It is not length of life, but depth of life.Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inner Life Directions

Expanding Reality

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  • Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty

    Some 150 business leaders declaring themselves against the death penalty is seen as a boost toward ending it.

    Some 150 business leaders around the world have signed a declaration  asking for the end of the death penalty in every country. It is part of  Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty campaign launched a few months ago by one of its founders Richard Branson. Other signatories are business leaders like Francois Henri Pinault, Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield and Ariana Huffington. Others still  include the leaders of Unilever and Bayer. The declaration reads,  “As an irreversible and extreme form of punishment, the death penalty is inhumane, and it is irreconcilable with  human dignity. Its worldwide abolition is a moral imperative that all of humanity should support.”  At least 170 United Nations Members have abolished the death penalty in practice if not legally. In the United States, 23 states have abolished it, some have a moratorium and some have not used it. Still we hear of botched executions as in Oklahoma last October. There are still several states where the death penalty is not only practiced it is used without regards to how humane its execution method is. Responsible Business Initiative for Justice is the nonprofit which helped organize this campaign, its chief executive Celia Ouellette hopes that  signing on  well-known  business leaders will give momentum to their campaign to end the death penalty in the United States. One of the activist organization’s goal is to pressure the Biden administration to end the death penalty at the federal level.

    I follow sister Helen Prejean on Twitter and almost daily I am reminded of the injustice, the inequality and the inhumanity of the death penalty. Anything that can work to end it is welcomed.

  • Race and Forensic Anthropology

    The work of forensic anthropologists who work with police departments is making inroads debunking myths about race.

    Changes in forensic anthropology are blowing away myths about race! It’s a rather new field began in 1903, but the foundations laid by Ales Hrdlicka were faulty. He was a eugenicist who looted human remains in his search to classify humans into different races based on appearances and traits. Turns out skeletons can show age, height, sex, certain aspects of ancestry, but not race–that is because it is not possible.  The skull can be more telling and for a while there was a trait called a post-bregmatic depression, which  forensic anthropologists thought was only among those they called negroid. But that depression turned out to be present in other skulls as well. Since 1903 there has been a series of steps, each a step forward  to debunk the myth of race. The four racial groups Hrdlicka was eager to find made way for the concept of ancestry. But that proved to be inadequate. For example the skulls of Panamanians is distinct from those of Colombians, and that is due to the history of slavery and intermarriage. The preferred term now is population affinity. But it is still a controversial subject and not all forensic anthropologists  agree to go with population affinity—at least for the present.  One of the issues in finding the right terminology is what is deemed as possible mindsets associated with police departments. Since forensic anthropology deals with crime, contacts with police is part of their work. Police departments tend to prefer more categorical classifications. Yet the more progress there is in the field, the more the idea of race is shown to be the myth it is.

  • Saving Butterflies

    Because Butterflies are like a canary in a coal mine, here are two efforts to save them.

    We know there are less bees and that is bad for the pollination needed to grow vegetables, fruits, flowers. The same is so with butterflies. Several species are near extinction due to global warming, loss of habitat, pesticides, droughts and fires. Speaking of that extinction, Scott Black the executive director of Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation, says “butterflies are the canary in the coal mine. We’re going to see other butterflies and bees, and other important insects, and then our birds; and then our mammals head that same way if we don’t take action soon.” There are now several projects going on in California to preserve and protect butterflies. An impressive one is at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, where the patience and care they take with the larvae can’t help but impress. Apparently bugs fight so they keep having to separate the caterpillars into smaller dishes, where they are fed nectar and can feed on the plants where the butterflies had laid eggs. The butterflies are delicately caught so they can be bred. They are sprayed and even fed Gatorade—because they like it. Usually they are fed flowers and nectar water until they lay eggs, and then once the new butterflies are hatched, even more delicately transported and released in the wild. Another project is Monarch Challenge, it’s the brainchild of Carlo Mondavi, grandchild of Robert Mondavi of wine making fame. Mondavi avoids pesticides and even uses artificial intelligence to track the butterflies. His methods may add 18 cents a bottle—a nominal sum, one must admit—but are making a difference. He and his fellow farmers—his word—rely on any number of sustainable methods to farm without harmful chemicals. He relies on good bugs and good weeds to take care of the bad ones and encourage biodiversity. He also makes a practical suggestion, for people to grow flowers to attract butterflies and allow them to flourish. Indeed I have several friends who have created butterfly gardens!

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