Report from Santa Fe; Ray Powell

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... ... ... Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by a grant from the members of the National Education Association of New Mexico. An organization of professionals who believe that investing in public education is an investment in our state's economic future. I'm Lorraine Mills and welcome to report from Santa Fe. Our guest today is Ray Powell. Thank you for joining us. Oh, Lorraine, it's an absolute pleasure to be here with you today. Well, you've been here over the years because I want to have you listen a little about your background. You're a veterinarian, a licensed veterinarian. You are a land commissioner for many, many years. You were the director at the Valle's Caldera, and now you are the regional director for the Four Corners Roots and Shoots organization.

That's right, and I can't think of a job that is more exciting or more fun, and it's one that I think I've been training for for my whole life. Well, and as your parents before you, because you come from an extraordinary New Mexico family, your dad was head of the state Democrat Party for a long time. Your mom was a scientist at the Manhattan Project, and one of the things I love that you wrote, and you wrote an editorial, an essay once for the Albuquerque Tribune about why I live here. Tell us a little of how New Mexico is in your bones. Well, it really is in my bone marrow because in New Mexico, you were punished, and the way you punished if you were ill-behaved, they made you sit inside. And what I absolutely love doing was getting out and experiencing those sandstorms, those summer rains, and getting on the horse and riding up the aroyos, and being with my best friends, my dogs. And you come around a corner, and you've been there a hundred different times, but finally you'd spot the sun and be right, and you'd see a petroglyph.

And you began to realize that this place people had lived here for a long time, and taken very, very good care of it. And their further realization is that those same wonderful people are here, and their cultures are alive, and vibrant, and there's so much to learn about the natural world of New Mexico. I wish I could spend every moment of it outdoors. Well, you can't, because you have very important work to do with the Roots and Shoots organization. Before we go into that, I just want to talk about the panoply of awards you've gotten, because you've gotten a humane education award from the Animal Protection People of New Mexico. You've gotten watershed steward of the year, you've gotten conservation awards, you've gotten outstanding alumnus from Tufts Veterinary School, and you had a wonderful award from New Mexico State. For your leadership in dealing with agricultural communities in the natural world, and so congratulations. Well, I really appreciate that, Lorraine, but as you know, so well, if you get an opportunity to work with really honest, bright, passionate people, you oftentimes, it rubs off on you, and you get the credit for their hard work and heavy lifting.

And we have many talented people in government, and in the private sector in New Mexico, and I've had that great opportunity to work with many of them, and gotten an inordinate amount of the credit for their hard work. And were you an unusual land commissioner in that you were so environmentally aware? Well, I think we've had people that are aware, but I was a field biologist, a botanist for a number of years. To walk over a good portion of the state, inventoring the health of the lands, and as a veterinarian with a special interest in wildlife rehabilitation, I really understood the fact, and from my childhood, and having lots of friends that were tuned in, that we have to take care of the health of that land, if we're going to prosper. And it's just imperative, and that's why I'm so excited about roots and shoots, because it's getting kids outdoors and getting them engaged and helping their communities.

Now, let's go to roots and shoots, because it was established by Dr. Jane Goodall, I need to talk about her a little bit. She is an internationally known primatologist, who's worked with chimpanzees in the 60s, resulted in a groundbreaking book called In The Shadow of Man, which is still in print, and still in many, many languages around the world. And in this book, it was like the Berlin Wall of Science, because she observed chimpanzees using tools and making tools, and that was like heresy for Western science. How has her work impacted the world? Well, it's changed the whole way we look at other species, and I've been, she's been one of my heroes of my whole life. And what she basically did is, you know, before that science kind of looked at other species as little robots as something way beneath human beings, but through her work and her careful observation, we really recognize that these artificial barriers, and margins that we set up in between ourselves, and other species really don't exist, and the incredible sensitivity and loyalty and brightness of other species, and we're one of them.

And that's where we get into trouble, is when we forget that we're an important part of this whole system, this whole fabric of life, and she really helped the scientific community realize that we need to treat animals with respect and with honor. And really cherish the fact that this planet is so diverse, and there's so many different species that are here. In a way, her story is so interesting, because she was chosen by Lewis Leakey to observe the chimpanzees, the first person willing to do it, because of her patience, her powers of observation, and her intelligence. And she did not have scientific training, so when she produced this book that sits on its heels, then they went to give her PhD, she earned a PhD, but they were saying, oh, no, you shouldn't have given the chimpanzees names, and you shouldn't have thought they had feelings, you shouldn't have thought that a mother chimpanzee had feelings for her baby, and she said, but this is what I observed, and I wrote about what I observed, and that's what opened the door for all of her readers to say, there is something different to foot here. That's exactly right, and it took someone with real vision and real courage to basically stand alone and say, I know, because I've been out there, and I've observed these animals, they're not little robots.

