Category: Social Issues - trish hermanson

This Tree Could Become a Person

9/29/2022

I thought I’d heard everything when I learned that a city near me has declared that dog owners should be called dog “guardians” so that their pets aren’t offended by the idea of being someone’s property. Then I read that a newly planted tree in Pittsburg may achieve the legal status of personhood.
     Whaaat?
     Through a complicated legal arrangement, a black gum tree may own the land on which it is planted, may become legally autonomous, and may become its own owner. Then it could be granted personhood with all the legal rights of a person, according to Terra0, a German group seeking this status for the tree.
     Terra0 is exploring ways to protect ecosystems through established laws regarding personhood. Its goal is the protection of nonhuman species through their own rights and rules.
     The Pittsburgh black gum tree could be the legal precedent showing that nonhuman species can gain the autonomy and protection of personhood. While this tree establishes its legal system and its root system, the Carnegie Museum of Art cares for it - perhaps like the dog “guardians” in the city near me.
  This makes my head spin. I’m all for protecting plants and animals, especially the most fragile. But while we’re considering how to protect nonhuman species, shouldn’t we prioritize the protection of the most fragile humans among us - those still in the womb?
*****
   Photo: Tom Little of Terra0.

One Problem with Believing the Earth is Flat

1/4/2022

The problem with believing the Earth is flat is that you can’t in good conscience enjoy a snow globe, as my granddaughter Eve and I do. Why? Because the globe is round.
     I met a Flat Earther who seemed normal otherwise, but could I reason with him? Or for that matter, could I reason with someone who says that coronavirus is a hoax? Or that climate change doesn’t exist? Or who insists all vaccines are bad?
     “Of course, it is next to impossible to get someone to change their beliefs against their will,” says Lee McIntyre, author of “How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason.”
     “Remember that when you challenge someone’s beliefs, you are challenging their identity,” he says, because they hold their convictions “to resolve their fear, or to feel less alienated, or to embrace a coveted social identity.”
     McIntyre says deniers won’t change their positions based on “new facts or even a new way of thinking.” They are “not just ignorant of the facts but also of the scientific way of thinking. To remedy this, we must do more than present deniers with the evidence; we must get them to rethink how they are reasoning about the evidence.” This means not confronting, but building trust by asking questions, he says.
  McIntyre’s thoughts make me wonder whether I’m willing in this New Year to engage with people who believe differently than I do. Also, whether I’m deluding myself in some way in what I believe.

We Got Trapped in the Covid Maze

10/15/2021

Question: how many of Snow White’s seven dwarfs visited Duane and me these past two weeks when we were trapped in the Covid maze?
     Answer: All seven. Between us, we received visits from Sleepy, Dopey, Sneezy, and Grumpy (sorry, honey). We were in touch with a Doc, and we had to be Bashful - required to quarantine at home. Oh yeah, I didn’t mention the seventh dwarf, Happy. He visited when friends and family texted, called, and left food at the door - wonderful!
     It could have been so much worse. Our names could have been added to the list of the more than 700,000 who have died from Covid in the U.S. Each death is a loss, someone missing from the dinner table. However, we were both vaccinated, so our symptoms were lessened.
     If you haven’t been vaccinated, I encourage you to do so. We know of one man whose vaccination was scheduled in four days, but he contracted Covid and died - a tragic end to his life, a traumatic grief for his family.
It doesn’t have to be that. Please don’t wait.

September 07th, 2021

9/7/2021

I knew Patti growing up - same little town, same little church - until time and geography separated us. Then I read that she’d become Dr. Patti Giebink, Planned Parenthood abortion provider, wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying an S&W 357 Magnum for security. By providing abortions, she wanted to protect women from back-alley procedures.
     But Patti’s done an about-face. Today she regrets providing abortions. Why? Partly because she says the cultural and medical landscapes have changed, and partly because “we’re left with one final thing to reconcile: Life, no matter how small, deserves protection.”
     But what if Roe v. Wade is overturned? Could we end up with back-alley abortions again? Patti doesn’t think so. In her compelling new book “Unexpected Choice,” she says, “…we are not in those times anymore - socially or technologically.” She believes the stigma of being an unwed mother is gone. “If anything, it shows admirable strength and fortitude to take on single motherhood.” She points out that the majority of pregnant women in America today are unmarried and in monogamous relationships, not considering nuptials necessary.
     “Abortion is not the panacea we originally thought it was,” she says. “There are no longer any noble reasons for resorting to it. And we now recognize the risks and residual effects that abortion creates.”
     So instead of arguing over “rights,” perhaps it’s time to extend compassion to those who are considering abortion or who have had abortions.
     We’re in “a new dawn,” Patti says. Times have changed.
      ***
  Patti Giebink’s remarkable journey, “Unexpected Choice,” is available here.

Why Didn't I Listen to the Lorax?

9/3/2021

Five decades ago a prophet name Lorax
foretold the future from the heart of his thorax.
He warned about greed in harvesting trees
and smog and pollution and coughs and a sneeze.
Now fifty years later we’re fighting the fires
and storms and mud slides that make our lives dire.
We’re mopping our brows from heat that consumes us
and wondering if all of this climate will doom us.
So why didn’t I listen to the Lorax back then?
What did he say to which I could attend?
I go to the words of the Lorax and Seuss
and hope that my brain will not be obtuse:
“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
So what can I do from my home and my scene
to make this world better, more green and more clean?
It’s really not all that terribly confusing.
Turn off lights when not using, drive less - no excusing.
Recycle, repurpose, be water-use wise,
then my carbon footprint might decrease by one size.
I’m only one person, that’s true of you, too.
But get us together, we’re a human zoo
of people who dare to care for this space
and take it back now from how it’s disgraced.
We’ve got a great calling, it’s big and it’s great
to care for God’s Earth - so let’s not wait!