i’m sorry (VERY SORRY, very sad, and very disappointed)

but if you are not sickened by the terrible artificialization of the ecosphere

then you are sick … and sorry

Love, pbm ( 7 S’s / VV->^^ )

I am an early baby boomer (born 11/24/1946) with genetics/epigenetics of and upbringing from very humble, frugal, not very captitalistic depression-influenced parents as well as the environmental influences of Vatican II, the civil rights & ecological movements, the Vietnam War & pacifist activism, and fantastic music, song, & poetry of the middle 1950s-1970s and current “Americana” music.* I have developed as a (relatively insignificant) skeptical-believer that radical leftist activism is necessary for quality life for all, including other species, for as long as possible.

I am stubborn, oftentimes quite outspoken (redundantly, ad nauseum, irritatingly), yet quite happy with my ethos which includes a solid dissatisfaction of human populations, especially the Haves of my homeland, who are ignorant of, or who ignore, the Golden Rule, natural law, and ecological principles, processes, & values of sustainability. I am sick of … our capitalistic exploitation of the poor/disenfranchised/relatively powerless/have-nots & Nature … and … War with: the indigenous as well as with recent immigrants & the immigrating, other religions/cults, other nations, other economic powers, and especially with Nature (or dynamic homeostatic symbioses).

I am very honest/sincere when I say that I am in synch with the virtue of LOVE which was learned early on in my small rural** south central Texas village. There ARE some I do love more than others. Nevertheless, I do love all life/I love all humans/I love all species.

On the other hand, I do have strong HATE for ACTIONS by many humans (including my own actions). The outspoken hate, and battle within me and coming forth from me, against neoliberal capitalism/militarism (and its nuclear arms, guns; weapons markets; and related killing equipment, systems, & activities), rampant consumerism, destructive economic growth (including growth of populations of humans & domesticated species), (Trumpism), including the hypocrisy of these systems and including my hate for complacency with and inaction against these terrible systems … will never die, until that are non-existent!

This is because these sins violate the Golden Rule, natural law, and basic ecological principles, processes, and values of sustainable ecological community/dynamic homeostatic symbioses!

I do sincerely believe we should all focus on being rewired individually and collectively and Truthfully becoming PEACEmakers, or “Positively Ethical Appled Community Ecologists!!!”

pbm (7 S’s / VV->^^)

………………………………………

*There were others of course which could be detailed, such as: seeing the segregation in the seating & youth organizations … of Mexican- and Anglo-Americans at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Devine, Texas; the lack of blacks living in the city limits of Devine who nevertheless worked there; labor in the fields in my formative years with mostly Mexican-Americans and work in a feed mill with mostly Blacks & Mexican-Americans; attendance at a very military/relatively right-wing Land-Grant University; a university education in ecology; U.S. Naval Air; David Pimentel, H.T. Odum, Herman Daly/Betsy Martin, Peggy Maddox, Darryl Birkenfeld, Marvel Maddox, the Gaddies, Bill Campaigne; work with Jim Hightower’s wonderfully-leftist Texas Department of Agriculture and its progressive initiatives toward sustainable ecolgical community; Holistic Resource Management; teaching biology, ecology, natural science at Historically-Black/Hispanic Serving St. Philip’s College for 22 years; … .

**Rural, but not “campesino rural.” It was greatly shaped by entrepreneurial capitalism, consumerism, militarism, “growthism.” The relatively large military city San Antonio was only 35 miles away and the intranational Highway 81 stretching from the Canadian border in North Dakota to the Mexican border, Laredo, Texas, ran through it. And fossil-fueled agricultural products of watermelons, peanuts, grain and some broom corn and vegetables were shipped distances throughout the U.S.A.

