Homo Sapien Logic

Lois M. Scheel

1992

Published in:

Social Trends Newsletter Oct 1992, No. 108

Consider the dandelion, a common yellow-flowered composite herb, as Webster defines it, that versatile weed with the distinguished name.

How did it come by its name? Who knows. Its blossom resembles a lion's mane. Imagine a face on it framed by a thick crop of yellow string-like petals, and you have the majestic lion's head, king of the jungle.

And what is a dande? According to the dictionary it means "first-rate", although Webster spells it "dandy." So there you have it. A first-rate king. (Remember, definitions can be arbitrary, and they are not necessarily related to fact.)

During the great depression, many people survived by eating dandelions. They parboiled the nutritional leaves to remove the bitterness and then steamed them, a worthy substitute for spinach and other similar greens. The more innovative cooks dipped the dandelion blossoms in batter and deep-fried them. And the blossoms made tasty, potent wine, a diversion to help people through hard times. And dandelions grew in abundance and were free to hungry depression survivors. All they had to do was harvest them.

Besides feeding people, dandelions aided the environment. Their long tap roots held moisture in the ground and nourished insects. So what do we do about this valuable life-sustaining herb? We kill it! A lawn can be dried up and brown, as many lawns in the Northwest were last summer--and still are--because of the drought, but the persistent dandelion, in vivid contrast, retains its moisture and color and attempts to nourish the land and insects despite formidable odds. We can't stand that bright spot in our perfect lawn because we consider it a lowly weed, so we eliminate it with poison. In its place we've planted shrubs, hybrid flowers, vegetable gardens and a manicured lawn that require lots of water, and the more poison we spread to maintain that perfect look, the more water we use to mitigate the toxic effects of the poison.

And what happens to the insects? We've eliminated their food and moisture supply so now they have to eat those irritating domestic plants when they really prefer weeds. They even come into our houses in search of food and moisture. This calls for more poison. Watch out for your babies and your pets. Read the labels on the spray container: Keep out of the hands of children; if swallowed or inhaled do this, do that, see your physician; keep your pets inside for such and such a time after spraying dandelions, or keep them outside after spraying bugs inside. All this bother and precaution to get rid of dandelions, and dandelions never did us any harm. And no mention is made on the labels of how all this poison affects nature's underground water wells as it seeps into them, aided by rain and artificial watering.

You know, besides dandelions there are other beneficial weeds that could be left scattered throughout gardens, nurturing insects. Aphids love thistle. So do other insects, including bees. But thistles are weeds! Kill them!

Tansy ragwort is another source of nourishment for aphids, those tiny insects that suck the juice of plants, but inadvertently get a strain of tansy in baled hay, and it can kill cattle. Some counties attempt to enforce laws that require you to pull your tansy up by the roots; it spreads rapidly. Why do we have so much tansy ragwort growing in open fields in the Northwest? Because we've ravished our forests, creating a haven for tansy and other tenacious weeds. Tansy won't grow in the forest. So to compensate for our sins, we import tiger-striped worms to destroy the tansy. What happens when these greedy little monsters run out of tansy? What will they eat then? Stay tuned in for the next exciting chapter.

Now wouldn't it be nice to live in the forest and view the flora and fauna from our picture window? So to make room for our house, we cut a few trees, trees that took two or three hundred or more years to grow, and use them for firewood. There we sit, snug and warm in front of the fire, gazing at the natural beauty through our picture window. Deer, porcupines, birds and squirrels entertain us. And then comes spring. The carpenter ants march in, hacking, sawing, biting, knawing, leaving piles of sawdust in dark places. They love to make their homes in dead wood. Call in the exterminator! Spray those destructive carpenter ants and anything else that gets in the way. Never mind that the carpenter ants didn't invade our habitat until we invaded theirs. And if this doesn't work, get rid of the trees. They make the house too damp and dark anyway.

We create an unnatural oasis in a desert in one area by making a desert out of a natural oasis somewhere else. We kill off creatures of prey and their habitat in our wanton disregard for our environment and then fight unwelcome pests that multiply uncontrolled. In this barbarian world that we falsely label civilized, we have yet to learn the importance of living in harmony with nature.