In the midst of Black History Month, we celebrate...

As you know, February is Black History Month. Today, February 14, we're halfway through the month. (Some of us in the snow belt of the North Country say Yay!) That means that today we celebrate Valentine's Day. May each of you and yours have a happy one filled with love and joy! We think that one of the better ways to celebrate this particular moment in history, this timely combination of Black history and love, is to share a poem written by a wonder Black writer and poet. We hope you appreciate the possibilities for peace, love and beauty that we can create on this pale blue dot we live on.

from our pale blue dot of a home.
NASA photo

A BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH

by Maya Angelou

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth

And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing,
irresistible tenderness

That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

Have we come to it yet?

Photo by J. Harrington

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.

Thank you Governor Walz (et. al.)

The Governor has announced that his administration will continue a legal challenge to Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline project. To be candid, this is one of very few rational, coherent, aware decisions we've seen emerge from politics and government for some time. If you've previously read this blog, you may have noticed we're rarely very supportive of either the decisions, or the decision-making processes relative to mining, water quality, industrial farming and a variety of other sectors that affect both the environment and the economy.

One of our major concerns has been the willingness of too many decision-makers to accept that "this time will be different" promises that are usually, as far as we can tell, unfounded. Who ends up getting hurt? Those who enjoy and/or economically depend on an environment that doesn't poison those who use it or consume its gifts and, the taxpayer! When was the last time a major corporation fully cleaned up a disaster rather than file bankruptcy and walk away?

St. Louis River downstream of proposed PolyMet mine

Photo by J. Harrington

The list of potential environmental and economic disasters facing Minnesota grows by the year. Notable recent projects that fit those categories include:

• PolyMet


• Twin Metals


• Enbridge's Line 3


• Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) like the Catalpa Ag hog farm

We are living in a global economy where some entities are deemed "too big to fail." Some of us believe that "too big to fail" is just too big. A presidential candidate some years ago made reference to "that sucking sound you hear." We suggest that the sucking sound lots of local communities and businesses and governments hear is caused by international profits, local controls and choices leaving the community. When was the last time we saw the Sherman anti-trust act used? Are we really willing to sell our country and our freedom as commodities, in exchange for low-paying jobs and not having to make difficult decisions?

near Birch Lake and the Twin Metals mine project

Photo by J. Harrington

At a global scale, we have been told that there's only slightly more than a decade available to make changes needed to preserve a viable environment for our descendants. We are also told that current governments are failing to undertake the actions needed to meet goals to which they committed themselves. Such inaction, and its effects, is compounded by the implications of the sixth extinction and the loss of invertebrates, on which nature relies.

Until Governor Walz's recent decision, one of the few signs of hope we've been able to find were based on the growing numbers of "young" leaders, those with most at stake in having a future, leading school strikes and other efforts to get the "adults in the room" to act like responsible adults. We look forward to more decisions from the Walz administration that are based on science, due process and a time horizon that exceeds the current fiscal quarter. Too many governmental decisions these days are justified on the length of time consumed and quantity of pages filed rather than the quality of the analysis supporting the decision. Change to our current process is needed.

Here's a longer and more eloquent explication of that topic: 

Stymied, We Stew

Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go deal with the effects of a disrupted climate that's resulted in a pattern of record-setting February snow storms.

The Process

By Dilruba Ahmed

So grateful the process is clean

and faithful. Does not cheat

like a disenchanted spouse

dozing on a haggard couch.

Take heart: the process is always right — 

is automatic, phlegmatic. Clean, cold,

and always refreshing. Brewed to perfection

some say. Guaranteed to satisfy

you might say. Give thanks the process

is organized. Synchronized and sterilized.

Optimized but not disguised, like

the grown man at my door long after

trick-or-treaters have gone, hand

outstretched, mask covering his eyes.

Thankful, too, for the oversight: no

boogeyman standing over the drain pipe,

clogging it with debris when no one sees

so he can charge you your life

for the cleaning; name your price.

And how shall we praise the instruments

of investigation? So shiny, so new, gleaming

with silver and glass? No traces of fingerprints

or funders. No whispered voices

softly requesting, of the results, a first glance.

There’s no need to come clean. We know

the process won’t fall prey to steak and wine

and then slink upstairs to spend some time,

just a little. The process doesn’t. The process

wouldn’t. The process isn’t that kind.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.