Mar 14, 2024
President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Biden:
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With good reason, I was labeled esoteric before this Texas hick even knew what it meant. I wish to start out simple and to the point in this letter … for you and all others … who I hope will read, understand, digest, and act on what is herein.
- Join & overtly support in any way you can, Veterans For Peace!
- Begin & continue a life-long quest, including robust action, for knowing, understanding, and using appropriately, and spreading the word about (locally & globally) key principles and processes of ecology.
- CARE deeply, profoundly, & holistically AND SHARE toward equity for all, including all other humans & other species here on Earth (or what is now “Eaarth [https://billmckibben.com/eaarth/eaarthbook.html]).
In reiteration, that’s …
1. Join Veterans for Peace
2. Effectively use principles & processes of ecology
3. Care & share!
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I could not help but enjoy your State of the Union address on Thursday, March 7th, 2024! And I have absolutely no indecisiveness in realizing that you are a much more moral and ethical, and capable, statesperson than your current major opponent, Trump. … I do appreciate you! … Nevertheless, I plan to vote for Dr. Cornel West in the November presidential election unless you can just begin to truly convince me that you support …
–collective lowering of our ecological footprint locally and globally … and degrowth;
–concerted efforts at banning nuclear arms & other armaments and at general demilitarization;
–realization of equity & sustainable livelihoods across Eaarth;
–and in general, slowing down the rampant consumerism & the artificialization of the globe.
Eaarth is in a mess of precariously built, dehumanizing artificial structure of “flimsy cards” and a socio-political/economic system which largely ignores the foundational necessity of Nature. And although I do believe you are basically a moral human in this very immoral global society, in your political career you have de facto been an instrumental part in the destructive development of this neoliberal capitalistic
/ militaristic / consumption-obsessed house of cards called Eaarth.
…………………………..
Now before I go on further, I feel compelled to relate just a bit of my commonality with you, but also some background on the formation of my positions herein. … Even though I have some silly moments of grandeur, I do generally realize that I am but an insignificant gadfly who continues to mainly be but a simple son of a humble small (five acre) diversified hog farmer (WW II Pacific Theater Marine Master Sergeant) from south central Texas brush country. I am four short years younger, but like you I was born at the end of November in the 1940s and was raised Catholic. And although I am an ignostic, I continue to consider myself to be a Catholic* in my Mom’s family tradition … and in essence. In my 20s I did develop as an agricultural entomologist (doctoral degree) and conducted collaborative ecological research through USDA-ARS, Land-Grant universities, & IICA-Org. Amer. States from the late 1960s until the early 1980s in the southern U.S. & Brasil. In the Vietnam period (& the heat of some monumental civil rights and socio-ecological justice battles) I was in the Cadet Corps at conservative Texas A&M University (1964-65) and an Ensign in Naval Air (1969-70, honorably discharged). In the late 1980s and early 1990s I worked as sustainable agriculture coordinator for Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower until Rick Perry was elected TDA commissioner. (During my “Hightower-years” I did testify to legislative committees and in two Federal District Courts. I have to say that in listening to the testimony of Former Special Counsel Hur to the House Judiciary Committee, I have some considerable admiration of son of North & South Korean immigrants, Republican Mr. Hur … despite the criticism from both sides.) More recently, I had the honor to teach biology & ecology for 22 years in the Natural Sciences Department of a Historically Black and Hispanic-Serving community college in San Antonio. Upon “retirement” I have been volunteering in socio-ecological activities (mostly focusing on youth) across the Plains, in central TX, on Pine Ridge Reservation, and in Mexico and Central America. And in 2016 I rode my bicycle for 2500+ miles and 3+ months from Burlington, VT back to Texas for Bernie Sanders and democratic socialism … and socioecological justice. …
Now I am here in early March of 2024 approaching 78 years of age … and I simply cannot continue to support the continuation of U.S. militarism & Wars on this Eaarth and local and global socio-ecological destruction which the policies and actions of your administration and past administrations, and that we all (generally through ignorance, apathy, & complacency), have enabled
(Think Navalny’s profoundly correct statement: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”).
