3/23 Kleinstuck Nature Preserve, Kalamazoo, MI:
3/21 Source Pond Trail, Kalamazoo Nature Center, Kalamazoo Co., MI:
3/17 Bishop's Bog Preserve Trail, Portage, Kalamazoo Co., MI:
French, David. "Us and Them Is All the Rage." New York Times, January 26, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/opinion/trump-maga-schmitt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE4.gD60.FTpUuocWWEgj&smid=url-share
Fascinating opinion essay. French quotes Carl Schmitt, a German political theorist who described "the “friend-enemy distinction.” ... "One of liberalism’s deficiencies, according to Schmitt, is a reluctance to draw the friend-enemy distinction."
I disagree - liberals' enemies are those who express hatred (verbally, physically, etc.). Liberals make it impolitic to express hatred overtly.
But French goes on to discuss the founders of the U.S.A.: a metaphor of John Adam's means that, "Pluralism requires both law and ethics to function, and without ethics the law will fail." French describes Jeffrey Rosen's book The Pursuit of Happiness by writing, "the founders envisioned the pursuit of happiness not as the pursuit of pleasure or wealth, but rather as 'the pursuit of virtue — as being good, rather than feeling good.' Benjamin Franklin, for example, listed temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity and humility as indispensable elements of virtue." ... "The virtues Franklin listed...are universal moral obligations that apply to our treatment of everyone." ... "That's the social compact of pluralism. ... And in all circumstances, your fundamental human rights must be preserved." [all emphases mine]
However, the "friend-enemy" model sees kindness as immoral: "In the world of the friend-enemy distinction, your ultimate virtue is found in your willingness to fight. Your ultimate vice is betraying your side by refusing the call to political war."
French states that in the "friend-enemy" model, loyalty supercedes political idealogy: "Friends can get away with violent crimes." People who "publicly criticized Trump" are "now ... enemies who have to pay the price." ... "Any deviation from orthodoxy is perceived as evil, and evil must be utterly eradicated. ... And there’s no humility...." In this model, people see kindness as evil and cruelty as good.
In my view, thus the difference between passive resistance or peaceful activism and the "friend-enemy" viewpoint! Passivists engage others with dignity, respecting their human rights, while protesting the "enemy's" actions in nonviolent ways.
9/25, Asylum Lake, Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Co., MI
9/24, Home, Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Co., MI
7/23, Home, Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Co., MI
7/6, Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery, Mattawan, Van Buren Co., MI.
and a muskrat swimming.
7/4, Bishop's Bog, Portage, Kalamazoo Co., MI
7/1, Lillian Anderson Arboretum, Oshtemo township, Kalamazoo Co., MI
5/8, traveling 131 N between Kalamazoo & GR:
5/7, Blandford Nature Center, Walker, Kent Co., MI
5/3, Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI:
4/30, Home, Kent Co., Walker, MI
4/29, Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI:
4/27, Home, Kent Co., Walker, MI
4/18, Home, Kent Co., Walker, MI
4/16, Blandford Nature Center, Walker, Kent Co., MI
4/15, Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI
4/9, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
4/8, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
As the eclipse progressed, the birds stopped singing and frogs got quiet. My eyes kept trying to adjust to the dimmer light, as if dusk were coming on, and the light had an eerie quality. The shadows got longer.
3/29, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
3/21, Blandford Nature Center, Walker, Kent Co., MI
3/16, home, Kent Co., Walker, MI
3/2, traveling (ponds on Maynard), Kent Co., Grand Rapids, MI
11/26 Lillian Anderson Arboretum, Oshtemo, Kalamazoo Co., MI:
11/7 Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
7/4 Bishop's Bog, Portage, Kalamazoo Co., MI:
7/1 Lillian Anderson Arboretum, Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo Co., MI:
6/8 Bishop's Bog, Portage, Kalamazoo Co., MI:
4/29 Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI:
4/22, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
4/9, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
4/8, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI (Eclipse!)
3/29, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
3/28, Aman Park, Ottawa Co., MI
3/16, Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI
Discusses designing a 1-credit Biology seminar that incorporated 6 Indigenous Knowledge Keeper presenters in Fall 2021. They got a FTLC Teaching Innovation Grant to pay each speaker a $500 honorarium. Then the Bio dept and the CLAS Dean's office paid for the honoraria. Now there is a long-term commitment from Inclusion and Equity and the CLAS Dean's office (personal email from Meg, 2/15/24). Monica Johnstone also wrote about the project in CLAS ACTS January 2022: "The Joy of Multiple Ways of Knowing."
So this is the pilot for incorporating Native teachers (without PhDs) into courses. We want to have Indigenous teachers co-design curriculum for additional courses, and to pay them honoraria for that process, which is more sustainable long-term. But to do that, we need to entice GV faculty to participate in developing or redesigning courses. (The grant we get might pay for the Indigenous co-designers, I hope.)
From May 2023: Cotto, Jannan. "The Problem of Pretendians: The Academy and Beyond" presentation at the Inclusive Pedagogy Retreat, GV University Libraries.
Pretendians she listed: Margaret Peschel,Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Andrea Smith, Susan Taffe Reed.
Jannan recommended the research of Kim TallBear.
Looks like I should be browsing this journal periodically: American Indian Culture and Research Journal (AICRJ).
Also, Lin Bardwell reminded me to read Decolonizing Methodologies : Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2021)
Littletree, Sandra, Nicola Andrews, & Jessie Loyer. (2023). Information as a relation: Defining Indigenous information literacy. Journal of Information Literacy, 17(2), pp. 4–23. https://doi.org/10.11645/17.2.8
This is a fantastic article! The authors define Indigenous IL as using info to gain or create knowledge while practicing relationality, reciprocity, and respect (p.4), and the "skills needed to conduct respectful research with Indigenous peoples, materials, and lands" (p.5). The Indigenous librarians are "accountable to ancestors, future generations, and the knowledges they are reclaiming" (p.18), and they "serve to position libraries as welcoming spaces where Indigenous knowledge systems, sovereignty, survivance, and joy can all flourish" (p.18).
Things to remember when working with Indigenous students:
