Dearest Peggy,
It is Sunday and as a christian (maybe pacifist franciscan), perhaps I should be attending Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church here in Seguin. I attend because it is my tradition instilled in me by Mom St. Louise (Kneuper) Martin and I feel solidarity and sense of ecological community there at mostly Mexican-American, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Therefore, I attend Mass not because of, what even the religions often call, a mysterious god … a Mystery. I am not a Believer and as a very well-informed ignoramus and agnostic*/ignostic, my best stab at what god is involves a reality of dynamically sustainable, fantastically complex, energetic-connections, but not a god which is unknowable mystery which many religions indoctrinate. For me, god is nature, dynamic homeostatic symbioses (including humans), … or ecological community.
For ca. twenty years, Kids On the Land was a part of that solidarity I can feel at Our Lady of Guadalupe-Seguin … a sense of place … a sense of ecological community. It was an important part of my “spirituality.”
And you, Peggy (the key founder of Kids On the Land), are a wonderful person, a truly amazing educator (the best I’ve ever seen!) and organizer. Texas Hill Country-raised, Southwest Texas State Teachers College-graduate, and Cotulla, Texas-educator Lyndon Baines Johnson emphasized that the truly important livelihoods are being “a teacher, preacher, and politician.” You are a great teacher, a good preacher, and an effective politician. I am grateful for your allowing me to know you, Mum, your family and Mum’s family, and your friends & colleagues; I dearly love all of the youth to whom y’all introduced me; I thank y’all for the opportunity to work with some fantastic people! Moreover, you did introduce me to much other Land, Commons, and Nature in my expansive home of Texas and helped me to learn and grow in various exciting and invigorating ways. (And I MUST especially thank you for John Hackley’s banana puddings, Frank Parigi’s delicious feasts, Big Boy’s Barbeque, and a few raw crayfish and many fried grasshoppers!)
Charles Robert Darwin was also an amazing person and educator … and the best naturalist ever! His Darwinism, the theory** of the evolution of species by natural selection***, was one of the major breakthroughs in science … ever. Darwinism helps tremenously to explain the dynamic concept of species, how we got the beautiful diversity of life (including insects, honey bees, lady beetles, macroinvertebrates & vertebrates, mesofauna, marine life, native & non-native plants, grasses, wildflowers, … ), behaviors (e.g. dispersal, aggregation, pollination), and adaptations (e.g. photosynthesis, long roots, parts of a plant, pheromones and various mouthparts, eyes, & means of locomotion, exoskeletons, types of metamorphosis, color patterns of life forms, workers/drones/queens [all physical- and physiological-sexual variations, persuasions, and behaviors including transgenders], … ) … and it helps us to make sense of our current biological taxonomy. We DO de facto tell others, young and old kids, about Darwinism while facilitating learning through Kids On the Land. And we shouldn’t shamefully/fearfully attempt to hide the process and history of Darwinism because of corrupt ignorance, cultism, and prejudices! (I personally will teach, preach, and politic a “positiviely ethical applied community ecology”/PEACE, based on scientific Darwinism and factual history until I pass!)
In much of the world today, including much of my beloved Texas, we live in a “nazi germany light … getting heavier.” This situation isn’t new, and it is one in which, in this chaotically-numbing world, you can sort of get used to it … especially when you have a comfortable, excessively-consumptive, spoiled Haves’ life such as I do … with friends & family to the far left and the far right.
Nevertheless, I try hard not to tolerate the nationalistic, neoliberal, Christian (with a big “C”) nazism, … no matter how light. And I will forever attempt to avoid being censored while teaching good science (e.g. the theory of evolution) to everyone, young and old kids … and I will resist being banned from teaching the Truth. … Moreover, I plan to continue teaching factual history (e.g. Darwin’s studies of the Galapagos … AND the history of the past & ongoing disruptive power of the U.S.A. (its Wars and militarism and armaments, arms, & guns and imperialism) and its UNSUSTAINABLE ARTIFICIAL EXTRACTION from Nature and the natural resource base [top soil, quality air & water, biodiversity, photosynthesizers, and daily solar energy] and exploitation of the powerless of the world, as well as destructive use of fossil & nuclear energy & materials … AND its apocalyptic worship at the altar of growth).
Therefore, I have decided that it is time for me to leave a “Kids On the Land” … who can’t truly tolerate the real me**** Despite this partida, I SINCERELY appreciate all the wonderful positives you have done! And I do deeply love all of you kids-on-landers and always will love y’all, most especially, you and Mum. (I agree with my dear friend Rueben Flores that Kids On the Land should be legislatively institutionalized throughout Texas with adequate appropriations.)
On the other hand, I do hope you, your board, and all the movers and shakers of Kids On the Land will miraculously find a way to facilitate learning about ALL ecological principles and processes … and their connections … and the positive values of applied ecology, including profound & holistic socio-ecological justice. (These “curricula” / processes of positive ecological learning would include Darwin & Darwinism AND a bit of the history of past and relatively recent terrible sins of the U.S.A., a place never any greater than any other and oftentimes more ignorantly disgraceful.)
*******************
Well! … On this beautiful Sunday after some needed rain and a respite from the unprecedented hot weather & extreme environmental conditions human-induced climate change has brought us this year, I decided to first get this little letter out of the way. (It’s been on my mind since leaving Lambshead Ranch and the message was eager to get out as I lay in bed this Sunday morning.) Now I’ll take a long bicycle ride here in Clean Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas, go for a short swim and tidy up inside this house and out, and attend a small gathering of neighborhood progressives (who are more conservative than most Conservatives [with a large “C”]) before sweet and more pragmatic (Southwest Texas State University-graduate) Betsy comes home from her visit and caretaking of her ninety-five year-old Mom who lives alone in Rio Medina, a couple of counties over.
Love, pablo
………………………
*I believe if most folk are honest with themselves, they will admit they are agnostic. They (We) really don’t know much!
**In science, a “theory” is almost a “Law” or “Principle.” https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/evolution-today/what-is-a-theory
***Alfred Wallace, another great naturalist, also “concurrently” developed the theory of evolution by natural selection about the same time as Darwin. Many others have expanded our concept of evolution with knowledge of mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, non-random mating, etc.
****There WERE other occasions when I considered leaving this wonderful educational organization, Kids On the Land, because I was cut off from saying anything detrimental, even though factual, about the U.S.A.
https://www.kite.pub/sustainability/games-we-play/
(Hopefully we will have an upgraded Portuguese version of Games We Play. More Than 200,000 Years of Living Truthfully and 5,000 of Searching for Truth out in 2024. And perhaps a Spanish version will follow???)