By the time of my birth, Devine Texas had already transitioned from Paleolithic to agrilogistics to capitalism- & industrialism-influenced, and the synthetic/electronic age and was getting well into being an artificialized Eaarth in the Anthropocene times of information/disinformation/misinformation!

o Given our individual & collective knowledge of ecological principles & practices, and our values, in relative solidarity we must individually and collectively make decisions for the good of all based on the monitored conditions of the various wholes/sub-wholes of the ecosphere (Eaarth/Earth; Nature, the Land, the Commons; ecological communities; the natural resource base; human populations) especially the most local … AND the global whole.

o We must abide by the major guiding (ecological) principles of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Precautionary Principle, the various Golden Rules and caring and sharing, and the more specific principles and processes, etc.

o Of course the mess we are in the Anthropocene, global climate change, disparity, overshoot, drawdown of the natural resource base, pollution, etc.,

and monitoring and collective/global decison-making process for socio-political/economic (ecological) changes for the better or the worse … is a monumentous task.

In reiteration of the obvious, the devil is always in the details. Communication, cooperation, and nescessary compromise is extremely difficult at the global and the local levels!

(Nevertheless, I plea for the good of all biota “for as long as possible,” PLEASE don’t leave the perhaps insurmountable task of systematic system change of Eaarth to neo-Earth up to:

–future generations,

–God [or the various names and concepts thereof],

–the roll of dices after the Big Bang [or prior],

–to “whomever” or “who cares” because of your belief your “good and moral & ethical” life of agrilogistics, neoliberal capitalism, industrialism, synthetics and artificialization will get “Holy/Blessed YOU” (and perhaps yours) to a Heaven, or an everlasting spiritual bliss.)

pbm

7 S’s / VV->^^

From what I’ll call “a separate discussion by ‘A Crazy Five’ on text-Messaging by Google”:
…………

In biology/ecology and other fields we talk of “lumpers & splitters.”

I am first & foremost a lumper. (Of course with continued discourse I begin to split & split & split until we get lost in the trees & understory and sometimes folk forget an earlier “succinct” “forest-lump” of mine.)

But then, I can lump it again.
……….
Pride & humility are the key and major sin/virtue. Others are just sort of subsets or aspects of these.
……….
“It’s my belief pride is the chief cause in the decline …” from a song by one of the best singer/songwriters ever (born in Texas)!

https://youtu.be/P4lW77X0ltc?si=HdkS1cjOj9eDuIAm
……….
……….
The meat of WHAT? is The Problem in 2023; i.e., the Truth:

o Tremendous/terrible global disparity, particularly between the North and the South

o Overshoot by human & domesticated species populations

(especially because of the CONSUMPTIVE POWER [kilocalories/day] of the Super-Haves, … & especially those of the U.S.A.)

o Drawdown of the natural resource base

o War, conventional agriculture, neoliberal capitalism

o Surveillance capitalism, or the widespread collection and commodification of personal data by trans national corporations (and authoritarian politicians) … which often focuses (politically) on the stimulation of the amydala & other parts of the brains and on manipulative use of fear & anger (and pride) in demos … andwhich threatens the very basis of a democratic social system.

WHY? should we address the WHATS?

o Need for dynamic homeostatic symbioses including humans/quality life for all/PEACE, or Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology

o Natural law

o 2nd Law of TD

o Golden Rule

o Precautionary Principle

HOW? do we truly address the WHATS?

o Less Is More. Caring & sharing.

o Humility vs. Pride

(How? is the most difficult aspect & the devil is in the details. … Friend Mark Lessing’s “Communication, Cooperation and Compromise” does, however, say it well … succinctly … with an emphasis on effective
communication of fact/truth in this time of surveillance capitalism. … [And it has to involve REGULATION of surveillance capitalism.])

pbm

7 S’s / VV->^^
(I.e., my attempt at saying it all very, very succinctly! See
https://www.kite.pub/sustainability/games-we-play/ for an explanation. )

(Wendell Berry says it best:

“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.”

& I stuck this all through our little book on applied ecology
https://www.kite.pub/sustainability/games-we-play/ .)

