The Very Small Group- the one a little smaller than the entire Writer’s Section at The Farm- was talking about life and change this morning. Buck is the newest member of the group, and he is accustomed to the changing terms of reference in our common tongue. “Changing the Charter” was the subject of his remarks, not that we actually understood what charter he was talking about. Melissa is a key part of the group, and the two of them balance the military heritage and tradition of Loma and Rocket.

The discussion was after the first jolt of news from a day now in mid-afternoon in a place far away. The reports were grim. The Russian machine is grinding up cities around the periphery of what was an independent nation. They are killing civilians in the process, of course, either with or without apparent remorse.

There is none of that terminology for the invaders, which is a term that now can be used, we think, at least beyond the families of the young men consumed by the fires of war. Talk here in America is vigorous, with coverage of Ukrainian-Americans whose parents had already fled an area occupied at times by both Communists and National Socialists a generation before. Signs have been prepared and demonstrations are being conducted in towns across the country. It is a profound change, and our Ukrainian neighbors have changed from identifying themselves as one national genetic stock to a different one less subject to aspersion and instead infused with virtue.

Some proponents of various social causes are confused by the fact that one group of oppressors is oppressing another group of oppressors, some of whom here in America are alleged to be conducting inadvertent micro-aggressions against the true victims of Colonial Oppression whose views are not properly weighed against those in some conflict whose skin appears to generally be the same.

The very small group has attempted to maintain an objective view in this time of confusion. DeMille smiles about the matter, since he could be considered to be a man of moderate hue, which he prefers to the other descriptions he could assume as a basis for preferred treatment. Yesterday, he had passed along without comment an article that claims the Bureau of the Interior has decided to spend its funds on renaming 600 sites under its jurisdiction due to the use of the term “Squaw.”

The Bureau has decided the word is demeaning, and must be eliminated from modern usage. This is a dramatic expansion of the agency’s mission statement which is proudly posted on the official website, which is: “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.”

We are naturally in favor of that, but unaware of which provisions have been Congressionally-approved in the Bureau’s charter to direct it to monitor and eliminate potentially offensive language. As best we can tell, these days that includes all of it, whether it is healthy, diverse or productive.

Others have claimed the word in question at this particular moment is derived from the Algonquin language in which it simply meant “woman.” We recognize how that term itself is potentially problematic and thus turned it over to Melissa to deconflict at her leisure.

Given the fact that the meaning of words has entered the realm of active partisan discussion, we mostly shrug. The demeaning aspect of a fairly useful term, we are told, was skewed by centuries of use by white people, including the hardy colonists in the 1600s.

There was brief discussion about the characterization of the words “hardy” and “colonists.” Many of them died, and hence were not hardy enough, while for others, being expelled from their homes and shipped across an ocean is a description of a parallel process used to justify questionable legal behavior now for things that were not crimes then. You can see how this keeps even us a bit off balance.

You can also see why we were mystified by this development, since there was already a fairly significant list of crimes committed by people we have never met that we are now obligated to pay for. So, in a way it is consistent and in keeping with the contributions of our tax dollars to the defense of people in eastern Europe we haven’t met either.

The Very Small Group laughed at the follies contained in what will someday compose a brief paragraph in the histories of this time in the category of “You are not going to believe this one.”

But before the whole group gathered at the Fire Ring for the production meeting, the Very Small Group decided to address energy policy, which appears to be more expansive than the activities of the Bureau of Land Management. The commitment to eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050 may cost us more than $400 Trillion, and which could be a worthwhile cause to spend more money than ever before created.

As a trained engineer, DeMille has opined that reasonable people might want to actually devise a system that works before mortgaging the farm to make it run on the wind that sometimes does not blow or the sun that only shines during some parts of the day. As he points out, we can store the energy when it is available on giant batteries manufactured in China that only occasionally burst into gigantic and uncontrollable flames. When not aflame, current technology is capable of storing literally minutes of backup power.

Splash was lumbering in the direction of The Ring, and in his trail was the young Attorney. It was clearly time to put aside common sense and prepare for what goes along with life. Something clearly had him agitated this morning, and times being what they are, it is the one part of all the change we can accommodate without much effort. The Russian envelopment of a town whose name we changed and whose citizens are under rocket assault is much easier.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
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