Defending Democracy from Facism

 I have not written on this blog for a while and like everyone else I have needed time to absorb and grieve the election results, but now it is time to write.

I was raised in a society that on 4^th of July celebrates its democracy and calls itself the greatest democracy on earth.  My father served in WWII and my parents both celebrated the end of fascism in Europe which had threatened their entire generation.  In many movies and TV shows throughout my life Nazis have been the symbols of evil.  So I could hardly have imagined that at any point in my life I would be encountering the rise of fascism—and certainly not in the U.S.!  And yet here we are.

I have spent the last 18 years fighting climate change and looking unwaveringly at grim scientific predictions about climate change – various disaster scenarios. Yet ironically those predictions discussed the change of our physical environment, such as the impacts of polar caps melting or drought, increased hurricanes and storms, and so on.  I remember watching “An Inconvenient Truth” and being clear in my own mind that what was missing from it was two predictions:  social upheaval and wars caused by drought/food shortages, and immigrant migration from countries that become uninhabitable. 

How Climate Change Effects Are Tied to the Rise of Fascism

Despite the fact that I could imagine these consequences of global heating, what I failed to predict was the rise of fascism and far right nationalism in some European countries and the U.S. However, it does make sense that as people become more afraid about immigration, rising food prices as crops fail, and other related catastrophes, some look for “a strong man” leader (or Big Daddy).  Unfortunately, power maniacs are only too willing to make any promise necessary to gain power and to say exactly what the public longs for.

Fear of an enemy, internal or external, is a classic ingredient for fascism.  Combine that with rising nationalism, and we see increasing hostility to and targeting of immigrants.  This hostility is so strong that the Democratic Party can hardly distinguish itself from the Republican Party on this issue and instead “has to agree” that the border is a problem.  What went unsaid is that global heating is already causing climate destabilization/crop failure/food shortages and resulting social upheaval and wars in the global south: Africa and South America.  Thus Europe sees many African refugees and the U.S. sees many South American refugees.  Rather than discussing that root of the problem, Trump simply labels immigrants from those countries as thugs, criminals and drug dealers.

Other Characteristics of Fascism

Fear is used to target any who are deemed different—thus the rabid anti-trans and anti LBGQT+ messaging of the MAGA movement.  Some I know question my family members’ fear of now being targeted. But if you look at the huge number of anti-LBGQT ads Trump was running in the last weeks of the presidential campaign, it is clear that for him anti-LBGQT fear is something to gain strength from.  This has parallels with the rise of Hitler. Those Hitler targeted first were political dissidents, gays and lesbians, and the handicapped.  The Jews came later.  We cannot be naive about that.

The suppression of women is present in all fascist societies.  Certainly, the move to take away abortion rights, to criminalize miscarriages or even those who assist pregnant women in trouble…as well as the emerging push to remove IVF and access to birth control…are all indicators of a society where women’s rights are slipping away.  While U.S. exceptionalism would not allow us to see this, a ranking of women’s rights internationally has the U.S. at 33 among 120 nations.  Looking at this truth is critical for us right now.

What We Can Do to Fight the Rise of Fascism

We do ourselves a great disservice if we try to reassure each other that everything is okay or will be shortly.  It is a disservice because not countering the rise of fascism is what will allow fascism to overcome our society.  

After the November election, when I was lamenting that the majority of our country chose Trump, a friend comforted me by pointing out that 27% of voting age Americans are not even registered to vote and that close to 90 million did not register to vote in the November election.  Only 64% of registered voters voted – so that means only 32 or 33% of Americans voted for Trump. 

While it might be comforting to know that Trump does not have the voting support of most Americans, democracy was lost when many in our country did not vote. They turned their eyes away.  In fact, the most common Google search on election day was “Did Joe Biden drop out?”  and “Who is Kamala Harris?” The next day the most common search was “What is a tariff?”  In this frightening state of ignorance and apathy, our country’s democracy is in danger.

The apathy of the voting public already had results after the last Trump election in 2016. During his term he nominated three anti-abortion Supreme Court justices.  I remember when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, a friend reported that her friend cried “How could this happen?”  My friend turned to her and said furiously, “Because YOU and others like you did not vote in the last election.” 

