EARTHHEALING SPECIAL ESSAYS
Weekly essays from Al Fritsch, SJ to focus on ways to heal our wounded Earth

February 2024

2/4/24 - Assist the Poor

We are asked to be people who take care of those without the essentials of life, neighbor or someone at a great distance. This is expected of us not only as Christians, but as human beings; our very life and future depends on it. According to a 2022 World Bank report, about 8.6% of the world's population is living in extreme poverty. That's about 1 billion people, and with recent crises this number has probably increased by more.

We are called to assist poor people and raise awareness about poverty. That works fine when we reside in poor areas, as in Kentucky where I lived near the 50 poorest counties of America, so helping fight poverty was a part of our life. We just did the best we could. Exposure to poverty does not apply to everyone or to every place. In retirement I came to Oakland County Michigan, one of the richest counties of the state covered with beautiful lakes and resort areas. One does not see poor people very often here, and it makes it easier to forget how many in the world are vulnerable to hunger, abuse, exploitation, and lack of access and opportunity. These folks are often overlooked and outside of our awareness, and we become blind to their plight. We must actively raise awareness and look for those who are not in as good shape as us.

Secondly is to use charity not simply as a way to assuage our guilt, but to make sure it is meaningful for people. It is important for us to know where our money goes and to apply charity at the right places. The third thing is to accept that food can be purchased by others who are at a distance. If we've got excess food it is important to try to redistribute it locally; the best way to get surplus food to others in the world is to use the non-process types that are then sold or given in trade to those that are in need.

The fourth point is to think about equality and how surpluses are easily obtained by some groups. America has a huge amount of surplus food and wasted food here almost equals what we eat. Waste is a terrible habit for those who are wealthy and formerly, to leave a little on the plate was considered a good thing. I never considered this a major problem until I began to lose my appetite and saw the huge amounts of food we are generally served. We can always plan ahead of time to prevent that from happening. We must also consider food wastefulness on all levels, not just as individuals. We can easily see that restaurants and especially grocery stores throw away so much food that could be saved and redistributed.

Food equality is important but there are also other ways to help. We can always raise our personal responsibility by supporting causes that benefit the poor, diverting money from unnecessary purchases, seeing that resources are distributed locally in the right way or volunteering in a community center or soup kitchen. Perhaps we can hold fundraisers or sponsor an annual event to help people in need who are calling out to us for assistance. We should begin to think in ever larger terms, not just individually or in our family and community, but even to state, federal, and world levels. Poverty affects us all, not just in a partisan way but at the core of our humanity where people look out for the needs of a larger society with some without the essentials of life.

On the most basic level of our own voluntary efforts, consider gardening, often producing surpluses to share fresh produce with those around us; an exchange of garden products is an uplifting factor for all. We should think also of the benefits of small farms, fighting purchase by large corporations. Small farmers in many countries can support whole communities, and we could give support nationally through our aid groups to small farmers for their fertilizer, equipment, and road improvement to bring products to others.

One last area to consider is recent Russian wartime stoppage of Ukrainian surplus grain from getting to the people. This is harming people everywhere, increasing food prices and forcing some to go without the amounts required to stay alive. We should be pressing for an international deal for a fair cut to go equally to all. These are some, but there are many other ways to assist the poor and you can think of new ideas to make greater effort and meaningful impact on the lives of poor people. This is what we are called to achieve and we must do it.

2/11/24 - Know Your States and Maps

Poor geographic literacy can be detrimental to anyone who works in and needs an environmental awareness of what is occurring in the world today. Do you know the states which border your own? On a blank US map can you identify your state and others, either by name or abbreviation? This awareness of maps allows us to follow the path of extreme weather movements and climate change. We need to have maps before our face and even, if possible, pictured within our mind.

Many youngsters now know little about state or country maps, and with the advent of digital GPS (the satellite-based radio navigation system), consider maps to be obsolete, or lack the rudimentary ability to even read them. Map reading is an important tool for developing spatial reasoning skills, and limited geographic awareness may leave people, especially the young, unable to make proper sense of the world. On rare occasions maps allow us to know more closely where we are.

