Civil Rights
Thanks to driving rain that started Friday night and will last until through today, Martin Luther King Day, my camping plans were washed away. That leaves me two weekends to make good on my resolution to go on at least one backpacking trip per month in 2007.
In the interim, here I am, once again pecking away on this phosphorescent collection of plastic and silicon.
I’m not really sure how big of a deal MLK day is out west or in the north, but here in the Delta, it’s a pretty big deal. Dr. King was murdered just ten miles or so from my doorstep, and there’s now a civil rights museum next door to the Lorraine Motel where the dastardly deed was done.
It’s nice to have those civil rights here in the good ole USofA but unfortunate that our nation doesn’t extend civility and human rights toward Palestinians and Iraqis. Or that most humans don’t extend any rights toward non-humans.
And speaking of national holidays, isn’t it time we had a federal holiday honoring Native American Nations? In 2005, there was a House Resolution proposing such a holiday. It never made it to the Senate, thanks to two Republican Senators from Oklahoma, of all places. Why not cancel Columbus Day, a day that recognizes a mass murderer, and replace it with a day that honors some real American heroes?
Recognizing Dr. King is nice, but what about the Chickasaw that were present in the Delta way before the days of African slavery? They were run out of town on a rail (well, by foot actually) and largely forgotten. Outta sight, outta mind. All that’s left today is a reconstructed historical site struggling to remain open thanks to limited funding.
If you have interest in seeing a national holiday for Native American Nations, you can sign a petition here.
I dream of a day when all living things are looked upon as equal. Not just humans. I believe we should extend the sanctity of life to all things, because all life is interdependent. Who’s to say that I’m more important or less important than a chipmunk, a honey bee or even a worm? Or even a tree. Why not a rock?
Christians and other religious folks would have you believe that man is created in the image of a god, has a soul and is placed above other living things in creation. But there’s no proof of this. None. Nada.
It’s fantasy.
It’s an anthropocentric viewpoint that leads humans to all sorts of dangerous conclusions, usually at the expense of other living things that are supposedly lower on the totem pole of existence. Wilderness is overdeveloped because the so-called needs of man (wants) supposedly take precedence over the needs of elk, mountain lion, rattlesnakes and flora. Natural resources are seen as a way to generate revenue and have no apparent value outside of the myopic view of the venture capitalist.
Profit trumps habitat.
But it is a fatally flawed philosophy, one that has dire consequences we’re beginning to see.
Here’s what Edward Abbey had to say about it.