Many people reported that in the November 2024 election they voted for Trump even though they did not like him “because of the economy”.   It is a fact that he did much worse with the economy than either Obama or Biden – but the opposite was apparently the popular belief.   What is most frightening about that is Hitler was elected because Germany was in economic hard times from having to pay reparations for WWI, and he promised to improve their economy. 

We now must keep our eyes on the prize--with that prize being democracy!  We must quickly wake our neighbors out of their slumber, and we must not let ourselves believe that the November election loss is like any other time in our lives where our favored party lost to the other party. The history of fascism, not only in Germany but wherever it arises, shows us what to expect and what must be resisted. 

Fear and isolation are the first things to resist as they are the most important tools of fascism. So begin by finding people you can talk to about the kind of things in this opinion piece.  Be ready to take action to resist the erosion of the rights of LBGQT+ people, immigrants and women.  Work against the concentration of power in the executive branch of the federal government. To learn about such laws already proposed by MAGA Republicans, see “Defending Democracy: Part Two” in this issue of WIP.

 

Designating Nonprofits as Terrorist-Supporting Organizations

One threat to democracy was included in the bill HR 9495 in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In December this bill was narrowly defeated, but it will undoubtedly be proposed again, especially now that both the Senate and House of Representatives are dominated by Republicans.  This bill would give the Treasury Department the power to designate any nonprofit organization a “terrorist-supporting organization” and to strip it of its tax-exempt status. No standards for making the decision were included in the bill, nor ways to appeal the decision.

We can imagine the direct effects on any nonprofit designated as “terrorist-supporting.” Taking away a nonprofit’s ability to raise money is one of the quickest ways to kill it.  Additionally, once the Trump administration has designated a nonprofit this way – what targeting of its members and staff will come next?  

It is also not hard to imagine the mischief that this bill could cause. What anti-war groups will get this designation?  What LBGTQ+ groups?  What groups supporting immigrants?  What groups opposing multi-national corporation takeover? What environmental groups trying to protect our planet’s trashing?  What Black Lives Matter groups? Which nonprofit newspapers and magazines? In fact, with Republicans controlling all three branches of the US government--the presidency, the Supreme Court and Congress – citizen activists and the mainstream press (sadly compromised by corporate monopoly) might be the only defenders of democracy left!

Presidential Control of the States’ National Guard Units

Each state’s National Guard is designed for local state-wide protection and is under the control of the state governor. Governors activate their National Guard in emergencies like natural disasters, but also for civil unrest, such as riots—and protests, sometimes even peaceful ones. State governors have had this control since the U.S. Constitution was written.

However, during the last Congress, MAGA Republicans placed a provision in the defense authorization bill that would take this control from state governors and place it under the U.S. Space Command, part of the Department of Defense (and not to be confused with NASA).

While the bill’s provision only focused on the flight units of each state’s National Guard, this would set a terrible precedent for taking away state rights and control.  For this reason, the National Governors Association, including Republican governors, have spoken out against it.  This provision was removed from the last defense appropriation bill, but it will certainly be introduced again in some other form.

It would be very hard for Trump to use the regular military against protesting Americans because 1) they are busy doing other things; and 2) high-up military brass understand this would be a violation of the Constitution.  However, if this provision passes Congress, as commander of the National Guard the president would have control of a military body in each state that could be called out to suppress protestors. Even if his control were restricted to the National Guard’s flight units, we can imagine helicopters and light planes being used to harass protestors—or worse. Therefore, this idea is a dangerous incursion against the right to much-needed peaceable protest. 

In the coming months, we must be alert to the re-appearance of these two ideas in Congress and be ready to take action against them – and other proposals that would undermine our democracy.  I will be writing other articles about the rise of fascism, but we all must examine the events of the day through the lens of what this is doing to our democracy and be willing to defend it.

 

 

 

What good does it do?

 It is often a source of frustration to me that our society does not teach the history of social change in our school systems.  In fact we barely teach civics.  Most Americans cannot correctly name the three branches of government: Congress, the Presidency and the Courts - let alone describe how they operate as checks and balances on each other.   It is little surprise then that people miss important elections and are surprised then by court decisions that happen because of Presidential appointments to the courts.  But as history is written by the victors it is also the case that when social movements like the suffragette's or the abolitionists or the civil rights workers win - that the history of how they win is sort of sanitized.  It is turned into a "strong (wo)man" version where a charismatic leader like Martin Luther King or Susan B. Anthony, or Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln are accounted most of the credit - ignoring the faceless thousands that made up a movement.    Little is written about the many many campaigns, including the ones lost on the way to victory.  (And yet every battle of the Civil War is told in detail.)

