we are losing the human race

Part 1:
I just finished reading What is the What, by Dave Eggers. The journey of the lost boys from Sudan to America. This story is an affirmation of unflagging hope and an iron will.

It is the story of Valentino Achak Deng. He continues to pursue his dream of aiding the educational pursuits of Sudanese students.

Part 2:
Early this morning, during my coffee time, I read this in Harper's.

Fatheralong By John Edgar Wideman (Harper's Magazine)

Shared via AddThis

"Race is a myth. When we stop talking about race, stop believing in race, it will disappear... In a raceless society color wouldn't disappear. Difference would disappear. Africa wouldn't disappear. In post-race America "white" people would disappear. That is, no group could assume as birthright and identity a privileged, supernaturally ordained superiority at the top of a hierarchy of other groups, a supremacy that bestows upon their particular kind the right perpetually to rule and regulate the lives of all other kinds."

Hope springs eternal.

Part 3:
The hope was dashed when I read this in Alternet.org:

What Makes the Arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. So Tragic

"Gates is invested in black life, black history, black art, and black literature, but he has managed to achieve a largely post-political and even substantially post-racial existence.

Then he was arrested in his own home.

In a moment of overzealous policing a young officer in Cambridge managed to handcuff and detain the living embodiment of post-racial possibility."

Because Harvard professors are destroying the fabric our nation.....obviously.

humanNATURE

Surprisingly, it begins with a biologist. E. O. Wilson.

In his book, Creation, he lays out some goals of present day biology:

"Bridge, if not outright unify, the natural sciences and humanities by exploration of the biolgocial foundation of mind and human nature. In the process, unveil the co-evolution of genes and culture". (emphasis added)

Can we change the course of the evolution of culture?

Genetic changes abound: There are fish genes in our strawberries. Monocultures of corn and soy threaten to harm irreparably the environment and local agriculture.

Let us dissect some of our modern cultural DNA and blend it with past cultures, bringing back our appreciation of our place on the earth, and our recognition that we are part of the food chain. We do not have power over the earth and the earth's inhabitants - plant, human, animal, insect - but we are part of the earth.

Again, E.O. Wilson

"The place of humans on the planet has been misconstrued. Humans are not conquerors, humans are part of the ecosystem".

Change our culture. Save the planet.