I am going to start with an except from the book:
"The erasure of a human subspecies is largely painless--to us-- if we know little enough about it. A dead Chinaman is of little import to us whose awareness of things Chinese is bounded by an occasional dish of chow mein. We grieve only for what we know. The erasure of Silphium from western Dane County is no cause for grief if one knows it only as a name in a botany book." (pg 48)
This is so typical for us as human beings. Today's culture is so self-serving and unaware. If you really think about this quote, maybe you can begin to see where Mr. Aldo Leopold was coming from. If you were to hear of a "dead Chinaman" and you were American (I'm not picking on any one culture, for this hypothetical situation can be applied to them all) with no knowledge or awareness of anything Chinese other than the "Chinese food" that you eat, how would that death affect you? I don't think it would, for how could it? You don't know about this person's life. You don't know if this man had sons or daughters or if he was the only one left in his family. You don't know if he was considered a nuisance by others or if he was a hero. You don't know enough details to feel connected to the death. Even if you knew all of the details though, could you still really feel the loss without knowing the man personally? I think not. The only ones who can truly feel the loss are those connected to this man. The sons or daughters left behind, the mom and dad, the brothers or sisters, those are the ones who can truly feel the loss. The friends and coworkers, they will feel the loss as well. They will be the ones grieving.
Even though you cannot truly feel the anguish from the loss of this one life, should you still grieve? It would seem heartless to some if your answer to that question was no. The point, however, is that we do only grieve for what we know. If a Silphium plant, as is discussed in the book, is stuck in a losing battle should we sit by and do nothing? Would you sit by and watch a stranger die? You may not know the importance of all the species of plants and animals, but does that give you the right to sit back and watch them all disappear? No. It doesn't. Plants and animals contain a life force. If you believe that life is something to fight for, something worth saving, why would you sit by and watch so much destruction? Do something! Let us raise our voices together! We must be the change, for the world will not change without someone stepping up! Let us lead! We may be young, but we have ideas; we have hope! A ripple in the water starts out very small, but over time it grows and grows. That ripple is us!
