Cincinnati Housing Partners have the option on the 3-acre meadow/woodland at the end of Enright Avenue. Their thought is to build houses on this land.
It has been a painful month. My stomach has turned and churned; my feelings touched very deeply by this event. It has been a time for questioning, contemplating.
The possibility of part of our natural area being destroyed is a very difficult concept to accept. We, as a people, have lost the sense of community being more than just people. The animals, birds, plants, all make up our community. The idea of possessing, and therefore, having the right to destroy or change the Earth in any way we want has impaired our sense of community with the Earth, and has left us a very sterile, isolated species.
To what length do we go to preserve the Earth; entreaties, reasoning, cajoling, confrontation, mediation, personal attacks, resistance, “monkey wrenching”? I have training and experience in most of these. We have asked on a very personal level. We have reasoned, we have cajoled. How far do we go? How important is the Earth? When do our actions become more destructive than good? I personally do not want to fight – the prospect of doing it is very upsetting. But building here might destroy a part of this beautiful, sacred Earth, a part of our community for which we feel responsible: the trees, the meadow, the deer, the fox, the birds. My guess is that I could not shy away. My hope is that CHP will reach far inside themselves to their deep connection with the Earth, and lovingly seek a place less destructive of this sacred Earth.
Following is part of the letter IMAGO wrote to the Board of Cincinnati Housing Partners.
Dear Board of Directors of Cincinnati Housing Partners, 10.25.89
Apartheid in South Africa; the suffering of people in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras; detention and torture of political prisoners all over the world; degradation of Blacks, Native Americans, and so many other people in our own country; the difficulty for single women heads of households to find decent employment and housing – oppression in so many forms raising its head and bringing pain and suffering to so many.
Oppression does not restrict itself to just humans acting upon other humans. This Earth is suffering extreme oppression currently in human history. Air pollution, soil erosion, destruction of rain forests, destruction of the ozone, chemical and nuclear contamination, contamination of the waters – you know all of these. And now, as we move into the 21st century, we more clearly understand how this oppression of the Earth is destroying the life line vital to the continuation of the human species.
The inhabitants of Cincinnati, past and present, have unthinkingly, for the most part, abused the natural world. There are few natural areas remaining in Cincinnati. It is difficult for many species of animals and plants to survive in our city because of the scarcity of natural areas. Many of these areas are being depleted by landslides; this, in a city that rates among the highest in the nation for hillside slippage. In some ways Cincinnati is better than a lot of cities, but this does not change the serious destruction that we have perpetrated on the other species in our area. And without sufficient green space, the quality of life for the human species deteriorates as well. Greenspace does a tremendous amount to cleanse our already polluted air.
We, at IMAGO, feel an incredible need to protect the few natural areas that are left in Cincinnati. We are particularly committed to protecting a narrow corridor of natural areas that runs from Mt. Echo Park to the Oxbow in Indiana. The corridor is narrow but contains enough woods and meadows to sustain a balance of wildlife that can migrate along the corridor.
Of particular concern for us at this moment is the meadow and surrounding trees that you are looking at for construction of houses here on Enright Avenue. These three acres of meadow and woodland is part of this small corridor. We realize your struggle to provide affordable housing for single heads of household, and how tempting it is to take a piece of land like this for development.
However, we feel that the Earth has suffered incredible oppression, and the oppression here in Cincinnati is painful to observe. We feel that we should not try to solve the problem of one oppressed group by laying it on the heads of another oppressed group. In this case the “group” is the natural areas in Cincinnati…
rjamesschenk.org 