The man crying in the photo is George Gillette: "who in 1948 was the chairman of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa tribes of North Dakota, crying because the tribes’ homeland on the fertile floodplain of the Missouri River was to be inundated by construction of the Garrison Dam." (source)
The destruction of nature is an occasion for grief, one which should bring each of us to tears...but usually doesn't. Look at the faces of the whites in the photo. They are us, jeez.
Destroying forests, flooding homelands, murdering billions of animal beings (of all types)...and so few of us cry, so few of us are filled with sorrow and grief....so much devastation and misery and suffering and death and so few tears. I sometimes struggle against a desire to climb into my bed and cover up my head and not come out again...ever.
Our ignorance is so profound that we have forgotten that what we do to nature, what we do to the other animals...we do to ourselves. Opt out of this destructive insanity, as much as you can...a big step in the right direction is to live as an ethical vegan. Become someone who feels the sorrow, not someone who causes the sorrow. If enough of us join with George Gillette and begin to feel the horror and pain of what is happening then maybe we can stop the stony faced ones who are wrecking and destroying and murdering.
12 comments:
I say again, we belong to the earth, not the other way around.
Unfortunately, I don't think it's our ignorance, I think it's our arrogance. The average person is exposed to enough information that ignorance can't be the excuse. The Earth will rejoice when man finally self-destructs. I just hope we don't take everything with us.
What a profound photograph and what a profound post. I often feel the same way you do - not wanting to come out of bed because of the grief over what our species is doing to this beautiful fragile orb we are lucky enough to call home. After sulking for a bit in some dark corner of my house I realize that sulking doesn't help anything. You say at the end of your post, "a big step in the right direction is to live as an ethical vegan" (in my opinion, if someone isn't a vegan for ethical reasons, they're not a vegan). Because I am already an ethical vegan (and darn proud of it, too) In my effort to be active in helping save this planet and the beautiful and amazing creatures on it, I make it my mission to help others realize what a wonderful solution veganism is to all of the worlds problems. From speciesism to sexism, from pollution to poverty, from deforestation to disease - adopting a vegan diet and lifestyle will cure ALL.
Thanks for commenting Christina and Joan.
I agree Christina, but I suspect mother earth is perturbed with us.
I suspect there is truth is what you say Joan, I too hope others don't have to pay too severely for our blindness and denial.
Thank you for commenting Vegan Rabbit. I realize sulking is not very effective at accomplishing things but over the years I've found a good sulk now and then is sorta ok. :-)
You rightly point out that it is astonishing how many positive effects and results there are as a result of the vegan thingee. It's almost spooky.
I was in New York in January and was having a lovely conversation with a gentleman at a cafe about how he was a proud New Yorker. After enthusiastically telling us all about his beloved home, he went on to proudly exclaim that ''this all used to be forest! Can you believe that?! And now look at it! It was just trees and stuff before! It's amazing''. Didn't really have much to say to him after that...how can people be so proud of this ignorance/arrogance?? It's insanity. ''Just trees and stuff'' and now look at it - there's no comparison, but he couldn't see how just trees and stuff is incomprehensibly better than the urban jungle it was gutted for. But how do you even begin to get people like him to understand? Infuriating.
Thank you for commenting Nicola. Excellent point. "Just trees and stuff" indeed.
How to change that sort of attitude? Hell if I know. What comes to mind is that we human animals seem to be pathologically focused on ourselves as opposed to correctly contexting our beings into the matrix of the natural world that supports and allows our existence. We blind ourselves and are prideful in our unknowingness.
Our deliberate ignorance is infuriating...and dangerous.
''we human animals seem to be pathologically focused on ourselves as opposed to correctly contexting our beings into the matrix of the natural world that supports and allows our existence. We blind ourselves and are prideful in our unknowingness. '' I LOVE THAT. So true.
"The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders." - Ed Abbey
Thanks for providing the quote Annie. :-)
That photo is heartbreaking - And sooooooo telling of how greed disconnects us from cherishing what is truly valuable.
Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb
Thank you for commenting Bea.
The photo devastated me when I saw it, still does. We lost our way so long ago it is questionable whether we ever knew the way at all.
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