They have many, there are closest genetic species, very little difference on those chromosomes between us and them, and she observed many of those special behaviors that, until then, we were attributing just to ourselves, and that took enormous courage to stand up at Oxford and say, wait a minute, I think you're wrong, respectfully, you need to look at species in a different way, and the chimpanzees in a very different way. And as they looked at her, this is one of the most moving things I've ever heard her talk about, but she says, I'm inspired for my work now by seeing the look in the eye of a captive chimpanzee, or the look in the eye of a chained elephant swing from side to side, and the look is, who are you? Can you help me? Will you help me? And she decided, yes, that she would devote herself to being an animal rights advocate, and an environmental and humanitarian. And so, she travels 300 days of the year, she's 73 years old, advocating and coming to places like New Mexico to inspire us, and as a matter of fact, we have a clip from our most recent interview with her, where she describes the idea for roots and shoots, and how she came up with the idea, so let's listen for a moment.

So, Roots and Roots is a symbolic name, and it's a program for hope. Roots imaginary, the Roots make a firm foundation, shoots seem very small, perhaps weak, but to reach the sun can break through a brick wall. So, we imagine the brick wall as all the problems that we humans have inflicted on this planet, the environmental ones and the social ones. And then you see, this is a program of hope. Hundreds and thousands of young people around the world can break through these walls and make this a better world for all living things. Dr. Jeane established this Roots and Shoots program about 20 years ago in Tanzania, with a youth group that actually approached her and said, you know, we're just so frustrated and disappointed and depressed, we don't want to be that way. We want to change our community. Will you work with us? And she agreed to do that. It's now in over 100 countries around the world, over 10,000 groups, the last count.

And she called us and said, you know, this is such a special place, the four corner states, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and particularly New Mexico. So, would you work with us and establish Roots and Shoots groups in these areas? And not a heartbeat pass before I said, you bet, I'd love to have that opportunity. Again, it's working with all members of our communities and collaborating, cooperating, and finding adults and doing an intergenerational contribution of working with these kids so that they really are empowered. Dr. Jeane has a sentence that I just love and it says, knowledge generates compassion and compassion inspires action. And, you know, there are many times that spark, that excitement, that enthusiasm that we're all born with to wake up every day and want to learn something new, get snuffed out in kids, either from an act of violence or neglect or abuse.

And this whole idea is to keep that spark alive and keep them active and engaged and empowered and hopeful because it's, we've got, we're faced with many real problems and many that we've created as human beings. But I am absolutely convinced that these young people, pre-K through graduate school, are going to make a positive difference and help heal and save this very special planet for future generations. Well, I've seen her address groups of children and she talks about the light shining in their eyes and they are so empowered and inspired by her. And one of the things I love about roots and shoots is that some of the projects are come from the kids themselves. So let's talk about some of the projects that are going on in New Mexico now.

And the real beauty of this is it's all inclusive. It's not one of these things that says it's us against them or you can't join because of the pigment of your skin or where you choose to exercise whatever spiritual beliefs you have. Everybody is welcome. And it's manifest by the kids themselves. They see Dr. Jane on animal planet and they realize that they can do something in their own community. And they say, what's needed? Just a couple of quick examples. There's a school down in Albuquerque, a Holy Ghost Catholic school, where the kids on their own went to their teachers and said, we've watched Jane Goodall and we want to make a difference. And they ended up raising over $8,000 to feed hungry people in Tanzania, in Honduras, and on the Navajo Nation. And then they packaged that food in individual meals with their own hands and came up with over 130,000 meals. And these kids did it themselves because they were inspired and they had the right adults, older people giving them the encouragement to move forward.

There's a group of kids here in Santa Fe, New Mexico that are working with the animal shelter as a youth board. And those kids are working to help those animals that are caught in this horrible situation that the animal shelter helping socialize them, helping make sure that they get a chance to get adopted. And advising the adult board as the new ways to approach the communities as ambassadors going back to their neighborhoods, going back to their schools, and letting those kids in their neighborhoods know how to treat animals in a respectful, kind manner so that fewer of them end up in the animal shelter in such desperate straits. There's a group down in Albuquerque yet one of the public schools, S.Y. Jackson, that's adopted in a royal in Albuquerque near their school. And it was our rack. I mean, there was graffiti all over the concrete abutments. People had dumped trash for years there. It was just, it was badly neglected. And those kids went in there, cleaned it up, planted native plants that have berries and fruits to attract the wildlife as they fly through or live in the area.

