Lessons & Reflections from the National Butterfly Center

Have you ever been near a wildfire? Witnessed it blaze? Inhaled the smoke or stood in a shower of softly wafting ash?

Seemingly indiscriminate and unstoppable, the encroaching flames lap and hiss at the grasses that catch and the logs that crackle.

Fire creeps and sparks jump as wildlife slithers and scurries away seeking shelter anywhere but here, where the conflagration advances.

We’ve had two wildfires in my six years at the National Butterfly Center, and I am sure we will have more. Wildfire is a natural phenomenon, except when it’s not; like when it starts with a careless cigarette butt, or a Border Patrol truck’s hot engine…

Regardless of how it starts, the consequence is the same: people fight back, property is damaged and animals perish. So it will be with the incendiary border wall initiative of the current administration.

As I’ve raised my voice against the wall, I’ve often been told to tone it down.

“People cannot hear you when you use words like that, Marianna,” or “You must be more moderate in your approach,” are common refrains to which I want to scream, “But our house is on fire! Don’t you see? How can you not understand? We stand to lose everything if you do not act, if you do not help, if you do not care!”

Yesterday, a sweet friend said, “Lots of people don’t care and you can’t make them. It’s not their house that’s burning. They have their own fires to tend, their own disasters to avert.”

Ok, I can appreciate that.

Then sweet friend went on to say, “You know, at least one-third of America is carrying the torch. They want to see you burn. Their fears and hatred set fire to this place and make no mistake about it, they delight in our suffering.”

Wow.

I hadn’t stopped to process that, although I knew it to be true. The white polo-wearing pricks carrying tiki torches in Charlottesville were not some strange one-off, but representative of a large part of the population who are murderous, destructive and hell bent on having their way. Add to that contingent the cowards in Congress and Texas’ own hypocritical officials, one of whom proudly displays the defiant Gonzales flag—emblematic of our proud republic—in his office, and you have a highly combustible cocktail of crap.

Suddenly, on a visceral level, I understood the true magnitude of our circumstance and it sucked the oxygen right out of me, all because she adopted my analogy.

There is an old proverb that goes something like this, “Fire in the heart sends smoke into the head.” I’ve always associated this bit of wisdom with something positive, i.e. romantic passion, even the impaired vision and decision making of infatuated fools; but I understand it differently today.

Fire burns both ways.

Ardent nationalist rhetoric ignites fury, just as wildfires set off a frenzy. In that respect, my fervent desire to preserve this place is no different. So, to those who would tell me to pipe down, I say to hell with the proverbs; let us fight fire with fire!

And let our burning love for the borderlands light the way.

PHOTO: From the battle that started the Texas Revolution, the Gonzales Flag, as featured in Senator John Cornyn's office, Washington, D.C.