Thank you for being a truthteller. I'm currently reading Sarah Kendzior's They Knew. Your essay reminds me of it. And to be published 3 days after a former president was indicted for sedition long after the fact, helps us realize how difficult it is for what needs to be done (or not done) to be accomplished. For those of us who care about the fact that Books Build Brains and schools are for learning, even the hard-to-swallow stuff like history and about how our democracy works, and the condition of our waterways as well as our drinking and cooking water, and the regulations that need to be put in place for safeguards for all of us, let us continue to be willing to look at the truth and to continue to work toward righting wrongs. Obviously you essay has stimulated my thinking. Diana
"The quality of your streams, lakes and aquifers would be better if they did."
Yes, and the quality of the terrestrial environment and ecosystems too, all connected by water and its maze of movement by land and air.
If the people knew. If the agencies were looking closely, actually monitoring off-target herbicide damage, actually monitoring the ecological impacts of neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides. Actually counting the species and numbers of pollinators in the wild lands and conservation plantings to discern which are surviving or not in this sea of toxic unaccountability. Actually measuring and reporting. To let the people know. What a quaint notion in the land of "over-regulation".
How will we know when the insect apocalypse takes a sudden downward turn? When all the toxic synergies of industrial ag empty the flowers of butterflies and bees? When the land takes a sudden turn to silent summer? What was in all that field dust, that loess silt that made the the Grand Prairie, that settled on my prairie oasis last spring? What systemic pesticides are emitted in those hundreds of millions of gallons of transpired water from the vast sea of corn and beans? Who is measuring any of these?
The buzz on the prairie I ain't hearing now, near peak summer bloom, is troubling. To see one butterfly in an acre of Prairie Blazing Star where there should be hundreds, as a friend reported yesterday ... well, something really bad is going on out here in the ag industrial heartland, with few eyes and ears upon it.
"For ours is an age of loss disguised as plenty." Nathaniel Popkin.
Thank you Chris for opening the book on the land and waters. For standing against the authoritarian powers that would keep it closed against the common good.
I appreciate the comparison between book banning and your own situation. Below the surface I sense you screaming for others to WAKE UP. It's the only way to move the ball; it's gonna take a lot of us doing the right things in bad situations to see real progress.
-someday we will both...wake up and start moving the ball.
-don't give up, give in, or get discouraged with lack of progress. It's definitely a long road. (Like I'm telling you that!)
-stay rested, and keep that fire in the belly. Few are as passionate, and I very much appreciate you keeping things stirred up.
I think you made a good comparison between the two issues. We need to hear more voices of those people who see the wrong in book banning and polluting our waters. I was fortunate during my 38 yrs as a public school teacher in Illinois and Iowa to not have the higher-ups in my field telling me what I was allowed to teach. Physics isn't fraught with controversial issues like sex and racism. No one ever said to stop teaching the kids about the law of gravity. The way things are going, even that absurdity could be stirring in the minds of some with other explanations. I'm glad to be retired.
I’ve been traveling for about ten days, and am slow to respond. Thanks for this. We need courage on both the agricultural and education fronts right now, and as a librarian, appreciate your call to arms. So much in Iowa depends upon it.
Thank you for standing up and speaking out, Chris. It is not easy, comfortable, or financially rewarding - but it is so very important. If only others in large groups or those with power and authority would do the same.
Thank you for calling out NGOs, especially conservation ones, for buying into the current system instead of speaking up to radically change it. It's refreshing and necessary. I'm tired of people being spineless because they are so afraid of alienating others. If you have passion and purpose, and if your cause is true, then alienating people is part of the job description. You are a great role model for that. Thanks again.
While the requirement came from the Statehouse, the enactment fell on the academics, reminding me of the standard city government response to tightened budgets: cut police, fire, parks and rec to recruit social pressure for more money. Axing 1984, Brave New World and their ilk calls to mind the same response and judging from the lightening reaction on the left and even the middle it is succeeding. At the risk of further fueling Iowa academics: the Davis School District just north of Salt Lake City just banned the Bible in reaction to a similar Utah law. You can look it up. . . .