We are kept therefore from the amazing details of how ordinary people can affect change.  The public has vagish ideas that you march on Washington and that you might have to get arrested.   But even that belief usually does not understand the significant genius of how people in the civil rights movement or suffragette movement were arrested doing the things they were prohibited from.  (Not sitting down blocking traffic or blocking a door.)  The inability to list even a few of the 100 tactics that Gene Sharp listed in his famous work on non-violence keeps us feeling helpless and disempowered.  Since we are taught a little bit about Congress passing bills - we are left thinking our only power is to write Congressional Representatives which we can tell from the form letters that come back are not listening and don't come from our class background (a huge class of millionaire and billionaire aging white men)  and to try to persuade them to pass the bills we want.  This again leaves us feeling helpless and disempowered.

Even for those who make it through some protest marches or rallies into longer term volunteer roles and involvement in ongoing campaigns we often find ourselves wondering?  What good does this do?  If I spent more time at it - would it actually do any good?  These are important questions to answer.

One of my answers is social change takes time and it may not be seen in your lifetime.  Susan B Anthony did not live long enough to see women get the vote and she knew that likely but stated publicly that "failure is impossible" her own statement of faith that it would happen.   Martin Luther King said shortly before his assassination:  "I may not get there with you but I have been to the mountain top and I know what is there."   Lincoln also died before seeing post war peace.  Yet each of these individuals took actions that were critical to success and without with success would not have been possible - and each of them did those actions with the support and work of hundreds and sometimes thousands of others.

Mostly the ripple of our actions is not visible to us.  Protesters during the war in Vietnam surrounded the White House on an almost continuous basis demanding an end to the war.   Nixon never acknowledged them and the protesters often felt frustrated that they could not reach him.   And yet years later accounts by his private advisors revealed that when he was being pressured to increase the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos - he stated:  "I am not going to do that when the White House is surrounded by protestors."   It is also clear that both JFK and Johnson gave in on certain civil rights issues that they had not intend to give on, because of a nation riveted by scenes of lunch counter sit-ins, bus boycotts and police dogs and fire hosed turned onto peaceful protestors. George Lakey writes extensively in his book How We Win about the kinds of campaigns that can build momentum and get traction.  He also commonly comments that one off protests do not achieve that.  We have to have a goal and a strategy for getting there.  Martin Luther King, Jr had numerous campaigns happening in different states, both overlapping and building upon each other.  At probably the most powerful moment of social change in our country the 70's the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement and the environmental movement achieved a powerful intersectionality where they began to recognize each other as fighting for the same cause - justice.

History often refers to the fact that Quakers did not own slaves and were abolitionists.  What that history does not tell is it took Quakers 100 years to arrive at that position.  That a dozen Quakers impassioned about the evils of slavery traveled among Friends pleading with and emploring them to stop owning slaves - till eventually their Meetings were able to reach unity on that position which was accomplished in part by disowning the Friends who did not willing comply with ceasing to own people.  (and some simply complied by selling their enslaved people rather than freeing them.)  Thus it took a movement within Friends to bring them to any place of leadership in a wider social movement.

Individual actions can have a surprisingly bigger ripple effect than we would think.  Not only did some individual Quakers influence others on ceasing to own slaves, but whistle blower Chelsea Manning relates that is was hearing Vietnam area whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg that gave Chelsea the courage to speak out.   Daniel Ellsberg tells that is was hearing draft resister Randy Kehler speak out that eventually gave Daniel the courage.   Randy drew on the traditions of Quaker opposition to war to burn his draft card.  Thus the ripples can cross generations and inspire strangers.  My own life was radicalized by the influence of many many activists words and actions that stirred my soul.  We do not know when we do something for peace or justice what its long term effects will be.  

What would happen now if Black Lives Matter, Right to Choose, Climate activists and Defenders of Democracy and voting rights all joined forces?