It's a completely different place when you go there. It's just beautiful. And those kids picked it and they did it. There's a group of homeschoolers down in Albuquerque that are celebrating the Rio Grande River and bringing other students down there and acting as peers, as mentors for those kids so that they understand how important it is to respect that land if we are going to remain healthy as communities and as individuals. These kids are remarkable, absolutely astonishing. And other things about the Santa Fe group, because I've been at the animal shelter and see them in action, they actually work to gentle down, like perhaps abuse animals and won't be able to be adopted because they're still so afraid. So these kids love them back up to an adoptable level and walk dogs for old people and all these just kind things. It's really getting back to that golden rule of treating others and others being close of other species, the same way that you'd like to be treated with the respect, with the honor, and to be cherished.

That brings the best out in all of us. And that's what Roots and Shoots is about is celebrating our planet, animals, communities, and the natural world as an integrated whole, not as separate pieces. Good all, really, as she travels, those 300 and plus days a year. I think she was in Singapore recently. I think she's headed to Ireland and to Africa after that is committed to reaching as many young people because they're our future. And I think it's a bright future with these kids involved. Yes, another project that I just love that was, again, Sui Jenis from the kids themselves, they was this school in Illinois where the kids figured out that for their breakfasts and lunch at school, they were using these disposable cyrofoam trays and they just went into a landfill, the huge amount of cyrofoam. And so the kids found out other alternatives for ways to serve these meals and they kept in one year a million cyrofoam trays out of the landfill. That is amazing.

It's incredible. And again, rather than being depressed about the magnitude and the enormity of problems, what it really Dr. Jane tells each one of us is that you can choose to spend your day in a very productive, positive way, making a difference for wherever you are versus just being depressed and hiding out and not contributing. And that is a strong message of hope. In my recent interview with her, I talked with her about that, about the dialectic between hope and fear and depression. Her autobiography is called Recent for Hope. And then she has another book about mindful eating called Harvest of Hope. And I asked her, I said, well, whatever the reasons we have to hope, and she started to talk about the resiliency of the human spirit and certainly the resiliency of nature. But she says, if you are depressed and you want reasons to hope, go to the Roots and Shoots website and see what is going on.

So if anyone out there needs reason to hope, they should go to www.RootsandShoots.org and just look at the exciting things you are doing with kids on so many levels. That is exactly right. And the good news is that no matter what age any of us are, you can get involved in this as a mentor, as someone that helps facilitate these kids doing something special in their communities. Because every one of us wakes up every morning with the opportunity to do something positive and special that adds to our community and it is playing to the highest level of who we are, rather than the lowest common denominator. And the kids get that immediately and that is I think what resonates. You know, when you see a 73 year old individual with these incredible accomplishments and life experiences, with no pretenses, no bloated feeling of self importance around kids, the kids quickly discern whether this is real or whether it is phony baloney. We know it is real and boy, the spark that goes between Dr. Jane and these kids and the energy that comes out of them, it really is inspiring.

Yes, and it is a dynamic because one feeds the others the symbiotic relationship. She looks at the shiny eyes and know that there is hope for the world of they look at her and she has given them a pattern and template for how to do it. They come up with the most wonderful ideas these kids, once they know they are really being listened to, they have really fresh ideas about how to solve the problems of their world. And just to give you another quick example, I ran into a young boy, I think he was 12 or 13 in Albuquerque, that was concerned about the gas prices. What his concern was, is that how are we going to be able to grow our food if you have to ship it long distances or fly it in or bring it in a boat. And so what he wanted his group to do was to work on sustainable agriculture, keeping people with knowledge connected to the land so that you take good care of that land, but so that you grow your food in an area nearby so it helps your own economy. He keeps the community alive and well. This is coming from a 12 or 13 year old young person that really has given this a lot of thought and taken that thought and is translating it into real action.

And that just is inspiring. And that roots and shoots goes from pre-K pre-Kindergarten kids who can plant and feed and hold an animal up to college students. I think this month you're having an interchange, an exchange of college kids with China and here so that our kids are going to China and learning about their culture and doing environmental work there. And there the Chinese students are coming here. And don't you say that then there's a kind of on the internet they say connected and it's just remarkable. And every young person coming out of our school systems now really is amazingly literate in using these new technologies. And when I'm bright enough to keep my mouth shut they teach me something new every day. And what's fascinating is with the computer setup they can talk to each other in live time.

