Is there a place for the hopeless sinner who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?     –   “One Love”    Bob Marley

Yesterday (2.6.2025) was Bob Marley’s birthday. I should be grateful for his music, and celebrating his spirit, but I am not feeling it. Instead, mostly bitter, angry and disgusted.

Where do these feelings come from, and where are they directed?

I studied biology in college and graduate school and beyond. My passion for understanding life and natural systems runs deep. Peculiar and counterintuitive as they may be, living creatures are remarkable.

I largely followed an academic career path. After reaching the dubious pinnacle of full professor and named chair, I resigned: the politics of academic institutions were simply repulsive. As the saying goes, the in-fighting was so bitter because the stakes were so low.

Together, my wife (also a PhD in the nonprofit sector) and I were just squeaking by in a very low cost-of-living city. Our dreams of a secure future and a healthy standard of living started to slip away.

To make matters worse, when I realized that a new manager at a Taco Bell near the edge of campus would be earning more than I was, it became clear that higher education was being squeezed out in favor of serving fast food. 

Looking back, this American fiasco run amok has sunk deep into the mud, deeper than even a few years ago. 

The rule of law be damned, our corrupt leader serves up a stream of bald-faced lies dressed in ego, profit and greed. Expel immigrants! Stop aid to developing nations! Cut support for education and biomedical research! – the nadir of human enterprise, with a plateful of retribution as appetizer.

The way I see things now, sitting here in this lovely eastern deciduous woodland: Nature, such as I encounter it, is so much more impressive than “human nature”, such as it is called. Humans clearly have the capacity to become pathetic, unnatural beings who struggle to respect anything outside their own narrow, egocentric views.  

We pose the greatest danger to ourselves. Sadly, if we simply stand by and watch, our failure to care for each other and this beautiful planet will be our undoing.