Connecting to the Ancestors

I remember many years ago reading Michener’s book Chesapeake about Chesapeake Bay.  It starts with “the settling” of the Bay and the impact on a Native American Family, a wealthy family from England and a poor indentured family, a faith based family, etc.  As the book moves on from generation to intergeneration we see these families intermarry and their fortunes rise and fall. It effectively makes the point that we all have scoundrels and heroes in all our family lines.  I have held with shame since the third grade the knowledge that my father’s family were Virginia plantation owners and owned many slaves.  I was surprised when about 5 years ago a friend without my permission traced my family line and told me that one of my family line actually served in the Union Army (I had always assumed it would have been the confederate army and was captured and helped in a prison camp.  This did not erase the wrongs of previous generations but again prove the truism that we all have both scoundrels and heroes in our family line.

Native people traditionally introduce themselves by saying who they are descendent from on both sides of their family – back to grandparents.  This allowed for an oral tradition that kept them connected to and honoring of ancestors.  But the genociding, the re-locations and the boarding school kidnappings all began to bring down a wall of silence where histories were lost.  For African-American’s it has been nearly impossible to trace back any further than the end of the civil war – usually the first census after the war.  That may sometimes reveal clearly that they were born into slavery – and sometimes with some real sleuthing and due to the common practice of enslaved people being given the last name of the plantation owner – it has been sometimes possible to find information directly linking them to a plantation.  But it is near impossible to find out which generation was brought over in chains or from what African country.  Despite that possibility most African Americans know only back to their grandparents and sometimes do not know one set of those or sometimes even don’t know a parent.

A few years ago, I watched a webinar that brought me to tears.  It featured a white woman and an African American man about 10 years her junior.  Both were part of the philanthropy world and had met there and formed a casual friendship.  In a conversation it came up that they both had grown up in the same SC small town.  With dawning horror, it occurred to the woman who knew her family history involved slave owning that her family could have enslaved his.   She did the research and discovered this to be true.   She sat with it for two years working on a clean apology.  By clean she meant no defensiveness, no excuses, no minimizing – just a genuine apology.  Then she asked to meet up with him and she gave it to him.  He tells, crying a new in the filming, that he had never thought he needed anything from anyone about his enslaved past generations.  He thought he just accepted this as a grim fact.  But he tells that when she read to him the apology, he began to uncontrollably sob.   He later had the letter laminated and counts in one of his most precious possessions.

In the last six months I have begun to watch Henry Gates, Jr’s Finding your Roots.   He has many people of color on the show but also white people.   I was struck at first by how many of the African American people cry at finding out who was the enslaved generation of their family, at discovering their names, or sometimes at the cruel facts that are revealed.  But universally they express the feeling that they are whole in a way they had not previously imagined.   That they feel “real” – that it is a relief to have their roots.  I am very struck by how this was another level of the destruction of slavery – to separate descendants from ancestors and to leave them rootless.   Universally they also say none of this was ever talked about in their families.

I had thought that of course the trauma of slavery or Native genocide would make people talk about it – but as he also covers white people – I see that the trauma of poverty, or of doing shameful things like owning slaves – also makes people silent and not speak to their children about their past. I am struck by how people of all races when they hear the stories of suffering of great great grandparents long dead – of children left orphaned, of widows left with many mouths to feed, of people who kept their family together against great odds – they cry.   These are stories that if just watched as a stuffy PBS history special would not make them cry – but it is that feeling of connection – that I believe held knowledge in their very cells that makes them cry.   And many also express gratitude to both the heroes and the scoundrels of their family that they persevered so that they can be sitting there today.

Joanna Macy and many indigenous leaders have been saying that we must connect with our ancestors and our unborn descendants in order to save this planet.   Certainly our ancestors have stories of resilience and determination to share with us, and we must then in turn be these good ancestors for our unborn descendents.

 

 

To Pray our way Forward

 Some days being a climate activists is really really hard.  The county emissions reports for last year came out showing emissions up in almost every category.   The steering committee for the mitigation process came out with their annual report and literally congratulated themselves for putting in more LED lightbulbs, getting a national solar certification that means they have passed all the rules that make them solar friendly, and that they passed rules to make things good for electric car chargers.  Compared to what we need to be doing...this is so sad.  And then of course there was the IPCC report again warning that we are almost out of time.

