Public Lands

[Elf Owl]

Has anyone been following this? What do you guys think? I know where I live in Utah, the debates over land between different user groups (especially oil/gas exploration v. conservationists) is super contentious. It will be interesting to see how everything pans out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/opinion/our-land-up-for-grabs.html?_r=0

 

[Nick]

If only they'd done this 100 years ago so we didn't have most of those annoying national parks too! What a joke. VOTE.

 

[Seldom Seen Anderson]

If for nothing else, why we need to keep a democrat in the white house!

 

[andyjaggy]

It's really frustrating for someone like me, who is conservative on many issues, but simply cannot agree with conservatives on environmental and public lands topics. It really leaves me with no one to vote for. As the article said for many years it was a non partisan topic with strong approval on both sides of the political isle, but not anymore.

 

[Nick]

Get money out of politics and then you'd have someone to vote for. Because then they'd be working for you, not the corporations that want to squeeze every penny they can out of our public land. I truly believe that everyone should be demanding this, red, blue, green, whatever. Money is the problem. If politicians were really just representing their constituents, I think we'd all be a lot better off.

 

[Nurrgle]

The topic just drives me crazy. You would think that at this point, we would have figured something out that didn't destroy everything.

I mean, I can jump into a river in the dead of winter in my sleeping bag and probably sleep relatively warm but I have to use the same stuff to power my car we have been using for 100 years? wtf

 

[BJett]

"Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow." -- Gen. Dwight Eisenhower

Republicans were key in the evolution of the Conservation movement. Now you can't even say the word "evolution" or "conservation" without most Conservatives losing their minds. Money, power, greed, religion (some might say $ is their new religion)...yay. Today's visionary leaders don't have the almighty dollar to back them up, in turn they are silenced.

 

[Riggs]

I've just been rereading Desert Solitaire, been a long time since I did. This pretty much sums my thoughts on it:

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

Lot of issues are important, but when I vote, this one takes precedence over all for me. We've been going through this crap here with the Montana legislature this year too.

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
― Edward Abbey