When I was six years old I got a state by state puzzle, and I was able to use it to remember the shape and the place of each State; that stuck in my mind and remains to this very day. I've often wondered why others don't get some of the same opportunities that I did. Since then, I've traveled nearly one million miles doing environmental assessment work in the United States, and when traveling on many highways I'm able to remember exactly where we must go and in fact, plan the routes ahead of time so that at least in my mind I know how I'm going to get from one spot to another. Total reliance on GPS without backup, could leave people with signal failure - lost with no idea which way to go. The map is a safe backup system.

Following GPS, people in automobiles often go from place to place without recognizing any of the locations they're passing through. Today, the Internet offers various maps for tornado paths and weather extremes happening in our world, and predicts what may soon happen in the neighboring areas around us. Knowing our maps allows us to understand the news or see the actual photos as they appear. We can plan how we should tour and travel at any given time. It's important to know current conditions and to know where you are, and to share this information with others.

Teach people the skill, fun, and fascination of maps. Turn them into puzzles for youngsters, so that they too might have in mind the relationships between states and a feeling for different regions and their culture. Know where you are, for this is our place and the opportunity to change it to something better.

2/18/24 - Allurements - Good or Bad

Allurements are the drawing cards that bring temptation and possibilities to us so that we may substantiate or break free of the habits of our daily life. To stay sane we need a certain emotional balance to do our work, and that requires commensurate rest time. Part of that rest time brings us to the realization that - allurements can be neutral. That is, we can be drawn to pastimes with the power to entice or attract that can be good or bad for us, like a hike to stretch our legs, or a drink to sooth our nerves. These can be an action for pleasure or personal gain, or in contrast something done to serve others.

We tend to think of allurements in the negative sense, as in activities leading to excuses for what we do or fail to do, and the first of those excuses is often denial. For example we have the convenience of fossil fuels and say no, there's nothing wrong with it, there's no problem here at all. The second excuse is not denying it, but assuming somebody else will deal with it, an expert who can handle the situation. Therefore, I let another shoulder the duty that belongs to all citizens of our country and world. The third deflection is to say I'll think about it. I'll postpone it at present and then continue doing what I always do.

We are all a composite of desires, good and bad; every one of us! Endeavoring to subdue the bad and pursue the good is a battle fought in every human heart. We can recognize allurements that are gross and may lead to trouble, such as compulsive gambling and other addictions. The emotional pressure that's connected to allurements has a taste and feeling that changes with time. Through time we begin to recognize our own tendencies, to list our personal enticements or temptations, and hopefully stand behind the ones that lead to positive outcomes. 

This is also a social issue because it's more than what I or you do as individuals, we're also involving ourselves with others who have their own allurements, so we also try to find ways to help them. What we do individually and what we do socially is utterly important for our life and for continuing the balance that we need.

We must understand that it is not wrong to have allurements. We all have them, and we say that again and again because we are people that have to get away from the routine stressfulness of daily life with all of its allure. Being created with free will, we can make wrong decisions or right ones and this choice is of utter importance. So allurement is essentially neutral, depending on how we receive and how we use them, and it's important that we are conscientious about this. Therefore we take our decision-making over a period of time and think about the pastimes we have right now: are they good ones or are they a postponement of issues to take up a lot of our time. Let's think about these, where they fit into our routines of life and pray that the Lord gives us courage to do the right thing. Finally, we should help our neighbors improve their beneficial allurements.

Poor geographic literacy can be detrimental to anyone who works in and needs an environmental awareness of what is occurring in the world today. Do you know the states which border your own? On a blank US map can you identify your state and others, either by name or abbreviation? This awareness of maps allows us to follow the path of extreme weather movements and climate change. We need to have maps before our face and even, if possible, pictured within our mind.

