10

OPINIONS

Humanity in Nature

ANNA GRADOWSKA STAR REPORTER

I've spent a lot of time looking at my own place in the natural world and the role of my species in the ecology of the _ planet. We are animals like every other

bird, mammal, and reptile, so why have we set ourselves apart? Concurrently, we cant escape our desire to be part of this planet. Our feelings on the subject seem to be schizophrenic. Since the dawn of industrialized civilization, we've been sprinting away ~ from the way of life humans have led for countless millennia. As urbanization in- creased, our direct connection with the land has all but disappeared. Where a hundred years ago, people had a sense of belonging to a landscape, our fast paced society has catapulted us into constant motion. Not only do we not really inter- act with the natural world, but also we are crowded into desolate landscapes ~ like cities, Some people seem to think this is how we normally function, but I couldn't agree less. We've created this lofty idea that we've evolved beyond nature. Yet, I know there is a desire for people to reconnect with reality, with the natural world around them. Some- how I don't think the deafening roar of urban life can compensate for the loss of natural identity. We exploded back out of the cities into suburbia in search of something, and as those communities devolve into the same mess we had be- fore suburban life, we scramble to find something else to fill this hole. Some people call some of these profound feel- ing of connection biophilia; I personally think its just allowing ourselves to be part of the global ecosystem again.

It's inescapable that we are animals. As animals, we are subject to the same constraints of biology and ecology. The population of a town is not funda- mentally different from a population of squirrels or birds or deer. Our tools have not changed our biology, we still are the same humans we were hundreds of thousands of years ago, minus maybe a few inconsequential mutations. Our species-centric perceptions have culti- vated the idea that we are somehow spe- cial and different, fundamentally more important and amazing than any other living thing on the face of the earth.

You can see it in our modern religions

TED MORRIS COLUMNIST :

Hi all, welcome back to a new year at UNBC, we welcome all the new stu- dents who are bright with anticipation, not to mention the returning students who are plugging on towards their de- grees, There is always change going on in our everyday lives, so with our First Nations Centre. The Shinerama went pretty good, although we didn't have any First Nations Club participation this year, But next year we will be involved for sure, come what may. The Backyard Barbecue went well, with the long line- ups for hamburgers and hotdogs and great music. September 13th was our welcome back barbecue and pot-luck at

First Nations Corner

and cultures. Unfortunately, some have taken these constraints of nature and used them to justify extinctions and global warming. If we are part of nature, some say, than aren't our actions just part of what is meant to happen?

“Tt's inescapable that we are animals,’

Humans tend to take one piece of information and distort it to meet their psychological needs. We may be like any other non-human animal, but what we are bringing down upon the rest of the natural world is anything but normal. Extinction is almost as high as it's ever been in the history of life, and global warming threatens to wipe out most of the world’s current ecosystems and living things. I hope that I don't need to remind people that that includes us. We seem comfortable to justify the con- sequences of our recklessness with talk of natural processes, but I don't think we've accepted our part of the ecological bargain. With global warming and other human caused disasters, come massive human consequences. In the next cen- tury or two, there will be a toll on hu- man life counting in the billions. Fam- ine, war, displacement are all the fruits of our behavior. As natural populations, we are subject to the constraints of ecol- ogy. And any population that shoots over the capacity of an ecosystem to support them will inevitably crash. This millennia, we have changed only in the enormity of our plunge. We seem to think that this civilization will succeed in places others never have before, but we will fall much like all the others did. As humans, we can see what's happen- ing, and choose to try and mitigate the damage. So far, we are in store for a very hard lesson, likely falling on deaf ears.

Our actions aren't somehow pure or reasonable. Currently, the machine that is civilization is devouring at a rate never experienced, We're eating ourselves out of house and home, and we'll take other inhabitants of this planet with us. Instead of denying or ignoring our ecological roles, we must embrace it and work around our limits. It will be us on the endangered species list one day, and we'll have no one to blame but our- selves.

the First Nations’ Centre, with another one on the 28th, all are welcome to take part with the festivities. Come join the

First Nations hockey pool, it's around $22.00 to join, talk to Kathy or Jeremy, it's happening on October 2nd, at 2:30 in the elder’s room. Also ,there will be a talking circle on September 26th, at 10:00 am with Alden Pompana, our resident elder who is here on a limited basis. In closing, we are working on a club package for the First Nation Centre Students to have a club in the University, we had a society with the province be- fore, so it’s our first time in our history that we are going under NUGSS. Have a great two weeks and we'll have more news next time. Till then, farewell.

OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. SEPTEMBER 27, 2006

A scene from the Dawson College shootings, Sept 13, 2006

ANDREW KURJATA NEWS EDITOR

I think something might be wrong with me.

Perhaps I played too many video games when I was younger. Maybe I'm desensitized by action movies and heavy metal. Maybe I just watch the news too much. But when the footage of the Montreal shootings came on the Na- tional, I didn't find myself reevaluating much of anything. Yes; I was saddened-- it was a tragic thing to happen, and those who were directly involved deserve all the sympathy and support they get. But I didn’t feel like it affected me personally. At least not anymore so than any other act of violence that happens in the world on a daily basis.

But apparently it should have. After all, the event was big enough that it called for Peter Mansbridge to leave his familiar CBC studio and report directly from the scene. The implications in this newscast and the reports following it were clear: this is a National Tragedy. At UNBC, as at universities across Canada, flags were lowered to half mast, counselors were available, and there were whispers that maybe our campus security guards should be armed. It was as if we were all there, and now out lives have changed at a personal level.

Except we weren't, and they didn't. It was a random act of violence commit- ted by a mentally unstable person tens of thousands kilometers away. I feel no

Dear Sir;

I applaud your decision to write the column, and allow an avenue of dis- course on the topic of the myths sur- rounding feminism as a personal polit- ical/ideological belief/ perspective. First off I need to clarify my identity for the readers that I am a white, able-bodied, heterosexual male and I identify as a feminist, an anarchist, an environment- alist (not mutual exclusive groups, lots of overlap). The definition of feminism that

RE: la Male Feminist?

more at risk attending UNBC now than I did before the event, and I would haz- ard that I'm not alone in this. Maybe if the guy were part of some organization hell-bent on destroying post-secondary institutions around the world, or if it happened at CNC and there were evi- dence there were others like him at large in Prince George, I would be worried. Fortunately this was not the case, and we can move on, Yes, some things should be discussed, such as what caused the shooter to act in this way and would a national gun registry help prevent such things from happening and is there any way that he could have been stopped earlier? But these are the sort of things that should be discussed at all times, after any act of violence. There have been numerous fatal, seemingly random, acts of violence committed in Prince George in the last few years, but somehow these did not receive special attention from the media, not locally and certainly not nationally. Why is this case different? Maybe because it comes so close to the media coverage surrounding its 5 anniversary, but the reaction to the Montreal shootings reminds me of the reaction to 9-11. Why did this event, out of all the other acts of terrorism world- wide, change things so much? I'm not talking about in a broad, political sense, because that's obvious. No, I'm talking aboutdeclarations such as the one say- ing it was “the day the world woke up,’ as if everyone were a personal victim. I

you provided is quite outdated, gender equality is but one aspect of feminism, however the oppressions that straight, queer, trans, bi womyn face are the same oppressions faced by people of colour, the impoverished, people with mental or physical impairments and people of varying sexualities, whether man or womyn (forgive me if I left anyone out). This oppression is namely white patri- archal dominance and needs to be recognized and taught to young men

CUP STAFF

find it hard to believe that people living in Palestine, Rwanda, and Afghanistan saw the World Trade Centre fall and were only then reminded of their own mortality, never mind what takes place in their own backyard every day.

I think that’s what bothers me, in both 9-11 and the Montreal shooting. It’s not the fact that people pay attention-- on the contrary, it's wonderful when people pull together to help total strangers through a difficult time. It’s the fact chat when so much coverage is given to these capital-“T” tragedies, it seems to trivial- ize the importance of the ones that are not as newsworthy. Your son was killed by a drunk driver? Meh. Someone was shot in downtown Toronto? Probably just a gang thing. There were more civilians killed by the USA bombing Afghanistan than were killed by the 9- 11 terrorists? It's a messed up country anyway. People don't want to hear about the number of casualties in Darfur, not when an actor has died of old age.

“We are all Americans,’ said French newspaper Le Monde after 9-11. “We are all Dawson College students,’ seems to be the feeling surrounding the Mont- real coverage. “We are all human,’ is what the headlines should read every time someone dies of poverty or disease or terrorism. “Let's figure out how to fix

this.’

RAK

so they dont grow to be hate-mongering bigots. As a white male in a white male dominated society, we (myself included) need to acknowledge the institutional- ized and inherent privileges that are be- stowed upon us and act/behave accord- antly. It’s our responsibility to educate ourselves and educate other men that we can be feminist friendly and not be gay, but comfortable in our own sexuality — whatever that may be. Your ignorance and apathy is a choice of oppression. Thank you for reading. A. Erickson