I have been reading many native people's writings or listening to them speak.   One would think that with all the genocide and theft they have experienced that they would be despairing and disempowered - and certainly some are.  But what really strikes me is two things:

1) As all living Native people today are the descendents of survivors of genocide - they have a posture of "well our destruction is not certain".   They are aware of the potential to survive impossible odds.  They have tenacity in their bones and they know how to do this with little resources.  So they have no forgone conclusion about what will happen.

In fact in listening to Llarian Merculieff, Unangan tribe, he quoted the oft heard white environmentalist troph that Earth would be better off without us and would survive none the less.  He basically responded:  "What a dumb thing to say.   That is like saying a mother will survive just fine without her children.  Perhaps - but that is not what she wants."   Woman who stands Shining - Pat McCabe  said:  "I do think Earth can survive without us.  But I think that will be a diminished Earth.  We have a role here in the evolution of Earth."

2) Over and over again I see Native Leaders respond to the struggling and the suffering by going into prayer.  Maybe we could say all religions call people to prayer before problems.  But this is different - this is not a refugee - it is taking action.  And why I think it is fundamentally different than Christian or Muslim or X prayers, is it is a joining.  In Native spirituality there is no separation between humans and their non-human - other living being "relatives".  There is a relationship that is understood to be mutual and reciprocal.   Therefore it is both possible to receive messages from other beings, but it is also possible to serve other beings and to be served by them.   This form of prayer is entering into relationship with them.

Recently on Facebook I have been sort of fascinated to watch many video's of humans rescuing trapped animals - often ones that they might in other times hunt - and take even some big risks to help the animal.  I have thought maybe I was just going for the feel good move but actually it often makes me feel like crying.  I realize now that it is because it is this moment where non indigenous humans, often quite disconnected from the knowledge that we are all connected - act in a truer paradigm.  They act in the paradigm of being aligned  with life, or instinctively wanting it to flourish.   Even more amazing are the accounts of some of these animals coming back regularly to where their rescuers are and obviously rescuing them and showing gratitude to them!

Many folks are familiar with the House of Tears traditional Lumi Carvers - a family that has maintained and passed on the skills of carving wood totem poles.  For many years now they pick a focus for that years totem pole that represents their concern and prayer for the world and they carve that totem pole and then they spend about half the year in journey, pulling it on a trailer to its destination - making stops to speak and to pray all along the way.  Everything about this is a prayer for change - the carving is a prayer, every stop is the creation of public prayer, and the finale installation of the pole is an act of dedicated prayer.  Do the prayers work?  In 2021 they made a totem pole to bring home Takita the kidnapped Orca whale that has lived decades in a Florida seaworld forced to perform.  This month is was announced that the new owner of Seaworld will allow her to come home.

Two years ago I was very moved to attend a prayer stop of the House of Tears and hear Jewel James the main carver speak and pray.   At a certain point he called up another man, he asked for all cameras to be turned off and he gave the mic to this man.   This man explained that Jewel had asked him a hard thing several months ago and he had to really enter into discernment about it but now he was ready to do this.   He revealed he was asked to lead prayers for Governor Jay Inslee.   My breath was taken away because the year before Inslee had profoundly betrayed Native trust.  He had gotten them to support a climate bill that included a provision to grant them true consultation over projects on their traditional lands - and then as he signed the bill he stripped that part out.  So I knew what a significant thing it was for this man to pray for Inslee, why he had had to discern.  It meant laying down hate and anger and sincerely praying for right alignment of Jay and all of us as well.   This to me is a way we must pray in the face of climate change.  A friend of mine said:  "Maybe in the face of climate destruction all I really can do is to pray." I know for myself to pray is to see things in right alignment which is not what I am seeing when I am focusing on political problems.

James Town Clallam Public Art

Kinship

 Chapter 6 of  We are the Middle of Forever is by Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte, a Potawatomi Tribal member and it is about Kinship.  I recognize as I read this that Robin Wells Kimmerer also spoke about this and about reciprocal relationship with Earth and the creatures of Earth, but she does not so much use the word kinship.