Ken, a youngest male sibling who struggled with asthma and sibling rank

(and who also struggled with other forces from his genetics and epigenetics and south central texas formative environment)

was relatively spoiled

(dad alton even left work at the mill and rode hurriedly in his green bobtail hog truck to devine high

to tear into a teacher who treated kenny unjustly

… i am certain that luther alton NEVER did this for his other children!)

and his big brother paul bain sometimes picked on him

(though not as much as paul bain did on his closest in age of five siblings,

dear & loveable, energizer-bunny-rabbit, truly humble and good …

true christian; forgiving!!! … lawrencey, pawrencey)

kenny did struggle to some extent with life in the martin family …

in school and the village of devine

but he also had very many joyous times with family and friends

(especially during this wonderful season of thanksgiving & christmas, but also easter,

… and in the summers on the frio river near garner park!)

and at dear st. joseph’s catholic church in the village of devine

and working for and with farmer neighbor fritz … & irene schroeter!

……………………………

but something was lacking???!!!

he lived with big brother paul bain and betsy for a short while in the panhandle of florida

where paul bain was working on his doctoral research

on the population dynamics of three lepidoteran

deemed to be pests in industrial agricultural systems

by the dominant & too powerful species, Homo sapiens

and paul bain did seriously try to help … even financially

but paul bain & betsy insisted kenny get a job

work at a florida panhandle lumber mill didn’t work out,

and kenny returned to devine to live with mom & dad

and to work with irene schroeter at the san antonio state psychiatric hospital

such is tough work in many aspects and one day without many words to anyone

kenny headed in his beetle with a few bucks in hand and headed to californ-i-A

jesus-saved/saving shiloh* took him in there

and indoctrinated him well in the ways of Christianity

but power corrupts … even “christian” power

kenny saw the corruptness of shiloh and left**

he married a shiloh-ette

and from atlanta town lois too frequently called minha esposa

about the ills of living with “alton martin genes”

paul bain’s wife betsy was all-too-well learning about these “alton martin genes”,

and was MUCH better at dealing with this uncomfortable situation,

but didn’t wish to hear about it from another!

………………………………….

now kenny has found another more compatible and tolerant of his ways

(and a number of us martins immensely enjoyed

the trip to and the wonderful wedding in georgia!!!)

his new wife and her family helped him mentally and financially …

and created stability

they raised four fine kids and have fine grandkids

…………………..

kenny now considers himself to be Ken

(you know, like Ken & Barbie … YES!!! i am a turd)

and he plans to spend his latter years close to his georgia family

in the tourist suburb/fairyville of pine mountain, georgia

not so far away from where the best u.s. president of my lifetime resides

……………………

(i do hope my kenny will responsibly take action

and do SOME work for the good of all in his years remaining …

for dynamic homeostatic symbioses, including Homo sapiens …for as long as possible …

or at a minimum, i strongly hope he will attempt to begin to UNDERSTAND

dynamic homeostatic symbioses

… of course i hope this for all!)

love,

paul bain (in vain***)

7 S’s / VV->^^

…………………….

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiloh_Youth_Revival_Centers

**After his communal tree-planting experiences in the mountains of the northwestern U.S., ashmatic Kenny & I once went for a long run in the beautiful north Georgia mountains. At the time I was still a good runner, but I was AMAZED at skinny-Kenny’s acquired stamina and neo-ability to run during that wonderful occasion of freely running along-side little brother.

***A moniker Kenny gave me. … (And by the way, “proud-rightist/militarist/’Trumpster’ Ken” will always be “simple kenny” to me, even though I will now try to address him as Ken! … That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. … Also, “Screw you! We’re from Texas!!” https://youtu.be/8-cFtSPIF4Q?si=4waNd-ERS7p7fple .

they will never understand me

they haven’t a clue

and perhaps never will

especially those who ban, block, shun, scarlet-letter, burn, trash it, build walls & stretch barbed wire, lock their minds to ecological learning,*…

…………………………..

i will never understand them

and probably never will

…………………………….

and on & on & on & on …

…………………………..

i will struggle hard and perseveringly and “smartly???” for systematic system change toward PEACE*

but great and even little power (local, international, transnational corporate, financial, consumptive, agricultural, energetic, land-holdings, technological, military, religious, cult, mythical, psychological, political, populist, inheritied, scammed … ) is likely to continue to rampantly corrupt!

especially in a chaotic world of eight billion humans and mis- and disinformation (ignorant demos)

with those in power greedily seeking even more power

………………………….

*Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology/PEACE

paul bain. in vain

7 S’s / VV->^^

(This is a compilation of three similar presentations I prepared  in October of 2023 for important local governmental entities in my home of Seguin and Guadalupe County, Texas)

Introduction.  Thank you, Judge Kyle Kutsher and County Commissioners, Mayor Donna Dodgen and Seguin City Council members, President Alejandro Guerra and Seguin ISD Trustees … and all of you I am addressing during a fall in which we have had some beautiful weather  …  AND much needed rain.

I am paul bain martin, from a few blocks away at 605 Elm Street, Seguin.  I consider myself to be an agrarian … and hope we all “feel somewhat agrarian,” since we eat, most of us wear some cotton, and we do use lumber in much of our construction.  I hope that all of you who serve this local community will begin to think of yourself more and more profoundly & holistically agrarian into the future, i.e., ecologically agrarian.

My main message is quite simple.  Congress is supposed to be currently working on a Farm Bill which will involve about 1.5 trillion dollars, and which impacts us ALL!  My personal concern is always sustainable ecological community … and an important part of that is a sustaining of diversified local agricultural land–a sustaining of production, processing, and delivery of ag products (and, of course, their local consumption).

In addressing school board members, I must emphasize that I believe you are the most important governmental entity.  Our schools and the community they serve are in particular impacted by the Farm Bill through the USDA’s Healthy Meals Initiatives and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  But more than this, with public schools, as with other governmental organizations, there should be a robust two-way communication line as to the needs of the schools and the local community for a sustainable agriculture and sustainable agriculture livelihoods.  And by the time they graduate from high school, all students should (1) have a knowledge of the current state of our agricultural systems and an appreciation of what a sustainable agriculture would look like and (2) fully realize the vulnerability of our fossil energy-intensive and extremely inefficient agriculture system, … and (3) the school district, with the help of the Farm Bill, should have increased the opportunities of our youth to become sustainable and regenerative farmers and ranchers (ecological agrarians).

Please Ask Your Representatives to Support The Prime &  Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities Acts.  “Straightforward,” I hope you will study the Prime Act (H.R. 2814/S. 907) and the Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities Act (H.R. 3955/S. 2340) and decide to ask your representatives in Congress to support these bills.  If these bills become a part of the upcoming Farm Bill, their part of the appropriations for the overall bill will be a drop in the bucket.  However, passage of these bills could be extremely helpful in facilitating local ag production, processing, and delivery of product and the ability of new young farmers to purchase and appropriately manage farmland. 

(I haven’t really worked on the Farm Bill in about 30 years, although I did so in earnest when I was Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator for TDA in Austin back in the 1980s and 1990s.   A couple of months ago some youngsters asked me to get involved minimally again, and then this weekend I was stimulated by our mayor’s piece in the Gazette, and last eve  (10/16/2023) by another great Ken Burns documentary.  Therefore, here I am before you local politicians once again this month of October.)

…………………………..

We Could Do Very Much Better Toward Realizing a Sustainable, Resilient Local Agriculture!  At this time, we could locally produce, process and effectively distribute adequate amounts of locally-necessary protein, carbohydrates, and lipids, … IF we wished to do so.  However, before long, we won’t have that option if we continue to cover our farm and wildlife lands with urban or “quasi-urban”-, recreational-, industrial-, and automobile necessitated-development. Your food and fiber and shelter materials could be from this regionally local area and the cost for a calorie of food could be closer to a three calorie-investment of inputs, as it was pre-World War !!, rather than the well over 10 calories it now takes to produce that calorie of food.  A 10 to 30 calorie-input/investment of energy to get one (1) calorie of food is, from the point of view of  this Aggie … “pretty durn” inefficient … and precarious.  Moreover, it is very socio-ecologically destructive in many ways.

