‘End this reign of hate’

It is hard to miss that this widely proclaimed French phrase includes an “I” or it would spell Jesus, much to the chagrin of third-world terrorists. Apparently my own patriotic feelings have engendered similar concern at the completion of my 25th year in writing my monthly newsletter, “Syzygy.” The recent December issue included my heartfelt poem, “The Great Resolve of Nine-Eleven,” which I had presented at our Glen Ellen Church during a nationwide spiritual outpouring that followed the Twin Towers attack in 2001.

Last month I received word that my poem had been accepted for the 2015 publication, “Who’s Who in American Poetry.” Evidently, my patriotic poem produced an expression of current hatred, as just last week, I was sent an email with a death threat, which notified me directly: “Criticize Islam, you die.” I surmise that he objected to the purpose of my 2001 poem as expressed in the final verse: “To honor thousands who were killed, because some evil minds so willed, we’ll end this reign of hate and show, indeed, our God is great.”
Despite the consequences for this 84-year-old American … “Je suis Charlie”!

Jim Berkland, Glen Ellen

Grass is always greener on other side of the livestock fence

A recent letter to the editor in the Pacific Sun urges readers to stop buying beef or dairy, claiming that they are leading causes of global warming. Although the author did not specify what aspect of raising either was responsible, he was apparently not aware that one of our best hopes for reducing global warming, already proven, is making our grasslands more productive. Large swaths of grass hold promise as one of our most efficient, effective ways of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere, a strategy now recognized in Sacramento … see www.marincarbonproject.org.

As a biodynamic gardener trained at Green Gulch Farm, I have recently been enjoying seeding native perennial grasses: Bromus carinatus, or California Brome and Elymus glaucus, or Blue Wildrye from Larner Seeds. According to owner, Judith Larner, the bunchgrasses native to California, “serve many useful purposes for the home gardener. They are excellent bank holders, and with their deep fibrous root systems, are an important part of the wildflower meadow. Many of them lend themselves to purely ornamental purposes as well. We hope that these grasses, once an integral part of the ecology of the West, will again be grown and appreciated.”

I am somewhat enchanted, taken in with the discovery of learning from these very elemental plants, whose foundation, whose very nature seems to be to “knit up” the soil, convert sunlight to food and provide forage for a variety of animals, from insects to elk. Here in West Marin, there is a renewed focus on livestock with Rebecca Burgess and Nicolette Hahn Niman both leading the way in developing locally sourced, ecologically sound grass-based economies. Burgess’ focus is on sheep and wool, and the working of wool into yarn, citing an ecologically sound wool mill locally, while Niman’s is on grass-fed beef.

Although my gardening background is in French Intensive Biodynamic Horticulture as taught by Alan Chadwick, the “father of organic farming in California,” and in particular growing cut flowers for the altars of the Zen Center and the downtown San Francisco markets, I am much taken with the presence and nature of grasses, learning how they grow, what they respond to, in what ways their use can be promoted, in a home garden project or elsewhere. The more time I spend with them, the more I sense ways in which they are a domain unto themselves, as they tend to “knit up the soil” and create grassland, the primal connection between earth and sky, air and sunlight.

The conversion of grass, through herbivory, to usable products, is fundamental to the evolution of human ecology. Managed well, grazing sustains soil productivity and creates more soil by increasing the rate at which the grass plant uses sunlight to draw carbon from the air to manufacture its sugars and more complex carbohydrates. While industrial agriculture, divorced from natural solar-driven cycles of photosynthesis and decay, is unquestionably contributing to climate change, holistic agricultural approaches, including livestock agriculture, working within those cycles, can play a powerful role in reversing global warming by enhancing the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere.

Katharine Cook, West Marin

Response to Letters to the Editor re: Human Trafficking

Linda Witong of the Marin County Task Force on Human Trafficking supplied the following data in response to reader questions about the Pacific Sun’s story on trafficking (January 9-15): Marin’s Task Force is still in the process of collecting statistics that might show a pattern regarding questions raised by the letters to the editor a few weeks back. The latest UN report covers trends worldwide and includes the biggest markets for which ethnicity. Of all the people who are trafficked in the world, one out of three will be a child … while most regions traffic people that are within their own region or nearby, check out the countries that are some of the biggest consumers of enslaved people. Those most vulnerable to human trafficking are those who are struggling economically and live in areas of violence. Women and girls from racial minorities in the U.S. are disproportionately recruited by sex traffickers in the U.S. Some human traffickers even recruit handicapped young girls, such as those suffering from Down syndrome, into the sex industry.

Regarding Marin: Emily Sims responded that currently her stats don’t show obvious trends over who is exploited or who the exploiters/purchasers are. She also said that as 2015 progresses and more data analysis is done, she would be better able to answer stat-related questions. Further, 72 percent of victims identified by the U.S. task force were born in the U.S., and 16 percent of victims identified were born in foreign countries. For a complete report, see www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/GLOTIP_2014_full_report.pdf.

Joanne Williams, Marin

When will the insanity end?

As someone who took part in the free-speech movement at U.C. Berkeley in 1964 and who has supported and fought for the right to free political expression in the city and county of Napa for many decades, I want to voice my horror and outrage at the cowardly monstrous act of Muslim extremists in Paris, who shot and killed a dozen unarmed people (including eight journalists) and the editor of the weekly French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. If Hell exists, they have truly won themselves a place there. When will the insanity end? When will we all recognize that we are all part of one infinite source of spiritual energy? That what we do to others, we do to ourselves?

Al Cardwell, Napa