1.  The N-Word.  I really do not think I have ever been racist.  (I did have prejudices against people I deemed to be weak, quitters, obese.  …  On the other hand the reality is that [most] all of us have some tribalism and racism [various other prejudices]–at a minimum subtly “warped” into us.)  …  Herein I’m sadly confessing to that racism.  An example is that as a south Texas country boy I did have in my vernacular the n-word (n-shooter, n-rigged, n-chaser).

In 1972,  African-American Andrew Brown who had studied at FAMU was my agriculture technician and farm advisor for my doctoral research into three insect herbivores, their natural enemies and agroecology.  He was also a wonderful friend!

In a discussion about our boyhood escapades, I started talking about hunting with a slingshot.  I suddenly came out with “n…..” and I stopped right there.  …  There was dead silence for what seemed like forever, and then we went on with our discussion.

That is the last time I used the n-word.

2.  Jew. In 1990 while traveling with some leftists from the U.S. in Nicaragua courtesy of the Sandanistas, on the left side and middle of the bus where I was sitting I was bragging on how tight I am and how I had jewed down an unscrupulous businessman in Texas.  A young scholar sitting in front of me, quickly turned around and forcefully said, “Paul, we don’t  use ‘Jew’ in that derogatory manner any more.”

And that is the last time I did.  (Moreover, I now call the succulent plant, purple heart  …  purple heart!)

3.  Agnosticism.  The first time I begin to question the religion I was getting from Mom, in catechism, and at Mass and the existence of God (vs. god, Good, gods,  nature, dynamic homeostatic symbioses, …), was when in seventh-grade catechism my classmate Richard Guajardo (who also had Catholic/Protestant parents) began asking the nuns why was Catholicism more right than Protestantism?  The lovely changes in the Catholic Church by John the 23rd and Vatican II increased my skepticism.  Later it was anthropologist Marvin Harris, mythologist Joseph Campbell, and religious scholar Karen Armstrong who strengthened the questioning.  (I do appreciate my friend Helene Tamarin’s term, ignostic, which posits that nothing that can be thought of that the word “God” or the words “Yahweh” and “Allah” could refer to.)

pbm

[ 7 Ss / VV->^^ ]

Introduction.  PEACE, or Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology, is much larger than: the resolving of mano a mano conflicts or even the avoiding Wars among Nations.  It’s more than banning nuclear arms.

And in giving it an environmental slant, it is more than getting rid of plastic or cars.  It’s more than recycling or organic agriculture or conservation easements.

Fundamentally it is dealing in an effectively just, humane, and ecologically-sane manner with what we humans are doing negatively in so very many ways to the genetic, cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity in populations of humans … and to the habitats and diversity of other species.  It is the appropriately coming-to-grips with our very successful (but destructive) efforts, in this Anthropocene Epoch, of artificializing and homogenizing the Earth.  (Of course, conventional warfare is a one part of this destruction.)

…………………………………

I sort of believe there are some small Hopes for more of:  … H.T. Odum’s “Prosperous Way Down”, … Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic”, … E.O. Wilson’s “Half-Earth to Nature”, … and Bill McKibben’s development of resilience in humankind toward surviving on Eaarth (or a hunkering down and weathering “trouble on an unprecedented scale”) (McKibben differentiates Earth in the Anthropocene with an extra “a”.).   However, in order to realize these Hopes, we desperately need to work toward a common goal of healthy life for all on Earth, an “all” which includes ample quality habitat for other species.  Moreover, we need to profoundly, comprehensively, holistically practice what many preach: … an Ethic of Reciprocity, or the Golden Rule, … an abiding by the Precautionary Principle, … and the lowering of our individual & collective ecological footprints and daily per capita kilocalories of energy transformed.

[ http://www.unicamp.br/fea/ortega/energy/B.Odum.pdf

https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/the-land-ethic/

https://eowilsonfoundation.org/half-earth-our-planet-s-fight-for-life/

https://thinkprogress.org/review-of-bill-mckibbens-must-read-book-eaarth-17174e8ba5a6/ ]

Anyway, here’s my readings (which are short excerpts):

From the Western Front of the European Theatre, WW II, 1944-45.  Letters from Uncle Oscar Bain to his parents Oscar & Eva Martin, Stockdale, TX (Uncle Bain was a peaceful young man … a good athlete & avid horseman … who did not support War & who tried to avoid being drafted into the Army including by rushing into marriage.):

Dec. 5  “I do wish that every man, woman & child in the world could see some of what goes on over here.  If they did it would be a long time before we had another war.  I hope and pray there will never be another. It is sure a shame that so much destruction must go on because people are not civilized enough to settle things peacefully.”

Jan 11  “I wonder if anyone ever thought of the damage that is done to the hearts of the parents of those boys?  That is one damage that will never be repaired.”

Feb 18  “If the peace is planned as well as the war is, we should never have this to go through again.”

Mar 14  (This is from the Floresville newspaper.)  “Word from the War Department by Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Martin of Stockdale that their son Oscar was killed in action Feb 25 in Germany.”  [Uncle Bain was killed exactly one week after his letter in which he emphasized:  “If the peace is planned as well as the war is, we should never have this to go through again.”]

From the address by Mrs. Gladys Talbott Edwards on “Peace and Patriotism” to the Kansas Farmers Union Convention, The Kansas Union Farmer, Salina, Kansas, Christmas Eve, 1936.*

 “We are linking peace and patriotism with conscious intent.  Too many of us have an idea of patriotism that it is to die for your country.  The right kind of patriotism is living for your country.  Patriotism of peace […] means you have to get down and study the causes of war.  It teaches you [that …] you have a man-sized job before you of perfecting some kind of peace plans, or we will have war, as they have across the seas.”

“We have to understand and make our young people understand that human rights are over property rights.  We cannot continue to have war to protect property.  A lot of people will tell you we have always had war and always will. … People used to die by the thousands of scurvy.  What happened?  Somebody got busy and did some thinking and learned why they died.”

“The same is true also about getting at the cause of war.  Find the reason for it, get the remedy … and then you will solve the trouble.  We have to develop [critical] thinkers[**] if we are going to keep our freedom.  We must have [critical] thinkers instead of cannon fodder.  I remember a poem, ‘The Boys in Armor’. … One line says: ‘Because you did not think, we had to die.  We died, yet there you stand, no step advanced.'”

_____________________

*Graciously provided to me by Tom Giessel, Farmers Union historian.

**I added “critical”. …  And we cannot be true critical thinkers unless we understand ecological principles and processes, and develop a PEACE ethos.

From Wendell Berry, The Art of Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays, 2003. 

 “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.”

Thank you!

paul

605 Elm Street, Seguin, Texas 78155-4827

@PabloEco3500K

8/7/17

President Donald Trump,

The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Trump:

I certainly hope that our mutual goal in life is cutting military spending, tearing down walls including many U.S. prison walls, and opening borders … as a part of efforts toward pacifism and to more justly share our personal power, resources, and monies with those who have considerably less.  I trust that we both agree that everyone has a right to quality and adequate quantity of: water, healthful food, clothing, housing, education, health care, Nature and recreation, the arts, and a voice in their government.

Well over half of the world makes less than $4000/year, and more than one billion are in extreme poverty.  Moreover, as far as other species are concerned, projections are that by mid-century we will have lost 30-50 percent of these, primarily because of habitat destruction by humans.  Earth’s resources, including the solar energy which arrives each day, are limited in terms of quantity and quality, while dominant humans who represent one percent of the world human population have more than 50 percent of the wealth or power over these limited resources.

…………………………..

Here at home in this country we enjoy a better quality of life than we should. As about 5 percent of the world’s population, we use about 25 percent or more of its limited resources. If we lived moral and ethical lifestyles, we would all live “poorly” as Pope Francis has implored.  We need to lower our ecological footprints and share our power with others (including other species) down toward equity.  We should all work toward living humbly, compassionately, and poorly as Jesus, St. Clare and Francis of Assisi, Thoreau, Gandhi, Mildred Lisette Norman (Peace Pilgrim), and many other humble and compassionate people have exemplified through the ages.

I realize our engrained ethos of artificialization, materialism, consumption, and growth makes a change toward living sustainably very difficult!  Many have had very little exposure to Nature and the Natural, and our educational systems develop little knowledge of ecological principles, processes, and values. Moreover, few in this country have known anyone in extreme poverty. …  I do empathize with the socially and ecologically ignorant.

Nevertheless, I beg of you to please try to learn and to act ethically toward those less fortunate than we, and to work in concert with Nature.  In these efforts, please free up resources and provide quality life for others, including the unborn, by developing policy and appropriations which will …

• Help put an end to the death penalty and severe use of solitary confinement and other torture.
• Result in our eventual signing of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and its robust implementation.
• Realize campaign reform in terms of fairness and expenditure of considerably less time and monies.
• Develop an infrastructure which will triple the passenger and freight rails we currently have.
• Enhance respect for women, the physically- and mentally- and economically-challenged, indigenous peoples, the LBGTQ community, Muslims, Mexicans, the news media, and all humans, all life.
• Halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline just north of Standing Rock Reservation.
• Support the development of appropriate applied agroecology.
• Increase support and funding for 1890 universities.
• Bolster development of the arts and basic science and mathematics with enhanced federal funding, including funding for Hatch Act-type agricultural research and for NEA, NAS, and public radio and television.
• Stop the aggressive gutting of the EPA and the National Park Service.
• Work to begin to significantly reduce cynicism and polarization in the populace.

The list above relates to policy and actions which are very doable for your administration.  Nevertheless, I do want much more with respect to social justice, humaneness, and ecological sanity, and would welcome any efforts toward regeneration and conservation of resilient, sustainable ecological community.

Thanks so very much for reading and considering this!

Most respectfully,

paul bain martin. ph.d.

Retired, Biology-Natural Sciences Department, St. Philip’s College

Volunteer: Ogallala Commons (Brd Member), Kids On the Land, Dos Pueblos/NYC-Nicaragua, Episcopalian Veterinarian Services/Honduras-Mexico, Generations Indigenous Ways

cc:  Other leaders, politicians, statespersons in the U.S.A. and the world via mail and various media