Dr. Whyte says: But kinship refers to relationships of mutual responsibility, where we care for each other, and we create bonds with each other that make it so that, regardless of what the law says, and regardless of how severe a problem is, or regardless of what our rights are, we have an abiding sense that we need to care for others.  We need to be responsible for each other, and that's not just confined to the human to human context, but depending o the culture, to all living beings and nonliving entities and systems."  He goes onto to talk about the ways in which colonialism has erased or disrespected kinship.

When I think about a people that were living on the land for centuries and centuries feeling that the animals and the plants were their brothers and sisters, taking but only with respect - with honorable harvest guidelines and gratitude, and where conscious attention was paid to the needs of an eco system and oral stories passed down the knowledge of the properties of different plants, and the way to care for the ecosystem......I can only think what a rude shock it must have been to see settlers come and do things like chop down a whole forest or replant a whole field in a monocrop, or kill all of one animal, or pollute a water source, or extract and lay waste a landscape.....They must simply have regarded us as both crazy and "savage".  

The tragedy of genocide and destruction of college is an obvious tragedy.  But this destruction of and removal from their reciprocal relationship with the land is a deep and less obvious trauma both for tribes, but also for the land itself.   I think of Robin's report about a graduate student of hers that was studying where sweetgrass grew and did not grow and discovered that it was more abundant and healthy were tribes had harvested it - that their actions were in fact part of that ecosystems balance.  Just as it is now becoming clear that many tries did controlled burns and kept health the forests they were in relationship with.  For anyone of us that have tended a garden for years and then moved away only to discover that the next owner allowed it all to go to weeds...can understand the sort of sorrow this is.

Dr. Whyte also talk quite a bit about time - about linear time (that practiced by western culture) and deep time - a sense by Native people of a longer slower more circular or non-linear time.   He emphasizes the rushed nature of linear time especially in regards to crisis - and he talks about how the stories that pass down from generation to generation are a kind of guidance from outside time.    He states:  "For Indigenous people, we think of our deep time, where we're thinking about the stories that we still keep today.  We're thinking, 'wait a minute, we need to go back.  Is there guidance within those stories that can help us understand the challenges that we're facing today?"...You should never presuppose that anything that's happening today is the first time.  Maybe it is, but you should never presuppose that.  You should always go back into that deep time."   He goes on to say that Kinship is one of the ways to enter deep time.

He adds: "When we panic, we realize that because we don't know the conditions that made our normal possible, we're going to do whatever quick fix we can to return to normalcy, even if that just means a sense of normalcy. This idea of normality, or the assumption of what's normal, is a key problem with clock time."  And when I think of the dumb solutions to climate change or environmental problems I have heard - the ones that don't work but are just greenwashing or ill conceived - they indeed are as he says a quick fix attempt to return to normalcy.   He also goes on to point out that caregiving work is not valued in western culture and not seen as a pathway for change - because kinship is not valued.

As a white person considering this idea of Kinship it is very evident to me that not only was it never held out to me that I was in relationship with the life forms and entities around me - but those who held beliefs along those lines were made fun of.  It means huge blind spots about the interconnectedness of things around me, about the implications of my actions and even the importance of the human relationships I choose. 

Dr Whyte says:  "We need to think about what type of team we want to be part of.  We want to figure out who the collective of people are that are meaningful to us, that are responsive to change, and think about what it means to build that kinship network.  What's interesting about kinship is it is slow, because we have to be patient with the development of the relationship."  That gives me a lot to think about in terms of how I do my activism.

Aligning with Life: a Spiritual Response to Climate Crisis

I was reading an essay, To Take Wilderness in Hand by Michelle Nijhuis, in the book Old Growth.  The essay is about the controversy among restoration experts and Native planet advocates about whether to simply restore or "migrate' endangered species of trees, insects, birds and animals.  For many, many decades the position of both has been that "right plant in right place" meant only native plants that grew here before western contact.  We have all seen the havoc an invasive plant causes, right?   And fundamental to that is understanding that the plant is not destructive in its own native habitat.  But transplanted it does not have natural predators or other factors that limit it.  It can over run other plants and take sun and water from them and destroy balance.  We all know how transported insects have devastated whole forests who had no defense against them and no natural predator birds- and thus killing trees wildly.

