Planetary Sensibilities:activities for the LIT class

Lisa ShawMiami Dade College North

www.spiritofbaraka.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/world/americas/11colombia.html?_r=1&ex=1148097600&en=98f1816925a9ae70&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/world/americas/11colombia.html?_r=1&ex=1148097600&en=98f1816925a9ae70&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref

http://www.poetryireland.ie/whats-on/media-archive/index.html

The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath, the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow's flowers.

http://www.kyphilom.com/www/seattle.html

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/momaday/shields1.htm

Shield Paintings by N. Scott Momaday

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens

Federico's Ghost Martin Espada   The story is that whole families of fruitpickers still crept between the furrows of the field at dusk, when for reasons of whiskey or whatever the cropduster plane sprayed anyway, floating a pesticide drizzle over the pickers who thrashed like dark birds in a glistening white net, except for Federico, a skinny boy who stood apart in his own green row, and, knowing the pilot would not understand in Spanish that he was the son of a whore, instead jerked his arm and thrust an obscene finger.  

  After Federico died, rumors at the labor camp told of tomatoes picked and smashed at night, growers muttering of vandal children or communists in camp, first threatening to call Immigration, then promising every Sunday off if only the smashing of tomatoes would stop.   Still tomatoes were picked and squashed in the dark, and the old women in camp said it was Federico, laboring after sundown to cool the burns on his arms, flinging tomatoes at the cropduster that hummed like a mosquito lost in his ear, and kept his soul awake.

   The pilot understood. He circled the plane and sprayed again, watching a fine gauze of poison drift over the brown bodies that cowered and scurried on the ground, and aiming for Federico, leaving the skin beneath his shirt wet and blistered, but still pumping his finger at the sky.

Reef Medics: Volunteer snorkelers assist Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary scientists in locating reef damage done by small boat groundings and monitoring the reefs for coral health. Volunteers are also needed for seagrass propscar restoration.

Team O.C.E.A.N.: The Ocean Conservation Education Action Network is an on-water educational and information service of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in which volunteers are stationed at popular reefs providing information to visitors about enjoying our reefs without harming them.

Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center: volunteer greeters/docents/activity assistants are needed to assist the staff for half or full day shifts.

http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/volunteer_opportunities/welcome.html

Billie Swamp Safari

SeminoleTours.com

http://www.seminoletribe.com/tribune/

http://www.ahtahthiki.com/#

Chief Red Cloud’s farewell address to the Lakota people on July 4, 1903

"My sun is set. My day is done. Darkness is stealing over me. Before I lie down to rise no more, I will speak to my people. "Hear me, my friends, for it is not the time for me to tell you a lie. The Great Spirit made us, the Indians, and gave us this land we live in. He gave us the buffalo, the antelope, and the deer for food and clothing. We moved our hunting grounds from the Minnesota to the Platte and from the Mississippi to the great mountains. No one put bounds on us. We were free as the winds, and like the eagle, heard no man's commands.

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/redcloud.html