This post was originally published Jan. 30, 2008.
Blue-eyed Grass
Noam Chomsky gave a nice talk Sunday that made me proud and (like always) made me think. He stated that many important social movements in America had germs in the sixties, but became important and effective in the seventies – women’s rights, the environment…not a new observation, but it reminded me that this blog has its real beginnings at Enloe High School in 1970, when I founded an Ecology Club there. We sent our student body president to a Governors Task Force of the time, and she and I got interviewed on WPTF radio. Chomsky says generating the conversation in the public mind is the essential tool available to the left, so I felt I could claim an early start in the continuing process of raising awareness and pushing for policies that protect, preserve, and provide public access to natural areas and wildlife. My own awareness goes all the way back to 4th grade, when my teacher Thelma Jones taught us nature and farm lore, and graciously spent personal time on our private Science Club. She burned into my soul that it would be sacrilege to pick or destroy blue-eyed grass (pictured above) – my first knowledge of an endangered species or that such a thing could be.
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My “about” statements make it clear I am not an activist. But I hope this blog and its links are a positive force in the greening of Raleigh. Now there are really wonderful people doing much more direct work. Sue Sturgis is doing great work at the Southern Institute, Boylan Heights is still battling for Dix Hill, and most appropriate of all for this post – a local high school student is organizing and lobbying for Richland Creek! All of these and more are on my sidebar. More can be found at my Environmental Ed. links. (Teaching EE to high schoolers is my highest form of activism). Beauty is truth, said Keats, and even if the beauty is chaotic (see our Lady Banks below), there is always light to reach for. Let’s keep on reaching!
the Lady Banks rose that climbs our pecan trees
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