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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] on an ethics of Mr Pittman (and the US military)

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  • From: Lee Flier <leeflier@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] on an ethics of Mr Pittman (and the US military)
  • Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:47:56 -0400

Wow. I go out of town and come back to find this discussion going on.

If there's one thing I know about permaculture, it's that it requires us to begin where we are. Zone 1 starts outside our front door. It doesn't require that we wait until conditions are ideal before we act - in fact, it seems to require exactly the opposite.

Where we are now is that we have troops deployed in places where the land and people are extremely fragile. While we Americans can certainly do other things at the ballot box and elsewhere to try to change that, right now this is where we are. And if there's a chance of any lives being saved because our troops have some knowledge of permaculture, then it should absolutely be taught. Would you advocate denying a soldier first aid training, which could save lives, because you disapprove of what that soldier is doing otherwise? Because permaculture is first and foremost first aid for the earth. We as permaculturists may be powerless for the time being to stop the damage of war entirely, but if there's any damage committed through ignorance that we can minimize, or any healing of the land or people that can be done if our troops just had a little knowledge, then I think it's imperative to teach our soldiers if we have the opportunity, as Scott does. I think it's imperative in fact to teach anyone willing to learn, regardless of the compromised circumstances under which we all have to work. Working to change the system from the inside is just as valid a pursuit as any other - and maybe more thankless since we often get flack from within our own ranks.





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