And in going into this matter just a bit deeper, currently your beef and pork products consumed here in this area (even that from our beloved Granzin’s) are largely from Brazil and Chinese corporations and are processed and shipped from the High Plains and North Carolina.  (And I do wish to emphasize that I have nothing against Brazilians or Chinese, but simply against their [and our] large transnational neoliberal-corporations.  In fact, early next month my wife and I will be hosting for about a week, my good friend Toti Rosa, the Head of the Brazilian National Beef Cattle Research Center in Campo Grande, Brazil, a person with a global perspective for a more local and sustainably resilient agriculture and ecological community.)

I want to also mention that most of the shrimp we eat here, including what some folk believe are wild Gulf Coast shrimp, are from shrimp farms in Southeast Asia and Central America.  Also, we here in this region send most of our grain and beeves out of here to be fed, finished, processed, packaged, and then sent to who knows where.  The points about beef, pork, and shrimp (and I could have used examples of many other ag products), is that this delocalized/detached global food production system is not efficient, sustainable, or resilient; it is not good!

(In addition, I must even pick on Girl Scout Cookies a bit.  They are made by transnational parent companies, Kellonova and Ferrero International SA.  The wheat flour, sugar, palm oil, cornstarch, and cocoa in a “typical” Girl Scout Cookie sold in south central Texas mostly likely will come from the Great Plains, Louisiana, Indonesia, the Midwest, and Africa, respectively.)

Finally, this may be incongruous, but this “great” country has eliminated the passenger pigeon and a couple of other species* and devastated bison and indigenous human populations.   It will not be atonement, but in an act of contrition I do hope we will all do a better job of educating ourselves and our children, and other family and our friends about sustainable community and maintenance of farmland and wildlife habitat.  What my wife and I have done was to give our three kids our 140-acre farm which I purchased from my parents in 1983. We have encouraged these offspring in various ways to maintain this Land for sustainable  agriculture and wildlife habitat, and to help to realize this condition into perpetuity.  Also, I have tried to encourage development of community gardens in this area and to volunteer in activities which facilitate citizen-learning of  positively ethical applied community ecological principles, processes, and values.

(To our city council I must also mention that a banning of the use of plastic bags to carry products purchased in Seguin, would increase the energetic efficiency a bit for agricultural products in our region.   And for the long term, degrowth should increase it substantially, or at a minimum create opportunities for substantially increasing efficiencies.)

…………………………….

Conclusion.  In closing, my reminder is that one small thing, but good thing, you might do toward a more efficient and  sustainable agriculture, AND sustainable community, would be to support the Prime Act and the Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities Act and to encourage your representatives in Congress to do so!!!

(Now, I do “occasionally” try to mince words.  But not herein.  [And I apologize to my young farmer colleagues who have asked me to do my disciplined-best at helping them in getting the Prime & Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities Acts into the 2023 Farm Bill.]  …

2023 here on Eaarth!  De facto Manifest Destiny of neoliberalism & growth.  Buffalo hunters of consumerism and development brainwashed with a greed for more largely through propaganda of transnational corporations.  …  Or, maybe (hopefully?), an Eaarth of artificialization and inefficiency, … but transforming to a neo-Earth which continues into the distant future with quality life including humans?  Maybe???  But … )

And I’ll leave it there.

Thanks for your time!

………………………

*Of course, recently that list has increased.

pbm

7 S’s / VV->^^

“The apple doesn’t far from the tree”

I am to a large extent my Dad Alton Martin of a determined mind, of focus, of a very tough love,

And of some intellect, knowledge, wisdom, prudence

Like Dad I am relatively low-input, -throughput, -output

My flaws & frailties have been very similar to Dad’s

Loving family and friends and all peoples (sometimes loving too much)

But when they cross the line … to hell with them!

