Welcome April, the month when we see our part of the world blossom and come alive with beauty. That welcome doesn’t extend to the species known as Rice’s Whale, a mammal that lives only in the Gulf of Mexico now that the government’s Endangered Species Committee has decided that in the name of big oil knocking off a few species really doesn’t matter.
Claiming this is about “national security,” we know it is really about money and greed. Even the Pharisees might blanch at some of the so-called “sacrifices” called for by people like Pete Hegseth. Rice’s Whale isn’t the only threatened species by policies that ignore the fragility of life.
Along the U.S. Mexican border, the new wall threatens animals, large and small, cutting them off from their traditional supplies of water and food. It also affects at least 108 species of migratory birds and fragile habitat necessary for the wildlife to survive. So we all go merrily along, wiping out more of God’s creation.
Prayer for the Day
Leviathans of the seas that you created, O God,
Now threatened by greed using another name,
Ocelots, mountain lions, and small of the night, O Lord,
Searching for water that we block off with fences,
All these, O Creator, the earth cries in pain and sorrow
As they are destroyed without regard.
In the name of the One who beckons us to save,
Even Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
If Trump is successful here, he could be the first person in history to knowingly extirpate a species from the face of the earth. That's how precarious the condition of the Rice's whale is.
Patrick Parenteau, emeritus professor of law at Vermont Law School
While the border wall has done little to deter human migration, these results suggest that it has impacted wildlife movement patterns significantly both for large mammals as well as almost every species in areas where small openings have not been installed.
Michael Dax, Western Program Director, Borderlands
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements – surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk, or who laid the cornerstone
When the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
Job 38:4-7