All of us who love nature, the land, scenic vistas, being outdoors, or growing plants of any kind are constantly opening our senses and can readily feel a palpable appreciation for life. However, being so attentive to our environment can be numbingly difficult in times of disaster.
Each day of last week, following the nationwide red, white, and blue celebration of freedom, liberty, and independence from oppression, my heart has felt increasingly bruised.
Nature lovers learn about and experience the importance of biodiversity — a measure of health of the land based upon the presence of different types of plants and animals. Importantly, we know that greater biodiversity generally indicates a healthier and more resilient natural community.
In my experience, greater social diversity — whether around a table, in town meeting halls, or at polling places — similarly results in more stable, inclusive, and resilient decisions and actions. Decisions, for example, that don’t disproportionately favor a particular special interest. Unfortunately, our nation’s exaggerated glorification of rugged individualism helps perpetuate all sorts of “me against the world” and “us against them” points of view — just the opposite of what is healthy for society.
On the East Coast, most of us learned upon waking Friday morning that numerous police officers were killed Thursday night in Dallas and that even more are still fighting to survive in the hospital. There is no doubt that blue lives matter. By shocking the senses of every American, this horrendous escalation of unnecessary conflict could become a turning point toward healing our fragmented society, or, if we are not careful, could make an already unhealthy situation worse.
The news on Tuesday of the killing of a peaceful Alton Sterling by police officers as he lay pinned to the ground was a blow to the conscience. On Wednesday, the hearts and minds of our nation were struck again when a Montessori school employee, Philando Castile, or “Mr. Phil,” was killed by a fearful police officer after being pulled over for a broken taillight as he drove his girlfriend home from work.
Alton and Phil are both black. The men in blue who killed them, one white, one Hispanic.
In 2016, across the U.S., already more than 500 people have been killed by police, 25 percent of them black men and women. The two incidents last week underscore the dire need for more and better training of police; more, not less, respectful interactions among people of different races; and an expanded appreciation of the cultural richness reflected in everyday aspects of our lives, from architecture to language to the foods we enjoy.
A hurtful reality is that it has been too easy to accept, justify and exonerate deaths of people, particularly, but not exclusively, black men, at the hands of police. Black Lives Matter protesters are too often criticized and marginalized. Here in Franklin County we are mostly white and many of us, including myself, focus much of our civic-mindedness toward promoting local food and farms, clean energy, better education, the local economy, and more, rather than human rights or social justice.
In nature, we’ve learned that everything is connected to everything else in the ecology of our planet; in the web of life, that is our environment. It’s important to keep in mind that all lives share this same environment. When land is protected for purposes of clean water, healthy food, and the health benefits of outdoor recreation, it is for all people.
The fact that the fragmented and broken aspects of our society are more obvious to us in 2016, thanks to continual advances in technology and social media, requires that we open our senses to the harm this fragmentation is causing all of us. People are part of the natural world and are all connected, too. Negative societal impacts centered seemingly elsewhere hit each of us as rippling waves over and over again. The sand is shifting beneath our feet right where we are whether or not we pay attention.
Personally, I feel hard hit by the continual outbursts of hate and prejudice that have become louder and more routine since 2015. Growing up in urban Springfield, I experienced both racial harmony and racial tensions and witnessed poverty, crime and police brutality in my school years. It was absolutely normal in those days to be in an academically-challenging class that had just a few white kids in it. I’ve been fortunate to have worked in mixed and mostly black communities. And, like most people, there are many people of color that I greatly respect, admire, and whose best qualities I aspire to emulate.
These experiences are proof enough for me that even people who have differently-colored skin, unfamiliar clothing styles or uniforms and badges have more in common than they have differences. Because I’m green, I feel deeply hurt by actions that amount to wanton destruction of the Earth and its biodiversity. Similarly, bad actions against police, bad actions by police, and blatant and subtle forms of hate and racism pollute the world and wound hearts and souls. The blue marble we live on in our vast, mostly black universe is a natural wonder and home to us all. Let’s be wise and take good care of one another.
#UnitedWeStand
Leigh Youngblood grew up in the North End/Brightwood neighborhood of Springfield in the ‘70s. She now lives in rural Warwick, population almost 800.