Post Inauguration

I wrote this last week after the Inuaguration and am just now getting around to posting it. I watched the event on the television at CRC surrounded by students and scientists, animal keepers, teachers, and friends. And as I sat in a room surrounded by the future of the conservation field, I was moved to tears by the future of our country. It was a powerful thing to watch and I am still feeling the glow of hope born from it.

Today was a momentous day. It was a momentous day not just because it was the end of something, but because it was the beginning. It was the beginning of the hope that we can begin to work for an America of which we can all be proud. This new administration brings with it a feeling of rebirth, and as we rise from the ashes of our failing economy, of our besmirched world image, of our degraded environment, we will once again burn bright. I have no doubt that our country is, as always, capable of doing amazing things. President Obama has not alone promised to make America glorious again; he has tasked each and every one of us to do our part. His potential to galvanize the grass roots of our country, the average citizen, into adding their hand to the progress of this nation is impressive.

I hope that people young and old heard his speech today and were inspired. I hope that they were inspired to become a better citizen. I hope that they were inspired to open their minds and their hearts and to love each other as humans. I hope that they were inspired to make changes that will influence politics and science. I hope that they were inspired to make a difference. I know that I was.

Barack made several elusions to the current threats to our planet, mainly citing the need for alternative energy use due to climate change. I am grateful to have a president who makes conservation part of their main core of issues. However, I hope that he will do more for the environment than simply advocate energy reform. We will need a lot more than that to become the leaders in sustainable resource use, wildlife management, and land preservation that we truly ought to be. We are on the verge of progress now, teetering on the edge between a journey forward or a long slide back to our old ways. I hope that we can harness this momentum and use it to carry us towards a better future, a future in which America realizes its responsibility to not only take better care of its people, but of its planet.

I have come to realize recently, that the health of our environment is really an issue of social justice, because it is directly tied to the well being of its inhabitants. I grew up with the sense that my country was one of great strength and virtue, which would fight for the rights of all people. I have since acquired a view of my country in which is seems broken and unbalanced, more concerned with its own petty squabbling than the idea of bettering itself and helping its own. I now have hope that we can put ourselves to right once again and unite for a larger fight. This will not be a fight that we can win with guns or missiles. Money and power might help but will not solve all the problems. It will be fought both on our soil, at sea, and in other countries. It is the fight to save our planet. The enemy is not one particular group, but a conglomeration of corruption, poverty, greed, ignorance, laziness, and even some of the simplest old habits.

I am not preaching for a radical new world in which we all shed the garb of the modern world and revert back to living naked amongst the trees. Our strength as a species arose from our great intelligence and adaptability. We have developed a civilization and culture that boggles the mind. We have invented amazing technology that has successively made everyday life easier. These are the reasons that I find it hard, no impossible, to believe that we cannot find a way to live in balance with our surroundings. To cease attempting to adapt at this late stage in the game would effectively be committing suicide as a species. We have to strive to find a way to not just survive, but to survive well.