciprocity, the precautionary principle, the second law of thermodynamics, Less Is More, key ecological principles and processes, continually learning through positively ethical applied community ecology/PEACE across the curricula of all human organizational entities
……………
despite my lack of: desire for power money stuff, laser focus on a succinct goal, a God …
i hope that i doggedly foolishly persevere against all odds and never quit persistently trying to change the bad/the evil that I cannot change …
destruction of a dynamic homeostatic symbioses, War biocides military guns arms armaments bombs capital punishment killing with drones of those we Godly/Almighty-knowingly deem need to be killed, inequity, hate lack of forgiveness revengeful actions, greed, arrogance selfishness narcissism apathy complacency, overshoot, trumpism & trumpian-type bs/besteira and its current constant negative propaganda of dis- & mis-information and hostility
……………………
please listen …
grandchildren former students current students family friends joseph robinette biden donald john trump vladimir vladimirovich putin nimrata nikki haley gregory wayne abbott ronald dion desantis robert franicis o’rourke et al. …
goal-set plan develop policy act evaluate replan toward sustainable livelihoods & quality life for all such that everyone might live simply smally slowly steadfastly sharingly sustainably and in solidarity
PEACE!
(i’ll have SOME patience with capitalism and capitalistic “organic” agriculture, nasa stumbling across some few space technology fixes a bit toward a sustainable community, other efforts at technological fixes, entrepreneurships “bidness” banking, the inflation reduction act, a green new deal, so-called “renewable energies.”
but not much.
sufficiency over efficiency. nature over artificialization. Less Is More!)
pbm
7 S’s / VV->^^
I’ll try to make this very short.* This week’s presentation on degrowth and ecological principles and processes, one of the approximately last five I intend to make, will consist of only a few minutes-dosage from the holy & great (pragmatic) idealist (yours truly) who knows ALL of the consequences of the current course & actions in the human journey on Eaarth (i.e., the outer part of the doughnut of British ecologist Kate Raworth’s economic model, Doughnut | Kate Raworth ). (Props I may use will be a doughnut, baby blanket, chia seeds, careless weeds, acorns, and native bunch grass.) This presentation is simply another attempt at collective idealistic and pragmatic critical thinking along with our local holy, yet humble, pragmatists who recognize the real needs (or the inner part of Kate’s doughnut model) of our Guadalupe County and global human populations, or in a neoliberal capitalistic system … those of the Haves or the component with Power.
A sidebar I must interject herein results from my relatively regular participation in meetings of commissioners’ court, city council, and the school board … and listening to discussions & deliberations. Nature is not only more complex than we think but is more complex than we can ever think. And I cannot but be somewhat frustrated with the amorphous, superficial, and artificial complexity we create additionally in dealing with (or oftentimes conveniently ignoring):
goal setting, conceptual determination of quality life, growth, learning & teacher shortage** (or simply, a paucity of ecological learning in ecological community), faith and science, communication (including a plethora of confusing acronyms), assessment, and measurements.
Anyway, this week I am going to reflect on ecological succession and r & K species of biota. The ecological succession process is simply attempts of living systems to cover an area of Eaarth with as much solar energy-capturing webs of life as possible, given edaphic and evapotranspiration & holistic climatic constraints. A major challenge in the Anthropocene is that Homo colossus constantly disrupts and destroys (especially when fossil & nuclear energy are involved) … and dynamic homeostatic symbioses, or nature, must continuously attempt to recover, and restore the cover with the best of a climax ecological community, even when top soil has been removed, natural seed stock has been dramatically reduced, and climate & evapotranspiration has changed. Early on in ecological succession, the biota involved are mostly r-strategists, or species with a prolific, very high reproductive rate, and many of these we label, in artificial systems, as weeds (like careless weeds), pests (like grasshoppers), or vermin (like mice). As the system develops toward a climax system (and the climax community may necessarily include regular fires and oftentimes must include large grazers and browsers), it becomes composed of more K-strategists which are generally larger, less prolific, and more protective of their offspring, and they are longer lived. A few examples of K species are the longleaf pines, oaks, many mammals and perhaps even bunch grasses like the Texas state grass, sideoats grama, and little bluestem.***
I have already stressed how complex nature is. Moreover, Homo collosus has superficially added artificial complications and challenges (and with continued growth … serious complications and extremely difficult challenges). Nevertheless, simply stated in somewhat of a reiteration, probably the best use of Land in much of Texas would be ecological systems managed toward “near climax” communities of diverse bluestem prairies and diverse longleaf pine forests, including controlled burning and grazers and browsers such as cattle, sheep & goats, bison and white-tailed deer. Regrettably, artificial growth and overshoot has indeed complicated the journey toward the desired restoration of a dynamic homeostatic symbioses … which includes humans, domesticated species, and some artificial structures (ideally, given current human population numbers, … an agrarian society using appropriate applied agroecology including many perennial crops with many legumes, diverse intercropping, and agroforestry.).
On today’s Eaarth, rampant economic growth IS a serious perturbation for healthy steady-state climax systems. Moreover, lack of ecology across curricula of all human organizational systems results in lack of critical thinking and decision-making; many, many unnecessary mistakes, and unintended consequences; more & more overshoot and draw-down of the natural resources base; and much disparity and socio-ecological injustice.
pbm
7 S’s / VV->^^
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*I’m just going to say a few things about succession and r and K species and let you local elected-deciders chose whether to delve deeper and use the knowledge of succession to critically think,plan & set policy, decision-make, and take action … or not.
**We don’t have a teacher shortage. We do have a shortage of community participation, ecological knowledge, wisdom, prudence, appropriate morals and ethics.
***Since territoriality is an important ecological process for many K-strategists and, similar to what occurred in today’s meeting (8/9/22), is a frequent component of discussion of human governmental meetings, I do want to include mention of it herein. Nevertheless, I do believe most people understand the basic concept of territoriality (e.g., a dog exibiting behaviors of urine marking, lunging, snapping, growling, or barking … not unlike the desire for signage and the snapping, growling, and barking from the public in commissioners court today). Therefore, I don’t believe this ecological process warrants more discussion herein.