Thank you for being a truthteller. I'm currently reading Sarah Kendzior's They Knew. Your essay reminds me of it. And to be published 3 days after a former president was indicted for sedition long after the fact, helps us realize how difficult it is for what needs to be done (or not done) to be accomplished. For those of us who care about the fact that Books Build Brains and schools are for learning, even the hard-to-swallow stuff like history and about how our democracy works, and the condition of our waterways as well as our drinking and cooking water, and the regulations that need to be put in place for safeguards for all of us, let us continue to be willing to look at the truth and to continue to work toward righting wrongs. Obviously you essay has stimulated my thinking. Diana
I'd put my antique copy of 1984 in a Little Free Library, but I'm afraid Moms for Liberty would burn it!
Many a truth is said in jest
"The quality of your streams, lakes and aquifers would be better if they did."
Yes, and the quality of the terrestrial environment and ecosystems too, all connected by water and its maze of movement by land and air.
If the people knew. If the agencies were looking closely, actually monitoring off-target herbicide damage, actually monitoring the ecological impacts of neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides. Actually counting the species and numbers of pollinators in the wild lands and conservation plantings to discern which are surviving or not in this sea of toxic unaccountability. Actually measuring and reporting. To let the people know. What a quaint notion in the land of "over-regulation".
How will we know when the insect apocalypse takes a sudden downward turn? When all the toxic synergies of industrial ag empty the flowers of butterflies and bees? When the land takes a sudden turn to silent summer? What was in all that field dust, that loess silt that made the the Grand Prairie, that settled on my prairie oasis last spring? What systemic pesticides are emitted in those hundreds of millions of gallons of transpired water from the vast sea of corn and beans? Who is measuring any of these?
The buzz on the prairie I ain't hearing now, near peak summer bloom, is troubling. To see one butterfly in an acre of Prairie Blazing Star where there should be hundreds, as a friend reported yesterday ... well, something really bad is going on out here in the ag industrial heartland, with few eyes and ears upon it.
"For ours is an age of loss disguised as plenty." Nathaniel Popkin.
Thank you Chris for opening the book on the land and waters. For standing against the authoritarian powers that would keep it closed against the common good.
I appreciate the comparison between book banning and your own situation. Below the surface I sense you screaming for others to WAKE UP. It's the only way to move the ball; it's gonna take a lot of us doing the right things in bad situations to see real progress.
-someday we will both...wake up and start moving the ball.
-don't give up, give in, or get discouraged with lack of progress. It's definitely a long road. (Like I'm telling you that!)
-stay rested, and keep that fire in the belly. Few are as passionate, and I very much appreciate you keeping things stirred up.
I think you made a good comparison between the two issues. We need to hear more voices of those people who see the wrong in book banning and polluting our waters. I was fortunate during my 38 yrs as a public school teacher in Illinois and Iowa to not have the higher-ups in my field telling me what I was allowed to teach. Physics isn't fraught with controversial issues like sex and racism. No one ever said to stop teaching the kids about the law of gravity. The way things are going, even that absurdity could be stirring in the minds of some with other explanations. I'm glad to be retired.
Thank you for 38 years of service.
Thanks for yet another good post.
I’ve been traveling for about ten days, and am slow to respond. Thanks for this. We need courage on both the agricultural and education fronts right now, and as a librarian, appreciate your call to arms. So much in Iowa depends upon it.
Well said.
Thank you for standing up and speaking out, Chris. It is not easy, comfortable, or financially rewarding - but it is so very important. If only others in large groups or those with power and authority would do the same.
Thank you for calling out NGOs, especially conservation ones, for buying into the current system instead of speaking up to radically change it. It's refreshing and necessary. I'm tired of people being spineless because they are so afraid of alienating others. If you have passion and purpose, and if your cause is true, then alienating people is part of the job description. You are a great role model for that. Thanks again.
While the requirement came from the Statehouse, the enactment fell on the academics, reminding me of the standard city government response to tightened budgets: cut police, fire, parks and rec to recruit social pressure for more money. Axing 1984, Brave New World and their ilk calls to mind the same response and judging from the lightening reaction on the left and even the middle it is succeeding. At the risk of further fueling Iowa academics: the Davis School District just north of Salt Lake City just banned the Bible in reaction to a similar Utah law. You can look it up. . . .
I’m not so sure they’re all that strategic in this case, tbh