On Tue, 24 Jan 1995, James Roper wrote: > I think the very long messaged about FOES must be nonsense. To that > effect, seems to me that it is merely having the effect of a chain letter > and clogging up the network as well as our minds. > I'm very surprised and saddened that so far the only response to the message concerning the hoped-for demise of the Endangered Species Act by its many political "FOES" is that such a view "must be nonsense." Are the subscribers to this list so insulated in their ivory towers that they are not even aware of the well-organized movement under way to gut the Act? Many who have been activists in one way or another have seen this coming for a long time. The foot-dragging of the Democrats that has resulted in their failure to reauthorize the Act when they could have done so (maybe) is inexcusable. Now there will be a real free-for-all--if you haven't been acquainted with anthropocentrism at its ugliest and most ignorant, just wait, it will soon be paraded on the evening news. The existence of thousands of species, the lives of hundreds of thousands of nonhumans are now dependent upon the human populace of this country coming to grips with the processes underlying the "anthropogenic extinction of species" and voluntarily deciding to step back and let those creatures that are less adaptable than human beings go first for a change. Can Joe Sixpack be brought to understand how it is that his lifestyle is in part bringing about this extinction process, and, even more difficult, be convinced that there are good reasons why (my take on this has to do with reasons of justice and fairness among species, but perhaps even reasons relating to self-interest will do) he and many others (all of us included in this) should make changes in lifestyle so as to turn these processes around? And, could it just possibly be that some of us "elite" that chat on this net might have some responsibility in educating and convincing the average citizen that this is an important issue, or is "ecofeminism" just a topic for armchair debate? Ronnie
