Reprise of Silent Spring and Voter Suppression

Among the multiple issues of our times, there were two items that rose to the top for me. You’ll definitely think that only my trying to recover from a concussion and my discombobulated brain could put two such issues together, but give me a moment or two and then see what you think.

Silent Spring Reprise happens most mornings when I and many others in this country who put out bird feeders step outside to…silence. Where are the numbers and diversity of bird species we’ve had in the past? Finally a female broadtail Hummingbird lights on the feeder dedicated to her and her larger family. But this year I only have two pair compared to several in the past. Eventually a Downy woodpecker shows up for an exploration of the piñon closest to the patio, then a male Western tanager to the feeder designed for him and his extended family. But the songs, the chatter, the calls back and forth are mostly gone.

If you haven’t ever read Rachel Carson’s shattering expose of the dangers we intentionally exposed the passerines (songbirds, generally) to in our attempt to rid ourselves of pests. At that time, the culprit was primarily DDT. In many places, there was, in fact, a silent spring, bereft of bird song. We did, finally, stop the widespread use of DDT, but we have continued so many other dangerous herbicides, pesticides, and now microplastics to pollute our waterways.

This year’s Silent Spring is actually a result of many factors, poisons included. But they are not the only enemy of birds and bees (on whom much of the pollination of our food crops rest); it appears to be the result of a perfect storm of factors, at least in the U.S. West, including an intense Labor Day snow storm, the smoke and gases caused by the innumerable forest fires last year, fewer insects available as the common source of protein for many birds…and? The spring migration never happened; it was more like a trickle. The planet’s increased overall temperature, the other results just mentioned of climate change, and many as yet unknown possible factors currently being studied all contributed to this perfect storm. There is specific scientifically collected data on at least a few of the Bluebird species to know that there absolutely is a deep drop in their numbers.

“More than half a century ago, conservationist Rachel Carson sounded an alarm about human impacts on the natural world with her book Silent Spring. Its title alluded to the loss of twittering birds from natural habitats because of indiscriminate pesticide use, and the treatise spawned the modern conservation movement. But research published in Science [in 2019] shows bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970.”

There is certainly adequate, available, and often in-your-face evidence of both climate change and the results of poisoning our lands and waters. So why are we repeating a particular unpleasant and disconcerting history?

These are baby Mountain chickadees, which are being raised in a Bluebird house, as there were no Bluebirds this year as there have been for the past 9 years. I hope at least as many of these as possible grow up and have a safe and (re)productive life!

 

“History Matters!” Patrick Allitt, British historian, professor at Emory University, and many others have said it also.

“The only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” Georg Hegel, German philosopher, whose ideas were used by Hitler.

Silent Spring isn’t the only event being reprised; here we go again on limiting voting rights for minorities, although whether Republicans realize it or not, seniors such as myself, will be severely impacted too, not to mention many disabled, those who live in areas not served by public transportation, many ranch and farm voters who may not have access to easy voting options and can’t take the time off to get to the polls, and, I suspect, many other groups.

You already know this, but consider for a moment a little U.S. civics. We are a democratic republic. That means that all eligible voters vote for people to represent us in 2 of the 3 branches of our government: the Executive and the Legislative. The Legislative then does the basic work for the people, such as making all laws, declaring war, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, and controlling taxing and spending policies. It is intentionally separate from the Executive branch, which enforces the laws of the land and manages our foreign policy. The Legislative /Congress and the President and Vice President essentially work for the best interests of all our citizens. This is a simplified version, but the point is that voting for those who represent us is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Clearly it is important for as many citizens as possible to vote so those who represent us really are representing as many people as possible.

Ironically, the conservative Heritage Foundation found only 1,296 “proven instances of voter fraud since 1992”! However when examined, “Only 105 cases come within the past five years, and 488 within the past 10 years.” according to analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice. Never enough in any given election to have changed the results. Some states, such as Colorado, where I live, has had mail-in voting since 2013, with only 6 cases of voter fraud of the millions of votes cast during that time, all of which were caught. The military has had mail-in voting since the Civil War! That’s the history of the fraudulent claims of voter fraud being used to suppress voting rights.

Preventing U.S. citizens from voting only accomplishes one goal: destroying our system of government.

Hey, folks, we do need to learn from history, and it does matter! Just like Silent Spring, we already did Voting Rights…a few times, once for Black men (which got scuttled during Jim Crow ), once for women, then again for all Blacks. We don’t need to do it again! Please stop the current assault on Voting Rights!

Voting rights March in 1963.

Links

www.scientificamerican.com/article/silent-skies-billions-of-north-american-birds-have-vanished/

www.brennancenter.org