On Racial Justice and Protecting Intimacy Between Humanity and Nature

[Backpacking Light]

If some of humanity is threatened, then our humanity’s collective intimacy with nature is also broken.

• On Racial Justice and Protecting Intimacy Between Humanity and Nature

[rmeurant]

Go Ryan!

[Alex H]

Pretty well said Ryan.  We need to keep our eyes on the central ball, that of racial injustice before we worry about wild lands and the outdoor industry.  Thank you.

[rmeurant]

Interestingly, I don’t take that interpretation (of Alex), that of racial injustice before any other issue. Rather, racial injustice has become an artifact of the disruption of the essential link between the individual soul and nature/the environment. The specific BLM crisis becomes a symptom of more wide-spread critical state – extending to global social injustice, and the global warming/environmental pollution/destruction of the ecosystem/mass extinction event. So the BLM pattern – of oppression and the desperate need for freedom and resolution – can be recognized worldwide in many other contexts. I believe also this need for freedom from oppression and a fair and humane social environment together with a clean and sustainable physical environment that can elucidate spiritual insight extends far beyond the political milieu. Politics itself needs to be realized as outmoded and self-negating. What happens in the US has important ramifications for what happens globally, while at the same time being part and parcel of the more general global struggle – for justice, for fair treatment, for a clean and sustainable environment and a thriving ecosystem, and for a spiritually vibrant and translucent harmony of being that enables transcendence…

[Song]

Amen Ryan.  thank you

[Greg Pehrson]

Thank you for this statement, Ryan. I deeply resonate with it, especially the four paragraphs from, “We’re quick to point out that if some of nature is threatened…” to “Maybe one day, a fight for racial justice will become as ingrained…” It speaks directly to my heart, capturing the interconnectedness of all of us with the environment. It calls us to action, and it calls us to dig in to our spheres of influence and look for the opportunities to create change right where we are. It reads like poetry, and I think that is because it has been crafted with care and love.

In solidarity,

Greg

[John Conley]

[comment removed by moderators]

[Arthur]

I don’t agree with much of what John says until the last sentence.  I strongly agree with that.

“I would like to see politics and personal agendas kept off of BPL, and the website stick to promoting the sharing of knowledge on lightweight backpacking/camping.”

I can get all the other information and opinions in a million other places. This site is unique, let’s not ruin it by making it just like the million other blog sites out there.

[Ryan Jordan]

Hi Art, thank you for the feedback.

We’ll be extremely selective about what social and environmental issues we engage with here at BPL. 99%+ of what we have done, and will continue to do, will of course be about lightweight backpacking.

We have, and will continue to allocate some air time for issues that are important to our community. These include issues related to the environment, access to public lands, and participation in outdoor recreation overall.

I acknowledge that there are political divides that separate people on some of these issues. Especially on this particular topic. This blog post is an invitation for empathetic acknowledgment of what’s going on right now with some of our fellow hikers in the broader community of outdoor recreation and not an invitation for political debate. We’ll moderate this thread accordingly.

From our forum guidelines, a reminder:

“Our vision for the forums is this: That every visitor, whether lurker or poster, will feel welcome and safe participating in a community where people respect and honor each other.”

[BlackHatGuy]

I’m sorry to see that John’s post has been hidden while being “reviewed”. If you’re going to post on such issues then you should expect disagreement. If you’re not going to allow that disagreement then you shouldn’t post on such issues.

I did read John’s post before it was hidden, and while, like Art, I disagree with most of what he said, nothing of what he wrote was beyond the pale.

[Ryan Jordan]

Doug, you wrote that: “nothing of what he wrote was beyond the pale.”

For you, yes. As moderators, we need to evaluate the extent to which comments are potentially insensitive or make others feel threatened to be here at BPL.

We’ll tread accordingly given the seriousness of the topic. In this case, protection of our BIPOC community will absolutely take precedence over giving people the chance to “voice their opinion/disagreement” about this topic.

[Arthur]

From the mods: this post was removed (off-topic about moderation policy that’s already been addressed previously in this thread).

[Anne Flueckiger]

Thank you for the thoughtful essay, Ryan. I like how you contrast different meanings of “freedom to roam.”

I think it’s appropriate for you to set the guidelines and “tone” for your own website. I support free speech, but BPL is not a media outlet or a (political) debate forum.

Glad to see Big City Mountaineers in the resources! The interim director lives here in Duluth.

[Rob Lee]

[comment removed by moderators]

 

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