This becomes even hotter debate when you start talking about animals and birds (and insects) being moved around or creating mitigation areas for them.   Many of the efforts to simply move animals to suit humans have failed miserably resulting in the death and even extinction of the animal species.   But also moved animals have wound up without predators ravishing the area they moved to.  The removal of predator species like wolf, coyote or bear have led to the gross over population of species they prey upon like deer or rabbits to the point that those animals then destroyed the local flora and fauna because things were so out of balance.  (Equally dramatic stores about the restoration of a whole ecosystem when those animals - wolves or buffalo were reintroduced where they had been.)

Therefore, naturalists have generally just taken the position that we should not be intervening - not transplanting plants, or moving animals, or removing ones we don't like...that we should leave nature to her own rebalancing methods.

However, now climate change has gotten so bad, so a new debate is taking place.   Particularly about trees that normally migrate to different temperature zones very slowly (by decades) by birds dropping seeds some score of miles away and the tree growing there and reproducing.   This is neither the speed nor distance that would allow them to migrate out of severe climate change.   Because a state 100 to 200 miles north may in fact come to have the same weather conditions that historically its neighbor to the south has had before climate change, some restoration specialists are now recommending trying to wholesale move species north to try to save them.   As we are also experiencing mass extinctions happening of many species greatly exasperated by climate change there are similar conversations about whether moving animals will be a necessity and what do we owe them given what we have done to their liveable environment?

As I read this essay, I felt deeply conflicted.  I have been in the "don't mess with things - God already created perfection" camp.  Aware that we have only unbalanced that perfection.  But the idea of no longer having any CA Redwoods is certainly unbearably sad.   What do we owe other species in the mess we have made?   Will trying to correct only create new unforeseen problems as has tended to happen with our interventions.  Even with the best science available to us - how would we not just screw it up more?  The article mentioned that in early attempts already made some succeeded and some failed.  In Diana Beresford-Kroger's autobiography she mentions her current project of bringing all rare nearly extinct trees to her property in CA to try to preserve them.   Her journey to find them has been remarkable and some last living species she found not in their tradition areas but where someone had transplanted the plant elsewhere, and it has survived therefore pests or blight. 

I lay meditating upon this and what came to me was a great surprise but did align with the notion of living in reciprocal relationship with plants and animals.   I thought about how Native people ask plants permission to harvest them and in other ways try to tune into them and listen to what they have to say.  It occurred to me that before these sorts of interventions could happen only if someone with the right skills first tuned in and asked if the plant or animal wanted to be moved.   Then if the answer to that was yes, a relationship of empowering service to the plant would need to take place.   The human moving it would literally have to listen to its guidance - its yes or its no about the location into which it would be relocated.

I realize for some this will be seen an idea way to airy fairy.   But for those that have followed the most recent science showing how plants and trees communicate with each other, and the great complexity of qualities that makes friendly habitat...it is not farfetched to say that a plant knows what it needs.

But what I am particularly struck by here is that this is a profound form of aligning with life this is - of coming into relationship with plants and animals in a way that respects their nature and their intelligence.   This is not a new concept for indigenous people but for western science this is an anthropomorphic approach to things.  Given the glaring failures of western science and the centuries of stewardship of Earth by Indigenous people we would do well to respect such approaches.

But beyond that it points powerfully to the way we need to conduct ourselves to start to stop and repair climate change.   We must align with life's longing for life itself.  Joanna Macy has always said Earth is on our side.  Earth also is fighting for survival.   But the Creator most certainly has programed everything to support life.  This is in fact the only way to be in reciprocal relationship with Earth - is to be in alignment with life itself.  To just serve life.  This is the only road map we need for how to fight for the life on this planet - is to align with life.

The Way of the Salmon

 The Salmon run here in November, so my daughter and I have started making an annual pilgrimage out to Kennedy Creek to see the Chum run on her birthday.  After years of seeing Salmon only in the artificial concrete steps of the Ballard Locks, it is wonderful to see them in the actual waters they spawn in. For those of you who have never seen them in their natural environment I have posted a brief video below.

