As a biology major … though I grant you, many years ago … I know some things remain irrefutable. When the numbers of any animal population exceeds the resources available to sustain a viable existence, or when the population is threatened by a new predator invading their habitat, behavior changes. Radically. Americans are suffering both afflictions.Worldwide, humans have overwhelmed the carrying capacity of the earth. Capitalism’s ethos of greed and individualism has resulted in irreversible global warming, mindless destruction of the forests, soil, and water sources, as well as producing more and more floods, fires and droughts. We seem hell-bent to prove what some scientists have long predicted; we are a short-lived species. And proving it at an increased rate thanks to the insanely regressive policies of a predator, i.e. this administration.Animals under such intense stress inevitably turn on one another. Survival becomes a matter of tooth and claw and no one is exempt from the battle. Mercy ceases to have a name. When I read about the conditions and cruelty in the American-style concentration camps, I thought, Lord, we can never say we didn’t know! The Germans falsely claimed that once but, alas, they watched. And we are watching.Many experience rising fears now that we live in a country unimaginable just six months ago. Compromised justice. A compromised Congress. A complicit Supreme Court. Peaceful protesters tear-gassed and jailed. Growing hunger, and unattended sicknesses. Blatant misogyny. Education at all levels perverted. Knowledgable federal workers fired from countless essential jobs. Brutal ICE raids.I wish I had a hopeful Disney-style conclusion to my words of near despair. As a reverent materialist, however, I must rely on our innate capacity to empathize with one another and our instinct to fight for a return to democracy.

Margot Fleck

Northfield