Transformation

Over the last few years, and intensifying more recently, I have gone through something of a metamorphosis in the topics of my writing. One cannot write about insects, especially those that are misunderstood, or even reviled, without recognizing that humanity treats some demographic groups even worse than it treats insect “pests.” It is all connected, of course, the mindset, what we have been conditioned to (wrongly) believe, and the tragic consequences of our behavior.

I feel a lot like this cicada eclosing as an adult.

While I will continue to provide entomology-related content here, I will most likely not be publishing any more book-length works about insects. Invite me to collaborate on your project if you like, but I will be addressing different subjects in my remaining years. Allow me to share an example of why.

Last night, February 24, my partner and I attended a City Commission meeting here in Leavenworth, Kansas, so that I could briefly speak against the City issuing a Special Use Permit to CoreCivic, a for-profit prison management corporation. CC wants to run a currently vacant facility as a detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.). The City is facing immense pressure to comply.

A bit of background is in order. Leavenworth is known far and wide as a prison town. The federal penitentiary is only a black-and-a-half away. We can see it from our kitchen window. There are also state prisons, and the U.S. military prison is on Fort Leavenworth north of town. Our city is overwhelmingly elderly, and people who have lived here all their lives do not know of any other economic engine, nor are they willing to take the risk to change that.

Making my point at the City Commission meeting.

To their credit, the City went to court to force the issue of the Special Use Permit, claiming that after CoreCivic vacated the facility previously, it forfeited its right to start again without repeating the petitioning process. CC also suffers from a horrible reputation for understaffing, failing to properly train its personnel, and preventing local law enforcement from responding in a timely manner to incidents at its prisons. There are other problems, and Leavenworth is familiar with all of them from its previous experiences with CoreCivic.

CoreCivic doesn’t only have an image problem, it has an EXISTENCE problem. The idea that a private company can exist, and be incentivized, to collect human beings and place them into captivity should be revolting, to put it politely. That anyone would willingly become a shareholder in such a corporation boggles the mind.

Here in the United States, too many members of the electorate have been brainwashed by various agents, including traditional media, social media, family members, friends, and neighbors, to believe that the source of their economic, social, and cultural woes are immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+, feminists, non-Christians, and the poor. Those categories of humanity are considered pests, though few have come right out and said so. That doesn’t keep wealthy and powerful people from stepping on them, though, and inciting their loyal followers to do the same.

The pattern has existed ever since the first wave of empire. Colonialism, racism, and bigotry have gone on unabated, but have been concealed much of the time by various distractions. The irony is that most of us have far more in common with the outcasts and supposed villains than we do with the affluent elite.

More people are waking up daily, though, and I am here to throw accelerant onto that fire. I also exist to connect the dots between how we treat each other and how we treat other species, and the biosphere as a whole. My goals going forward are to help restore reverence for the right things, to demonstrate the joy to be had from embracing diversity, and to always prioritize the real above the AI-generated.

I am fortunate to have the following that I do, but I want to use that leverage to amplify the voices of unheard Indigenous, Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ people, the neurodivergent, the disabled, and women. Have I left out anyone? Probably. I am not infallible. We have all heard enough already from old White males like me. I am more than happy to pass the torch.