So if you've got a group that's working on let's say watershed health planting trees in an area they can get on that computer and talk with a group in Kuwait or in Africa or in Asia or in Europe that's doing the same thing and say you know we've had this problem. How did you deal with that issue and so suddenly all these artificial barriers of borders and of time zones and everything else melt away when you've got kids talking to kids mentoring each other to solve problems to heal this planet. I mean it's just remarkable. And the mission is kind of a three-legged stool. The mission of roots and shoots is to foster compassion for all living things and respect for living things and to have understanding and tolerance of different cultures and beliefs. And what's the third one? Well it's the animals, it's the community and the natural world and the environment and all those are tied together and when we really get in a pickle when we get in trouble is when we forget those interconnections.

Because unless we have a healthy world we're not going to have a healthy economy unless we have a healthy economy. We're not going to have a healthy world and we have to make the right decisions and these kids at a very early age through this program are learning how to become public speakers, are learning how to be engaged and involved and make a positive difference, how to make a budget, how to do a plan. And these are life skills to become active citizens in this very special experiment. We call a democracy in the United States that is just absolutely thrilling to see these kids engaged rather than tuning out and dropping away. Tell me about the leadership component of roots and shoots. So that tracks right with this idea of engagement and involvement, getting that knowledge, developing compassion, inspiring to do action. So their leadership programs built into roots and shoots on the local level, the state level, the regional level, the national level and the global level.

And what's really unique about this is the kids themselves pick their leaders and pick the leaders which go to the next set of meetings to represent them. So talk about a home grown representative process. This is it where they see each other and see what they're capable of. And again, you can't talk a good game. You got to walk the game because these are peers. And at the end of the day, once a year, Dr. Jane works with about 10 or 15 of these kids that the other kids have picked. And oftentimes it's in the Gombe National Preservant Tanzania with these very special chimpanzees. And we're hoping someday to have that event here in our four corner states with the kids from the rest of the world coming here to understand what an incredibly special place we all live in. And unfortunately, sometimes take for granted.

Yes. One of the things that Dr. Gilles stressed when she was here is that this is service learning. This is action. This is not just thinking about what to do. This is getting out there in galoshes and planning trees and walking dogs. And that's what makes it so different about other programs. That's exactly right. And it's not about self-agridizement or making a whole lot of money for yourself or putting yourself above someone else. It's about helping your community in very positive and constructive ways. And that's what brings the very best out in these kids when they start looking at those that are less fortunate, taking meals to senior citizens that may need some help. But more importantly, spending some positive time and what they begin to understand is how much they gain from that process, from that wisdom and that knowledge from the older person. Many of our Native American tribes, who are very close and dear to Dr. Gilles, haven't lost that sense of the longer you are on this planet. If you've lived a productive, positive life, the more wisdom you've accrued and the more you have to share.

So it's not just kids. It's intergenerational. It's sharing among those people that are engaged in a live and active and really want to make a positive difference. The other thing that's so different is about the four corners area is our familiarity with the Native American traditions of you look down seven generations. When you make a decision and it's not for the bottom line, it's for how will this affect our lives seven generations' hands? That's exactly right. And not trying to see how much you can rack up in your bank account or how you can really appeal to your shareholders in a meeting three months from now. But what seven generations, as you've just said, are going to face because of your actions today. And whether you're planting a tree or you're planting a garden that's going to give a benefit to others or whether you're just harvesting everything for your own gain. This is about giving. This is about sharing. This is about building. And these kids get it.

Well, again, if you could, we've come to the end of our show, but I'd like you to just tell people how they can get involved and who can get involved. Anybody can get involved. And our website is www.jengoodall.org. And if you go to that website, you can pull up the Roots & Shoots program as well. And we would love to visit with people about having them facilitate a group of young people. If some young person sees this program, same thing. And you'd like to get your neighbor or your school or your church involved. We'd love to work with them. And because Roots & Shoots is such a catchy name, you can also just go to www.rootsandshoots.org and see everything that's going on for all ages for all people. All across the globe. And we're so lucky that Dr. Goodall herself comes here a lot and really, really kind of energizes the project and gives her blessings. Well, and it's a two-way street because, you know, the interview that you did recently from her, she remarked that I had the privilege of traveling with her.

The thoughtful questions you asked and the way you did it with the knowledge that you did gave her real nourishment. And she comes to New Mexico because she sees what a special place this is. And she wants to be engaged here. So she gets as much as she gives. Well, indeed. And I want to thank you for being our guest today and giving us an update on Roots & Shoots. Our guest today is Ray Powell, the regional director for the Four Corners Roots & Shoots. Thank you. Thank you so much, Lorraine. It's been a real delight to be here today. Yes. And for me too. And I'm Lorraine Mills. I'd like to thank you for being with us today on Report from Santa Fe. We'll see you next week. Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by a grant from the members of the National Education Association of New Mexico, an organization of professionals who believe that investing in public education is an investment in our state's economic future. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.