(Nevertheless, always continuing to love them and accept them

When they try to come back across the line

Even if temporarily)

Stubborn, cold; an infidel of infidelities

But loving (and sometimes extremely sensitive in a very heartfelt way)

(Yes, I am more manipulative, have taken more risks, and have become more “worldly” and global,

Still … in many ways, I am very much Alton Martin)

…………………

But there is also the VENEER of Mom St. Louise Martin over me

(I do LOOK MORE LIKE her side)

Oftentimes I have a SEMBLANCE of her quiet, calm, loving, soothing “That’s water under the bridge!”

An APPARENT ATTITUDE of keep on keeping on a-living and humbly fighting a soft fight for good, no matter what!!!

…………………….

Dad & Mom (and the village of Devine, Texas) gave me an ethos of frugality, minimalism and can-do

And empathy for peoples of all colors, ethnicities, sexual persuasions, etc.

(But especially the poor, disenfranchised, suppressed & oppressed have-nots)

They initiated my entry into a process of continually learning in ecological community

Real skeptical scientifically-based learning

I propose that the foundation provided me

Was sort of 1950s Texas gringo-campesino

After leaving our diversified hog-farm in a small south central Texas village in 1964

I floundered, mostly in a Land Grant institution, from petroleum engineering

(influenced by the ridiculous technological race to the moon & the crazy, out-of-hand post-WW II neoliberal, fossil energy technological-fix mindset)

To a major in history to one in animal science

(And there were also important influences of Vatican II, civil-rights and ecological movements of the 1960s & 70s

And of course the Aggie Cadet Corps, the Vietnam War, and the threat of being drafted into the Army

I then joined Naval Air and became an officer and a gentleman

Served by desperate-to-survive Filipinos)

It was studing and practicing agricultural entomology where I finally found a place

Which led me to applied ecology and then Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology

Or PEACEmaking

There I began to realize my vison, goal, and a process of planning … and replanning after action

(And at about the same time as really getting into ecological research,

In Quihi, Texas I danced into the loving wonder who became my wife

A fellow rural Medina Countian who loves music of, not identical, but quite similar values}

Ever since then, I have been fighting, perhaps quixotically but with some success, and mostly keeping my head above the water, for PEACE

Some of my more concrete, tangible SALVATIONS in my life have been through organizations like three land Grant institutions TAMU, UF, UGA),

Group sports (especially handball, 5 & 10-K competitive runs, & tennis), Our Divine Saviour Catholic Church-Tifton, GA, Our Lady of Guadalupe-Seguin CCD, Jim Hightower’s & Susan DeMarcos’ TDA!!!, Mitchell Lake Wetlands Society, Ogallala Commons, Kids On the Land, Historically-Black & Hispanic-Serving St. Philips College, the Guadalupe County Democratic Club, Siempre Sustainable Network and community gardens,

The Seguin ISD Whole Child Initiatives, Dos Pueblos Tipitapa-Nicaragua/NYC Sister City Project, an Episcopalian Veterinarian Services (Latin America) Group, Generations Indigenous Ways, the Seguin Outdoor Learning Center

As well as the important influences of some amazing friends & family of compassion, empathy, energy, organizing abilties, and savvy

Currently I am testing the waters of Veterans For Peace,

Because I believe anti-War/anti-militarism efforts, and attempts at pacifism must be my last efforts of some focus

And perhaps MY FINAL SALVATION!??!

pbm

7 S’s / VV->^^

Manifest Destiny of Neoliberalism & Growth

Manifested by transnational corporations

Over Nature, Land, the Commons

And as in the past here in “America” and in its Global Empire

The soldiering and Wars that come hand in hand

With a Manifest Destiny of Growth 

Buffalo hunters of capitalistic-declared commodities remain

But with an increased appetite of senseless consumerism

And addiction to relentless development

Buffalo hunters brainwashed with a greed for more

Largely through propaganda of the world rulers …

Transnational corporations.  … 

………………..

Maybe … hopefully it is, yes, an Eaarth

Of temporay artificialization and temporary inefficiency

But an Eaarth which is transforming to a neo-Earth?

A neo-Earth which will continue to exist into the distant future?

With what could be characterized to be quality life?

And that quality life would include humans? 

… Perhaps??? …

But …