Alienation

by Monreale

I went over to the local mall this Friday afternoon.  Although it's only 10 minutes away, I hadn't been there in a long time. I bought new glasses from Costco and they needed fitting. I figured Lenscrafters would do a better job than Costco, and they did.

For those who don't know it, this mall is big. Anchored by Macy's, Sears and Penny's, it has some 170 stores and restaurants.

After the fitting, I went for a walk. My conscience (and my oldest daughter) has been after me to walk more so I set out to walk the length of the mall, both levels.

What I saw was a revelation. Some 80 to 90 % of the shoppers looked peculiar to me. Every conceivable ethnicity, language and, of course, race seemed to be represented. Even though I'm not one myself I was hoping to see a few WASPS. Somehow, that would have reassured me.

The clothing worn was to me odd. It's 85 degrees in California today. Why did some people wear long coats? To balance that, I suppose, some wore next to nothing. The jeans wearers were obviously competing as to whose jeans could stay up while having the most holes. Over large farmer's overalls were seen next to slinky, skin-tight dresses and slacks. There seemed to be no attempt to wear compatible colors--it was color chaos. Shoes competed with sandals competed with a kind of slipper sox and even bare feet.

Then there was the "body adornment." Piercings everywhere. Eyebrows, noses, cheeks, lips, tongues, backs of the neck. Earlobes punctured with big, round black objects, sometimes with strange devices hanging from them. Tattoos covering one arm, covering both arms, one leg, both legs, on necks edging up to the face. Striking configurations of facial hair--tufts, forests and everything in between. Heads shaved, partly shaved, shaved on top with ringlets hanging down on the sides, big bubble afros, dreadlocks.

It seemed to me that I had suddenly been transported to a kind of alien colony. And then it hit me. I was the alien.

Trees Have Rights Too

by John Stevenson

Friends of mine have a cabin in the Tahoe basin.  On their property there was a tree encroaching on the cabin’s foundation.  They wanted to remove it, so they contacted a tree service but were told a permit was required.  You don’t just go cutting down a tree without a permit, even on your own property.  The controlling agency was the U.S. Forest Service.

My friends contacted the Forest Service, made an appointment, and a forester came out.  He tagged the problem tree along with some others, and my friends got the required permit.   So the tree problem was resolved to their satisfaction.  However, their initial contact with the Forest Service had not gone smoothly; a clerk had become adversarial, telling them that “trees have rights too.”

At that time, at least two or maybe three decades ago, my friends and I took this response as preposterous and laughable.  But since then we have evolved.  We have learned to be tolerant, accepting, even defenders of the rights of other life forms. 

After all, why should we defend only human life?  Why not all cute, cuddly, furry, warm blooded animals?  Well, come to think of it, why not all animals?  Who is to say, for example, that mammals or even primates are more deserving of our empathy, love, and protection than alligators, snakes, spiders, wasps, termites, or tapeworms? 

As if in response to the “God bless America” and “God bless our troops” bumper stickers there are also the more inclusive bumper stickers “God bless everyone” and “God bless us all---no exceptions.”  Aren’t the latter sentiments an affirmation of all humans?  So why not, by extension, all God’s creatures?  

Which brings me back to my Tahoe friends and their encroaching tree.  At the time, we scoffed at the ludicrous notion that “trees have rights too.”  But haven’t we, as a society, progressed, become more inclusive?  Why do we, members of the animal kingdom, consider ourselves to be superior, more deserving, than members of the plant kingdom? 

Why do we believe that we hold dominion over the plant kingdom?  We mow, prune, pot, and otherwise maim our plants.  We alone decide on the timing and amount of their hydration and feeding.   With Roundup and other poisons, we even mass-murder those we deem undesirable. 

But I should not say “our” plants.  Are they not entitled to be their own masters?  There’s a school of thought in San Francisco that pets are now animal companions---no pets, no masters.  Why not plant companions?  Why do we feel entitled to enslave them? 

