Assholes, still trying to make a race war happen.
That train is never late. Ever.
Worth the read for the extensive Wendell Berry quotes and explication of his book âThe Hidden Woundâ. For example:
This wound is in me, as complex and deep in my flesh as blood and nerves. I have borne it all my life, with varying degrees of consciousness, but always carefully, always with the most delicate consideration for the pain I would feel if I were somehow forced to acknowledge it. But now I am increasingly aware of the opposite compulsion. I want to know, as fully and exactly as I can, what the wound is and how much I am suffering from it. And I want to be cured; I want to be free of the wound myself, and I do not want to pass it on to my children.
Good and bad news involving murals:
Turns out the leaks exposing Louisiana State Police brutality came from a young, Black LSP officer named Carl Cavalier. He was just fired for speaking honestly in public.
âThere are killers,â Cavalier said in his WWL-TV interview, âand there are people who are OK with the killers being on the job. And thatâs the people who are a part of the cover up.â
âI considered it a murder,â Cavalier said. âBecause why else would we hesitate to be transparent about it? Why else would we not do our jobs and hold these guys accountable? Why else? What other reason?â
Last month it came out that he was the anonymous leaker and that he has written a book under a pseudonym about be a Black cop in racist policing. He was suspended for 5 weeks without pay, which is more punishment than has been given to Ronald Greeneâs murderers. He since has spoken publically about brutality, and fired for it. I finally found a cop that deserves adulation, no surprise he was fired for it.
(the linked article is poorly written but contains the principal facts)
Edit:
Updated story
I was just thinking that. Every damn time one of these gets posted, the Karen involved has that âMean Girlâ posture and expression. It seems like the ultimate expression of privilege, even if it just makes her look like an idiot.
EVERBODY WEARS HOODIES AND BACKPACKS THESE DAYS!!!
Fuck.
Sobering reminder that the displacement of black communities from their land continues today with predatory practices by white people, including some in pursuit of what many would consider left-leaning causes.
The Nature Conservancy - the largest non-profit in the Americas with annual revenue well over a billion dollars, and the subject of scandals including selling âprotectedâ land to its own trustees at reduced prices in the past, and the former president resigning over a sexual harassment investigation - says it wants to learn from its experiences in Pembroke, but has yet to return the property it obtained by predatory practices. Until it does, their words are empty boilerplate.
FTA:
But conservancy leaders struck a different tone in emails with federal and state government officials. Those emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by ProPublica and examined for this story. Conservancy officials acknowledged the resistance from Pembroke residents and elected officials, but minimized the situation as a âmelodramaâ in internal documents circulated in a 2016 email.
In an email later that year, Fran Harty, then director of terrestrial conservation at The Nature Conservancy, urged Fish and Wildlife Service officials not to scrap the refuge plans despite community resistance.
âIt is important that USFWS does not pull out all together because it will feed the
idea that all you have to do is throw a tantrum and USFWS will pack up and leave,â Harty wrote.
In 2017, Harty speculated how financial hardships for farmers might favor the groupâs strategy.
âAll it takes is two years of bad corn prices and it changes the chess board,â Harty told a Fish and Wildlife representative.
See, the displacement of people of color is just melodrama. /s
The Nature Conservancy says one thing and does another. Thereâs a word for that. And there are other environmental conservation groups to which to donate.
FTA:
Even though conservationists share a love of the land with the farmers, they often have a very different view of how it should be used.
Among them is Hahn, a retired microbiologist. For years, Hahn volunteered at a nature area near her residence in Homewood, Illinois. But she was vexed by her lack of authority in the preserve. âIf somebody wanted to put a trail right through the middle of a prairie, I couldnât do anything about it. So I thought, why donât I get my own nature preserve?â
Her larger goal: âMy concept of all of this is that, in a small way, Iâm saving Godâs creation.â
A friend and fellow conservationist suggested she make a trip to Pembroke, an area with cheap land and abundant biodiversity. She did and was stunned by the rare prairie plants growing right along the roadside.
She bought 60 acres of land near the center of Pembroke Township two decades ago. This would become the foundation of the townshipâs first state-designated conservation area: Sweet Fern Savanna.
Creating the nature reserve meant that fields that once produced crops would need to be restored to their previous form. To Hahn, that made perfect sense.
âThe parcels arenât good for farming; people canât make a living on them. They let them go for taxes â anyone can buy them,â said Hahn, who acquired a small number of the land parcels for Sweet Fern Savanna from auctions. âShould we not buy something thatâs being offered to the public at an open auction?â
Over the years, the reserve has more than doubled in size. Signs mark the perimeter, warning, âNo Horses. No ATVâs. Violators will be prosecuted.â The site is cordoned off by barbed wire fences, which Hahn said she installed after trash, including roof shingles, was dumped on her property.
Visits to the reserve are allowed only with Hahnâs written permission. For those she lets onto the property, Hahn permits them to hike, birdwatch, cross-country ski, camp and hunt. She said she allows one of her Pembroke neighbors to run his dogs on her property and a friend to hunt wild turkey and deer. Though she has chided trespassing horseback riders, she said, she has never prevented any of her neighbors from picking wild berries there.
Just because someone else obtains land unethically, it doesnât excuse you doing so.
That does mean every single land owner in many/most countries. Thatâs a tough knot to unwind.
Point taken, but itâs a lot easier for a billion dollar org that recently obtained the land by predatory means and isnât living on it than it is for most land owners in most countries.
bUt lyNchiNg ONly hApPenS iN tHE SOutH!