I have always been in awe of Salmon.  At the Ballard locks, I would watch these foot to two-foot- long huge fish swimming against the strong current, gathering up the strength to jump up a yard or so to the next "step" and then go through this all again at least 6 times.  I will never forget the one I saw once that bore 4 long bear claw scratches along its side but still had narrowly escaped to make this difficult journey.  In the creek, it is less arduous, but still they are swimming against the tide.  The docents tell me they stop eating when they leave salt water, and so they are actually fasting while doing all this strenuous work!   And of course, as we all know - they are not struggling to get to some cushy vacation spot.  They are struggling to get to ideal breeding grounds, breed and then literally die.  Deep in their DNA is the knowledge to return to a place they have not been for two years - a place they were born but spent no real time.  I am awe struck that the Elwha dam blocked the return of Salmon to that river for 100 years, and the year after it came down Salmon returned to it!  How did they know to come back? Watching Salmon swim against the tide up a stream is watching the inborn drive of life for life's sake.

We humans also propagate our species - but we have the joy of spending 18 years or more enjoying them before they leave our nests.  Salmon fry are born after their parents are both dead.  The instinct the mother has to build the safest nest location she can, is the only nurturing she can/will do.  The odds are so heavily stacked against them it is a miracle there have ever been salmon, let alone now as we create ecological destruction for their habitat.  The docent tells us a mother lays 300,000 eggs (in her one and only shot at reproduction).  A much smaller number are fertilized, hatch and make it out to the ocean.  Many adults are eaten by prey or humans before making their journey back to the creek of their origins. Only TWO, yes two, make it back to propagate.  It is a good thing other mother's offspring also make it back or we could wind up with only two males or only two females.  But basically, they are on a one for one replacement schema as designed by nature.   So, considering how we have blocked off rivers with damn, polluted rivers and streams with toxic run off, and now how climate change has heated the water to a point it is sometimes to hot for them to swim in, or where the stream is too shallow to travel....it is no wonder their population is following dangerously and some our becoming endangered.

Many cultures have the idea of a "spirit or totem animal."   When my daughter was born fairly early in her life out of the pile of stuffed animals, she pulled out the polar bear and he became her favorite going everywhere with her, and as soon as she understood the concept, she stated that the Polar bear was her totem.  Somewhere around the time she was 7 or 8 I was struck with grief at the realization that for a boomer to have made that choice was one we could walk with the entire length of our life, but that she is likely, due to climate change, to see her totem go extinct.   And in my grief, I realized that it unfortunately fits the reality of what her generation will face on a spiritual level.

There are tribes in the NW who identify as 'We are the People of the Salmon" (and all the NW tribes recognize Salmon as siblings - just as they recognize elk, deer and coyote as such).   And I have heard a plaintiff tribal speaker say:  "We are the people of the Salmon. Who will we be if there are no more Salmon".   This is not like a team who has a mascot and loses it (and can chose another.)   This is a deep expression of all the traditions, and stories, and totems and spiritual practice, and ecological knowledge all imbedded in the relationship with Salmon which would be lost.

I have never had this clear identification of a totem… I neither, in childhood or adulthood, had a special relationship to a species.  I love cats and have a collection of cat knick knacks...but I know that they are pets to me not totems.  As I understand it totems are both to teach us and guide us but also for us to duplicate the strengths of the totem being.  But this is part of the turning in me to learn from nature, from animals.  Recently, as I stood in a Native gift store on a reservation looking at the beautiful way that NW native art represents the soul of animals with symbols inside the outline of the animal, I thought well which of these traditional animals do I related to?   I quickly knew not wolf, or coyote, or whale or eagle...but then Salmon, Oh Yes!   I realized that the reason I am always fascinated by them is I have always related to their uphill struggle of which they will not benefit - their service to life.

For years I have said to folks who worry about climate change that we cannot know the outcome, and it may look quite dire, but that we just have to do the right thing - do the thing that could possibly be for the survival of the species.   I have spent hours and hours of my life in fights that have been entirely uphill - some won and many lost, but swimming out of sense of duty and purpose upstream.  I remember once grieving for a salmon at the Ballard locks that had tried to jump a lock and landed on the concrete side walk and had been unable to get off, perhaps to weak, and had died there.  I mourned that they were so close to the end of their journey but unable to complete their precious mission.  May we have the strength and focus to complete our critical mission on life's behest.