Well, I submit that we are not entitled.  If animals have rights, so should plants.  They should not be exterminated, harvested, maimed, or forced to exist only at the pleasure of humans. 

Praise God that we are morally evolving every day.  Eventually, perhaps during your lifetime or mine, plants will be afforded the dignity and protection they deserve. 

You may scoff at this.  But within the next few decades or hopefully sooner humanity will evolve to an understanding of its one-ness with the plant kingdom.  In the meantime, cultivate your relationships with your plant companions, lest they judge you harshly in the enlightened future.

Ooops! Hold the phone.  There could be a problem.  Once we reject the exploitation and murder of plants and animals, we may be a doomed species.  Unless we turn to cannibalism, where will we find food?

A Common Soldier

by John Stevenson

There was a monument in front of the Old Durham County Courthouse.  It consisted of a granite base upon which stood an anonymous Confederate soldier.  Erected in 1924, the whole works was about 15 feet high. The base was inscribed: “In memory of the boys who wore the gray.”

Two days after the violence in Charlottesville, a group of vandals destroyed that monument.   One person climbed the pedestal and looped a rope around the soldier.  The group then pulled the soldier to the ground where it crumpled.  The police were present but, apparently wanting to avoid a confrontation, did not intervene.  They did, however, film the event and have since made several arrests.

Regardless where you stand on the issue of whether there should be monuments to Confederate leaders or not, this vandalism is wrong on two counts.  First, it is illegal to vandalize or destroy the property of another---in this case the city.  Several jurisdictions are deciding or have decided to remove Confederate statues---others won’t.  It is up to the monument owner---not a mob of self-appointed vigilantes---to decide the disposition of that monument.  If the mob felt aggrieved by the presence of this memorial, their appropriate remedy would have been to petition the city.

Second, and setting aside the criminality issue, the vandals’ choice of target was inexcusable.  Here’s why.

The monument depicted no Confederate leader, no known slaveholder.  It was an anonymous soldier without rank or identification. As described on the UNC-maintained website documenting southern history, it was a “common soldier.”  Officers in those days typically got their commissions by graduating from a military academy, or through their wealth or political connections.  The common soldier---Johnny Reb---had no such power and would be an unlikely slaveholder.  He fought for his State.

What was Johnny Reb’s condition?  Compared to his Union opponent, he was under-equipped and under-fed, and his weapons were less effective.  The Union had the industrial strength to outfit an army which the South did not.

For example, he may or may not have even had shoes.  If he had shoes, there probably wasn’t a right and left---his shoes were interchangeable.  If he had none, he might eventually acquire a pair when scavenging from the dead on the battlefield. 

The same applied to weapons.  Johnny Reb may well have arrived on the battlefield with his personal shotgun or hunting rifle.  Confederate-issued rifles were less effective than Union rifles.  But again, scavenging from the dead was common.   As an example of the Union’s technological advantage, the Gattling Gun, forerunner to the true machine gun, was used by Union forces but not available to the Confederates.  

Common soldiers on both sides had it tough---perhaps even tougher than today's college kids retreating to their safe spaces.  But Johnny Reb had it tougher than the Yankee.  His tour of duty featured extreme privation in a fight against long odds.    

Video of the mob pulling Johnny Reb off his granite base is a study in contrasts.  Johnny Reb represented toughness, courage, determination, fighting to the end against forbidding odds for a lost cause. 

He was pulled down by Lilliputians.  Once the statue of Johnny Reb was crumpled on the ground, the vandals bravely took turns kicking, spitting upon, and “giving the finger” to the common soldier.  A sorry spectacle.

But there’s an unfortunate precedent for disagreeing with Government policy and taking it out on the common soldier: the vandals’ ideological grandparents spat upon American troops returning from Viet Nam.   

In case you misunderstood, this is not an endorsement of the Confederacy.  It is an affirmation of “the boys who wore the gray,” the common solder whose monument in Durham was trashed by his inferiors.

“It does not take a brave dog to bark at the bones of a dead lion.”

(attributed to Winston Churchill)