Nearly 250 years after our great nation’s conception, the political landscape continues to plunge into seemingly irreconcilable division. The media fixates on extreme, polarizing ideologies. News outlets thrust our differences into the foreground while allowing our similarities and shared viewpoints to blur into the background. Ballots are cast in support of the better of two evils with the goal of preventing change rather than facilitating growth. Greed and lust fuel a political machine once driven by morals and character. The democratic and republican parties alike fail to hold politicians accountable. And this country sinks further into the mire that is the two-party system with all it’s citizens in tow.
All the while, we, the people, continue to constitute the majority and tether this nation to sanity and some semblance of normalcy. This majority is America: where the only political allegiance held is to this country and its people, where common sense, compassion, and caring remain core to our being, and where difference does not equate to opposition. America is a land in which value is not and has never been purely monetary but can be found in knowledge, relationships, experiences, people, and places. This reverence for non-pecuniary commodities is captured flawlessly by the collective 640 million federally owned acres of which we, the people, may claim ownership. This nation’s public land systems are at their core American.
Every year, tens of millions visit and glean joy from these public lands. Those that do emphatically proclaim the beauty, the refuge, the peace, and the wholeness that nature brings. However, our national lands’ contribution is not solely idealogical. More popular destinations such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Arches often produce annual revenues that far exceed their annual budget. True wilderness remains only within these places, and as history has taught, man’s touch does nothing but mar the natural wonders of this world.
Time and time again, however, these public lands are threatened by the turning cogs in our nation’s capital: politicians, compelled by their insatiable greed. These individuals and groups have pursued the sale, privatization, and exploitation of lands on which many of them have never set foot. The most recent encroachment on our public lands was the firing of thousands of employees within the United States Forest Service and National Park Service. Public lands and the agencies that manage them are severely understaffed and underfunded. A quick survey of our public lands, including your local national forest or the charismatic Yellowstone, will provide evidence of this. Disrepair across national parks, forests, and grasslands alike was evident prior to mass firings. Any and all, who serve a role in the maintenance, management, or protection of this nation’s holy places, are essential.
“Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American, if he can travel at all, should see. We have gotten past the stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as something to be skinned for two or three years for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children’s children will get the benefit of it.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
I am hopeful that these actions are an innocent, misinformed attempt at reducing governmental inefficiencies that result in the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars. Regardless, I have been taught, as many have, to assume the worst and hope for the best. So I ask, simply, that you, as a part of the majority: a part of America – continue to anchor this country’s sanity and values. If you’re able, volunteer or donate. Whether comfortable or not, voice your concerns, your disapproval.
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