I hope people learn to respect life enough that it clicks in their heads that they are killing living creatures, even when they swat mosquitoes.
I hope that respect for life goes beyond pandas and polar bears and reaches all the way to the bottom of the sea and to the microbes in the living dirt. We must get beyond the mental and physical poison of industrial agriculture and chemical gardening! Even in Shakespeare's plays, only villains used poison.
I hope people get a handle on insane over-consumption and the accumulation of stuff.
I hope people start to realize the ecological absurdity of McMansions; they are a sign of gout of the brain, not prosperity.
I feel that a life with little or no connection to wildlife creates a disconnect from the natural world. A vital part of the human spirit becomes shrunken and malnourished. I am blessed living where I do, but people anywhere can encourage birds and squirrels, visit parks, and work to create them if they do not exist. My property is registered as a National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Habitat, and so was my backyard twelve years ago when I lived in Seattle. Even around here, I see ominous signs everywhere: heartbreaking clearcuts, increased traffic, way more noise and even more tension in the air. Smart phones get between people and everything they do. There is a meanness that seems to come from switching the connection from nature to machinery, gadgets, money and status.
The attitude that accepts the snuffing out of wildlife is the same one that is letting climate change march in to kill our children. It is the one that accepts perpetual wars. We have to focus beyond just the individual battles of bees, pandas and polar bears and act on the big picture. We have to resist the nonstop propaganda from politics and the media and change our attitudes to respect the wonders of life around us. The same attitude that will accept living with wildlife may help us combat the ongoing, self-generated destruction of our own habitat on earth. It's a whole change in our way of life amidst the siren voices calling "you need the money," "there's plenty of time," and "it's not really happening." Are humans up to the challenge? No sincere action to help is wasted; they all help keep the natural system working. Respecting and enjoying wildlife, and working to keep it around me, helps me find peace in this troubled world.
Here is what some writers, philosophers and scientists have said:
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
-- St. Francis of Assisi
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