As often the case I sent this last post off by mistake before editing. "Birding While Black" should of course be "BWB", not "BOB". If your'e birding out there Bob, I hope it's going well.



Also, just to mention that J. Drew Lanham, the author of the "nine rules" article in Orion, is listed as speaking at that conference down in Mc Allen Texas coming up on Nov. 4-6. It's been 39 years since I've seen a Chachalaca, or a Green Jay, and I'd like to hear Mr. Lanham, but can't make the trip. Hope he writes some more.



Jeff Gibson



From: gibsondesign at msn.com
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 15:08:31 -0700
Subject: [Tweeters] Diversity in Birding




A tweeter (whose post I deleted, and sorry, whose name I don't remember, except for the Wong part, I think ?) recently posted about a"Diversity in Birding Conference" down there in Mc Allen Texas. "Now that's a great idea!" I thought, get everybody into nature.. What if we didn't have biodiversity? Lister out of luck. Folks sayin' stuff like, " Yeah,Bob, eversince that biodiversity thing crapped out, my county list has gone to hell!!" Boo hoo.

Diversity is what makes nature tick, currently, and birding too. (On a good day).

Of course all people are people ,(right?), but due to foolish racism, etc., wev'e created all sorts of human problems we don't really need. I could be wrong , but I believe the main operating concept has been "divide and conquer" all along. Divide people (race works great!), and conquer them, and divide people from Nature, and conquer her. Slight problem with that last part - Wall Street actually does'nt run this planet, sorry boys and girls! Try eating money some time.

Maybe getting more urbanized folks back in touch with nature, like birds and stuff, they'll remember that nature is the real source of everything they need, and thereby take care accordingly. Dont' wanna get too intellectual about it, but we the people have a created a dissasociated urban (and rural) population of folks, which , regardless of race, has really lost critical nature connections across the board.( Not to mention keyboard 'reality'- dont get me started!).

Ok, so keyboards are usefull,(since you're reading this online). The original tweeters post that got me going on this reminded me of something I've thought about for decades- that rarest of creatures: the Northwest Black Camper. I've seen more Spotted Owls.

I've lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, and while growing up as a white city boy in Seattle, was lucky enough to grow up in a family of campers, fisherpeople, clam diggers, crabbers, etc. Campers. Got out into those woods, beaver ponds, rivers, mountains, beaches, islands - all that good stuff. And in a lifetime living , working, and farting around out in the woods, I don't think I've seen more than about six Black people. It may not have been that many. And not many more other non- whitey's either. "Those folks are missing out on a lot of the good stuff", I always thought..

This morning I stumbled on a piece online, in Orion Magazine, entitled " Nine Rules for the Black Birdwatcher" by J. Drew Lanham, which is sort of a tragi-comic list of what it's like to be BOB (birding while black) in America. Check it out - he say's a lot in his short list.

When you're born on this planet, Mother Nature don't have a form you have to fill out with a "race" box to check off. Maybe checking out some birds would be better for everybody.

Jeff Gibson



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