Okefenokee, ‘The Land of Trembling Earth’

Oh joy! First time in months I can see the sun rise unimpeded by the buildings as it makes its way south over the Blue Mountains.

Happiest day, beloved Joy Train Rider! I love you! Bless you! I affirm we are doing well.

I am so grateful to be with you on this journey through life, at this point in time that some consider a breakdown and others consider a breakthrough. Under these extreme circumstances one can either take the view that society is breaking down irrevocably, or that like a seed germinating, a husk is breaking open from which a strongly rooted shoot will emerge. I’m in the latter camp, and I am so grateful that there are people among us that continue to show the germinating potential at any age, beloved Dr. Fauci being high among them.

Today marks the end of an era in the National Park Service, the end of the month when our beloved superhero Ranger Shelton Johnson retires from the Service, and his electrifying voice may no longer be heard in the Park System. I am feeling so tremulous because there has never been a time since we became involved with the National Parks that he hasn’t been there, our luminous North Star full of passion, knowledge, wisdom, honor and integrity.

We first met Ranger Shelton in Denver in 1997 as part of the conference, “Justice for All: Racial Equity and Environmental Well-Being,” organized by the University of Colorado, Center of the American West. The director and co-founder of the Center, Patti Limerick spearheaded the annual event, focused that year on “exploring how the full inclusion of people of color in environmental policy and activities would change the terms by which people in the American West and Americans in general approached environmental issues.”

I’m so glad I can refresh my memory of the event from the pages of our book, Legacy on the Land. The luminaries we met at the conference included NPS Director Robert Stanton, appointed by President Clinton, who remains the only Park Service Director of African ancestry to this day; Dr. Dorceta Taylor, whose four-year effort to produce the first comprehensive reference work on environmental justice issues across 26 countries and six continents was published this month, and now-retired Ranger Bill Gwaltney, who hosted conference participants in the high alpine meadows of Rocky Mountains National Park on the second day.

The tour bus taking us up the mountain became a celestial vehicle wafting us to heaven when Ranger Shelton began playing his clarinet. I don’t know if there was a dry eye onboard because the haunting sounds and the majesty of nature unfolding around us touched something deep and atavistic in us.

The sub-Alpine meadows may well be a metaphor for the description of the experiences of Americans of color that Dr. Taylor had shared at the conference:

“If you are a person of color in this country, you would have been enslaved; land would have been taken away from you. You would've lived on a reservation. You would've worked as an indentured servant. Those experiences basically influence how you view the environment. You don't see it as this free place you can run off to. You see it as a place that you have worked in, labored in, in very different ways from the person who has the absolute freedom to decide whether they're going to work or not, where they're going to work and where they are going to play.”

Alpine plants in the Rocky Mountains stay low to the ground, trying to survive extreme cold, high winds and intense ultraviolet light above the treeline, eerily similar to how Americans of color have often had to modify our presence just to survive among some of our countrymen and women.

When Ranger Shelton played his clarinet in the meadow later that day the people were transported; the wind seemed to stand still, and even the birds seemed to perch and listen. He orchestrated a deeply spiritual experience.

With Ranger Shelton Johnson at an NPCA.org Annual Gala at Ellis Island, part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

So began the almost 30-year love affair among us that will not end today but only take on a different form. We’re hopeful that Ranger Shelton and his family will soon come to visit us in Jamaica.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that it was Ranger Shelton who uncovered the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers in the archives of Yosemite, and if you're in need of inspiration and the definition of the spirit of overcoming, I encourage you to read his fictionalized account in his book “Gloryland.” Ranger Shelton was also featured in Ken Burn’s documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”

So long beloved Ranger Shelton! “Walk Good!” as we say here in Jamaica where we’ll celebrate Emancipation this weekend and the 63rd anniversary of our country’s independence next week.

As I dry my eyes, I’m happy to take you to a new beginning - the inscription of The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, based upon its exceptional natural values.

(Please support my work if you care, and if you’re able. It is my passion and service to you and our country.)