"Are not all things wild to nature worthy as a species of our protection? Do not all have a purpose?
It was St. Francis of Assisi who warned us that if we have men who exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of their compassion and pity, we will sadly have men who will deal likewise with their fellow human beings. St. Francis was encouraging us to widen our circle of compassion and to embrace all of God's creatures in our daily lives.
It is a self evident truth that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and beauty of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for its destruction. Mankind is essentially good, but as a consequence of our ignorance, we frequently do harm to mother nature and each other. I genuinely believe that if most us realised the harm we do to the planet we would instantly stop. I also believe that if we could hear within us the sound of the earth crying, we would cease abusing the ground upon which we stand and treating it so cruelly!
It is in the interest of both survival and primary purpose that we do not cut ourselves off from Mother Nature and its prevailing condition. Between mankind's nature and nurture of all wildlife and fellow being, there should be no boundaries and borders allowed to exist. The life of one is wholly dependant on the nourishment and survival of the other. Neither can thrive in splendid isolation nor live in open warfare with each other. When we decimate and destroy the bees, the modified crops the land then yields are capable of eventually destroying us.
We live in a world we did not create and cannot control, but through direct action we can affect it for either good or bad. We can advance global warming by filling our skies with gases that melt the Antarctic or deplete our medicine chests by the deforestation and ultimate destruction of the rainforest. Alternately, we can learn not to abuse the earth's natural resources. We should return all wildlife prisoners we have taken over the years back into their home environment, as to remove a wild creature from its natural habitat and put it in a zoo is not humane to either beast; it is no less than enslavement.
The time has come when our only true chance of long term survival depends upon our willingness to change our ways. Instead of shouting at nature, enslaving and killing off wildlife, we should to listen to it and be more prepared to allow it to flourish among us. We should cease to impose our mechanistic patterns of modern life on the biological processes of the earth such as growing genetically modified crops which upsets vital balances of nature. In short, we should end our fight with nature and start to relate more to the trees, the rivers, the mountains, the meadows and fields and fauna, along with all animals and wildlife. It is only when we can resist the impulse to control, to order and redirect; only when we cease to oppress the land and its creatures that live upon it, will we once more be able to become the protector of the larger community on which all life depends and for which we hold charge." William Forde: February 2nd, 2016.