My PSA

I sat down to write a letter today. In the district where I teach, the school board has to cut a big chunk of the district’s budget, and I could potentially lose my job. The other second grade teachers and I decided to write a letter to give the board members our two cents, and I volunteered to take the first crack at putting something down on paper. I like writing letters because it is a solitary activity, and I can take my time doing it, considering each word before putting it in its final resting place. I want to do more than write letters, however. I want to be the one standing up at a school board meeting, voicing my opinion eloquently and forcefully. Unfortunately, it’s not who I am and it’s a fault in myself – this fear of confrontation - that I dislike immensely. It’s what makes me a poor environmentalist and a poor vegan, too. Both of these avocations (or lifestyles - whatever you want to call them) need people who can speak out, change minds, and inspire their fellow humans to alter how they do things in order to move our world towards a place that is better for every living thing on it. When I went vegetarian, I said I would keep it to myself, and just talk about if someone asked me. When I started my career working at a nature center, I told myself that education was how I would do my part for the environment – that by teaching people about the natural world, I could bring them to a place where they would make positive decisions on their own – but both of those ideas were cop-outs. They were passive reactions to problems that need active solutions. Not that education or quiet examples are bad or unnecessary components; they are wonderful things, but I’ve never bought the adage that, “If you can reach just one person, it’s worth it,” not when it’s possible to do so much more. On top of that, I often found that when it came to the people who attended my nature programs, I was usually preaching to the choir. There’s a long way between being a quiet example and being an overbearing proselytizer, and I need to find something that’s comfortably closer to the latter, somewhere that is more effective than where I am now. More importantly, I need to find the courage to open my mouth, especially if I want Violet to be someone who’s confident enough to speak her mind when it’s appropriate or necessary. I’d like to be a good example of how to do this, so here’s a small step in the right direction: Spring is here, although the warm weather is not. Migrant birds are already arriving, and setting up territories. Winging in from southern states and even as far as away Central and South America, birds like the Scarlet Tanager and the Blackburnian Warbler will soon be setting up nests in a tree not far from your house. The problem is that every year across the United States, an exotic predator unnecessarily kills 500 million songbirds. The worst part? These deaths could be avoided because the exotic predator is the house cat. Cats kill more than a thousand times the number of birds killed by power-generating wind turbines, and all that needs to be done is to keep cats inside. Such a move benefits the cats, too – indoor cats have an average lifespan that’s twice as long as outdoor cats. There are many websites devoted to the benefits of keeping cats inside (and the dangers facing outdoor cats). Here's a good one from the American Bird Conservancy: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/index.html

127 days old