Many youngsters now know little about state or country maps, and with the advent of digital GPS (the satellite-based radio navigation system), consider maps to be obsolete, or lack the rudimentary ability to even read them. Map reading is an important tool for developing spatial reasoning skills, and limited geographic awareness may leave people, especially the young, unable to make proper sense of the world. On rare occasions maps allow us to know more closely where we are.

When I was six years old I got a state by state puzzle, and I was able to use it to remember the shape and the place of each State; that stuck in my mind and remains to this very day. I've often wondered why others don't get some of the same opportunities that I did. Since then, I've traveled nearly one million miles doing environmental assessment work in the United States, and when traveling on many highways I'm able to remember exactly where we must go and in fact, plan the routes ahead of time so that at least in my mind I know how I'm going to get from one spot to another. Total reliance on GPS without backup, could leave people with signal failure - lost with no idea which way to go. The map is a safe backup system.

Following GPS, people in automobiles often go from place to place without recognizing any of the locations they're passing through. Today, the Internet offers various maps for tornado paths and weather extremes happening in our world, and predicts what may soon happen in the neighboring areas around us. Knowing our maps allows us to understand the news or see the actual photos as they appear. We can plan how we should tour and travel at any given time. It's important to know current conditions and to know where you are, and to share this information with others.

Teach people the skill, fun, and fascination of maps. Turn them into puzzles for youngsters, so that they too might have in mind the relationships between states and a feeling for different regions and their culture. Know where you are, for this is our place and the opportunity to change it to something better.

2/25/24 - Championing Small Farms

Every part of the world is full of small farms and we all have some awareness about a few of these, or we know small farm people and actually support them as far as we are able. This is not us being informed about them, so much as about how we can in different ways give support to the small farmer when needed. That is what we're looking at here.

You might say small farms include everybody farming in a very small acreage area - true. But how far does that go? When I was young we had a small farm, about 80 acres, but it was part of a larger community that had about 240 acres on average. And so smallness in itself has relevance to how many acres it takes for these farmers to keep their livelihood at a given time, and what they choose to grow on that land. When we speak about smaller farms, we mean farms of only one to several acres with resident folks who make their living elsewhere and try to make the farm part of their livelihood.

Small-scale farms account for 80% of all global farms and play a pivotal role in the food supply, contributing to as much as 80% of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These farms are being threatened, where large areas of land are needed for some of the big commodity products that the world expects. That means absorbing the land and getting the legal systems of those countries to work in favor of big agriculture. This is happening in parts of Africa, especially when outside interests come in and pressure government to make large-scale favorable changes.

Small farmers are needed there as much as in America, and we should give more support to the needs of their local food producers than to furnishing bulk food. We should think of pressuring our Congress to think in terms of getting funds for building roads where needed to bring crops out, or for fertilizer or commodities needed by the farmers themselves to help improve their cropping. We want to improve world-wide farming conditions and support those in the greatest danger.

Small-scale farming has many advantages, and these farmers typically want to preserve soil fertility and maintain the long-term productivity of their land, which is critical for sustainable farming. Small farms contribute to the preservation of local food systems, ensuring that communities have access to locally grown and produced food. Small family farms are more likely to preserve biodiversity, especially in tropical regions facing deforestation. This means they support a variety of plants and animals, which is vital for a healthy ecosystem. Another advantage which we rarely consider is the aesthetic beauty of a small farm. Small farms are beautiful and people take great pride in growing their own things.

Small-scale farming in the United States tends in recent years towards multi-occupation families outside of urban centers making a diversified income, and much depends on local tax systems and whether it supports these small farms. Wouldn't it be appropriate to have the reversal of city populations moving out to rural areas for a better quality of life? We want to support these folks so as to multiply and hold onto our small farms, create good food producers and avert our current food crisis. When a farmer's market comes into our community and we see that it has high-quality produce or honey or home-produced products, we sometimes forget that aside from healthier foods for our families, our support there is reinvested back into the local community, supporting local businesses and fostering economic growth. It supports environmental sustainability and techniques that protect the environment and conserve natural resources. A win-win-win situation for everybody.