Therefore, I will emphasize again … if you want my vote this year …
–I must begin hearing about degrowth and slowing down consumption (and even human & domestic species population control), demilitarization, and more on gun control.
–I need to see a blueprints for real solutions to: immigration(actual U.S. governmental caring & sharing toward equity on Eaarth), use & abuse of drugs (preventative health care and basic quality life for all) and associated mass incarceration (some immediate lowering of what is highest in the world & disproportionately affecting people of color), and industrial agriculture (transition to a low-input sustainable agriculture/a more agrarian society). Moreover, a blueprint for ecology across all curricula and all campuses (for young & old in the U.S.) is desperately necessary!
–I need to see real beginnings of a transition from our ecologically-destructive automobile factories to the building of a sustainable bicycle and walker-friendly and mass transport structure. Artificial living space/capita needs to be diminished. Use of many plastics and other synthetics, and pesticides & other biocides must be banned.
…………………………………..
Our great Democratic Party heroes, FDR & LBJ made grand socialistic changes which were good for the poor & minorities in the U.S. (And in more recent times Democrats have made some significant strides in civil rights [including for LGBTQIA+] and in health care.) However, FDR & LBJ also supported some terrible right-wing autocratic governments in other nations of the world like Anastasio Somoza Debayle & Reid Cabral … somewhat, though more vaguely, like Trump’s outlandish positions re Orban, Kim Jung Un, & Putin. This support of right-wing regimes around the world deemed to be in the interest of the U.S. by Democratic administrations (even Haiti’s ruthless dictator, Papa Doc) has largely changed. But there must be changes in other arenas in a largely status quo, fossil energy-addicted, neoliberal Democratic party, and including in your administration!
Mr. President, we in the U.S. must begin to recognize our greed and that we are overly powerful, and super self-serving … and especially responsible for many of the major problems on Eaarth.
You and I know that change toward a sustainable neo-Earth must begin somewhere and at some time. And from you I must begin hearing the words of “profoundly holistic ecological education”, “lowering ecological footprints”, “degrowth”, demilitarization”, “regenerative low-input sustainable agriculture”, “bicycles & mass transport and reduction of automobiles & expressways”, “prison system reform”, “election reform”, and “reparations for native Americans & descendants of enslaved African Americans”. This change in mindset and socio-political/economic (ecological) attitude has to start …
HERE !!!
And
NOW!!!
Finally, Mr. President, I do fully realize that you or I or anyone cannot just wave a magic wand to close Pandora’s Box and make profoundly holistic and comprehensive socio-ecological justice happen immediately, if ever. But I do want to see more evidence that you are beginning to develop toward such an end, at least partially, more of some of these intelligent & energetic little powerful transformative “wands” that work for your administration. I must see evidence that these “wands” in your administration are at least getting us started toward: degrowth, a reduction in numbers of automobiles & fewer big conventionally air-conditioned homes, demilitarization, true sustainable agriculture, and social equity, … i.e., toward real socio-ecological justice.
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(*I do firmly believe that if we would work with Pope Francis, and within Laudato Si’ & Fratelli Tutti and for example, Francis’ desire for an immediate white flag in Ukraine, we could be on what would continue to be on a very rocky road, but a quite smoother, more appropriate one … from an apocalyptic Eaarth to a neo-Earth of quality life for all.)
Thanks so very much for reading and considering this (and hopefully responding)!
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I have developed with some wonderful collaborators a little illustrated book on “positively ethical applied community ecology” which some have called eclectic (& perhaps this letter could be labeled in that manner) … Games We Play. More Than 200,000 Years of Living Truthfully and 5,000 of Searching for Truth. It can be found at Chiringa Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
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Most respectfully,
paul bain martin, ph.d.
Retired, Biol.-Nat. Sci. Dep., St. Philip’s College
Volunteer: Ogallala Commons, Kids On the Land, Dos Pueblos/NYC-Nicaragua, Episcopalian Veterinarian Services/Honduras-Mexico, Generations Indigenous Ways, Siempre Sustainable Network & Seguin community gardens, Seguin Outdoor Learning Center, etc.
cc: Some other local & global leaders, politicians, statespersons
