More from Bastrop County

   

On May 5th in the eastern part of Bastrop State Park I noticed that in many places black-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia hirta, were thriving on the stony ground. Later, along TX 71 near Powell Cemetery Rd. in Smithville I couldn’t help stopping for a dense display of wildflowers by the side of the highway. The upright plant with yellow flowers was an Engelmann daisy, Engelmannia peristenia. The red ones were blanketflowers, either Gaillardia pulchella or Gaillardia amblyodon or possibly both.

 

 

In the next picture, black-eyed Susans predominated (and some appeared above as well).

 

  

Finally, along TX 95 south of Elgin, a roadside embankment yielded a view of densely mixed wildflowers. The pink ones were Texas thistles (Cirsium texanum).

 

 

  

 

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My country is imploding

 

The U.S. Department of State has implemented a finalized policy making promotions contingent on employees‘ ability to document their active engagement in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices. Federal agencies, like the State Department, were required to update employment and promotion standards following President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 13985, which “established that affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.”

“We made the change that if you wanted to be considered for promotion at the Department of State, you must be able to document what you are doing to support diversity, equity and inclusion, and accessibility. This is how you are judged for promotion,” Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley explained during a speech at the City Club Forum in April last year. Abercrombie-Winstanley, the former ambassador to Malta, was serving as the State Department‘s chief diversity and inclusion officer when the executive order was issued and was tasked with laying the groundwork for the new employment policy.

 

You can read the full article. As Nellie Bowles summed it up: “Fine, I will heed the call. I will step up. Ours will be bullets made by only the gayest and most feminist hands—mine. They will not be shaped right. They crumble to the touch. But they will be equitable.”

 

© 2024 Steven Schwartzman