Story 5
LETHAL SHIT
Reading over information concerning
hazards to humans coming in contact with all three of the synthetic
poisons in the chemical cocktail that much of Ogle and Lee counties
got essentially blanketed with, one certainly gets a sense of just
how lethal this shit is.
There are lots of First-Aid procedures
recommended, from just washing up to emergency help from first
responders. Contaminated clothing is best discarded.
So besides being deadly to almost all
invertebrates (I talked to an entomologist recently who's extremely
upset 'cause of butterfly population declines here locally), we can
assume that it’s deadly to mammals too, us bein’ them. Shrews,
voles, mice, chipmunks, ground squirrels, weasels, mink, rabbits,
groundhogs, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, deer, these are local mammals
too. What are their first-aid remedies when they come into contact
with this deadly stuff?
What?! They shouldn't be out on private
property anyway! But, in ever decreasing numbers, they are out there.
Has there been any research on how the mammal contingent of the
environment are faring? No, of course not. Any ill effect can just
get checked off as collateral damage.
Invertebrates, mammals, what’s it
doing to the avian population? For sure, nobody knows....
WHAT’S IT DOIN TO THE BIRDS?
But we do know that along with
invertebrate population, segments of the avian population are in
serious decline, according to the Audubon Society and the Department
of Natural Resources, if one can believe in sources like these.
Pheasants, quail, and grey partridge,
all of them ground dwelling birds, are in marked decline throughout
areas where they formerly were quite numerous. I'm old enough to have
once seen how these birds thrived, and sadly have watched their
almost disappearance. And this even though, with C.P.R. ground,
there's ample habitat.
And muskrats! A long time ago, I made
my living buying and selling fur skins. At one point, I was handling
as many as half a million muskrat skins a year, many of them out of
central Illinois; flat country covered in corn and beans and laced by
mile upon mile of wide drainage ditches. I could buy over a thousand
from various individual trappers (“Just trying to get back some of
my corn,” they'd say), most of 'em farmers. The corn and beans are
still there. And there have been plenty of wet years where those same
drainage ditches have held plenty of water, but the muskrats have
been drastically reduced in numbers, and not by over-trapping.
Just the other day, in conversation
with a now-retired but long-time biologist of the DNR, I asked the
question: “If ya had ta find a common thread, a blanket you'd feel
comfortable throwing over these population declines, what would you
lay it to?”
“Chemicals,” he didn't hesitate even a moment
comin' out with that answer.
Story 6
Another evening in the firewood-ring
with blazin' fire, the gathering of “Church of the Earth Firsters,”
keeping warm there around it. Wind chill outside that fire ring was
real cold, inside there round those flames, except fer ever-changin'
direction of hard wood smoke, it was real comfy.
Mission statement, our refining,
clarifying it. Kendra, the sorta strange lady who's kinda fascinated
by dead animals, she's the one who thinks we need this. Kendra's also
the sorta girl-friday who's charged with getting' this group's “face
book” organized, up and runnin'. Almost indispensable she's become
at this point. The small crowd assembled there knows that they'd
better consider what she says, pay attention ta what she wants. Let’s
listen in...
THE MESSAGE!
“I thought we already did this?”
“Well, brother David, I think the
message needs to be
better defined, perhaps even
broadened.”
“Ok, I guess what our first aim is
to, like, assist greater public awareness as to what’s goin' on
with the greater ecosystem that they are dependent upon, whats's all
around them....us.”
“And then we've got to figure out
ways to try and stop these crazies from continuing their rain of
death and destruction,” Dina chimes in.
“I say we arm the public with
assault rifles with big extended magazines and tracer bullets. Open
season on ‘em. Make it like a three daily bag-limit,” states the
reactionary and inflammatory Manure Man.
“Typical, M&M, I say you go back
to the drawing board.”
“Geeze, Vig, er, ah, excuse me
Broth, you ain't near as willin' to go fer my suggestions
like ya usta be.”
“Maybe I'm older, wiser.”
“Older, fer sure. The way yer
hobblin' around here ya look like ya been run through the mill.”
“So ta speak, I guess I have
been.”
“Back to this mission statement,
ladies and gentlemen, if I can be permitted this lose verbiage.”
“Ok, Kendra, Ok.”
“Well...after we start to educate
enough people, like voters. We have to find some way to make a
ballot-box issue outta our campaign. It’s not a new idea. This very
issue has been proposed in other areas. I don't know if it’s been
adopted anywhere yet. And the agro chemical companies, like Monsanto,
are spendin' lots of bucks tryin' ta block these efforts.
CHEMICAL CO’S NOT UNBEATABLE
“In fact, the chemical companies,
which many see as monolithic, unbeatable, have been losing some
battles and its costin' ‘em what you and me would consider big
bucks. Kendra, I'll give you some of the cases I've discovered. You
can put 'em in the evidence part of our blog site.”
Reverend Marques cuts in here, him
excited about the growth rate of our Grove Creek chapter of the
COTEFers since we initiated this sorta fire ring whacko assemblage.
“We've more than doubled,” he carries on. “If we double again
in the next couple of months and then double that again and again.
Well, as you can see we could go exponential.”
“Yeah, I'm worried right now about
the size of the fire-ring. We're gonna have ta make it so everyone
brings their own beverages, too. Between that and the herbs do you
know how much we're goin' through now? Well, I do. And this drain on
my meager resources has gotta stop."
“Kendra, you seem less than
completely satisfied with my mission statement efforts. Com’on you
guys, pitch in, remember this is a group effort”.
To be continued….
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