Noting Differences
February 9, 2007
7:05 a.m., MT

It’s been a very long time since I studied plants. Odd, that, since one of my favorite pastimes while young was to walk in the woods. Back then, I was fairly good at identifying trees—mostly by their leaves and fruit; bark color helped some too but I didn't attend to bark texture sufficiently to use it as an identification aid.

I came to appreciate many differences of the trees I wandered amidst. The white, easily peeled birch bark ... big, bitter-tasting hickory nuts ... fluttery aspen leaves, which produce some of the most beautiful yellows come fall ... majestic oaks, bearers of acorns and stubborn, rattly leaves that cling to their branches throughout winter ... the long, swaying leaves of weeping willows ... and maples, with their fun seed-bearing “twirlies”, glorious fall color displays, and of course, the delectable sap of sugar maples, which is collected and transformed into maple syrup in late winter.

An individual tree can vary, sometimes considerably, from the typical form of its species; and a species can be more or less close to the prototypical example of its type. I recall the first time I encountered oak shrubs, while rock climbing in Wyoming; I’d never seen such a small oak before and wondered at what my eyes were seeing. But acorns were there too. The experience reminded me that my knowledge of the world was far less than I liked to think.

Anyway, the world is full of variety—variety between species, as well as variety within individuals of the same species. Some of that variety originates in differing genes the individuals possess; but environmental influences can modulate their expression—sometimes quite a bit.

The question I have is this: why do some individuals have absolutely no objection to my discussing differences among trees as I’ve just done, yet if I were to similarly note differences among groups of individuals, or specific individuals, in their eyes I must therefore be some kind of bigot?

Difference is difference. Observing, quantifying (as best we’re able at present, which isn’t always very good), and describing differences does not always, or necessarily, imply value judgments based on those differences.

It’s my opinion that those who infer such judgments absent any evidence to support them are probably as small-minded as real racists/sexists/etc.

Sunni

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