IDAHO'S MAGRUDER CORRIDER TRAIL AND PLENTIFUL IDAHO FORESTS
Posted on 03/11/2012 7:40:44 AM PDT by Jeff Head
I saw Lorax yesterday with five of my grankids, ages 10 down to 5.
It was a fun kids movie, but clearly slanted towards environmentalism and particularly with an anti-business and anti-lumber company...really, and anti-capitalism bias.
On the way home it provided teaching moments. I asked the kids how many of them did not like lumber companies that cut down and harvest trees and why. All of them said they did not like them because they are "stealing our air," hurting animals, and destroying their places to live.
I pointed to the Boise Mountains which we could see from the windows of my Pickup Truck, which they love to drive in...crew cab, 4x4 with a big V-8, and said,
"You see all that dark green on the mountains as far as you can see...that's forests. Almost all lumber companies do not cut down "all" the forests. In fact, they plant more than they cut. We have more forests in the US now than they did 300 years ago in Colonial America."
I then asked..."Who likes wooden playground swings, see saws, etc., pencils, your furniture, your houses?" They all said they did. I asked them to start looking for things made of wood as we drove...they saw fences, signs, roofs, paper, carts, trailers, etc., etc. I told them that all of that was made from wood by companies who, yes make a profit because those people have jobs...but who also try and make the forests better, and bigger in the process.
After a good ten minutes of them pointing out all of these thigns, I then asked, "Who likes lumber companies now, and why?"
At that point they all said they did because they are really making more forest which makes more air, and trying to protect the forests even if they do cut down some of the trees and all of the neat things we have in society because those companies are working in the forests.
This is a long explanation...but it was a good teaching moment for grandpa and I thought I should share.
AMEIRCA AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY.
SKIP THIS ONE FOLKS
SKIP THIS ONE FOLKS
Good job.
Anyhiow, clearly a left wing propoganda piece...but one that is easy to refute by having kids just look around and think of things they really already know...and helping them now be caught up in the emotion.
You may have mentioned it, but be sure to tell the kids trees live on Carbon Dioxide. Without CO2 the trees and plants die. Without trees and plants making oxygen, we all die.
Beautifully done, Jeff. Teachable moments as only a (favorite) granddad can do.
What a view!!!!! Never been to Idaho..yet...but it’s on my list.
You did an excellent job with the “Teaching Moment”!
And how to effectively deal with it.
“The forests must be, and will be, not only preserved but used, and the experience of all civilized countries that have faced and solved the question show that the forests, like perennial fountains, may be made to yield a sure harvest of timber while at the same time all their far-reaching beneficent uses may be maintained unimpaired.”
John Muir, 1895
Sounds like it was just like the way the book written.
Driving through Idaho in Grandpa’s V8. Man, those are some lucky grand-kids.
I remember the original Lorax on TV, which played at the very start of the enviro movement’s takeover of our economy. Yeah, left-wing drivel. And as a kid, I ate it up (sigh!).
Anyhow, we had a good talk about all of this and they came away from it understanding that there are people with causes who will slant the trth in order to influence them and that they should be critical thinkers and look around them to see the trugh of these things...and then talk to epople who are involved and people they trust.
Good for you, Grandpa.
For any readers who have a few minutes to kill, do a search on how and why the Magruder Corridor got its name.
Yeah. I only get to drive mine around Idaho in a V6.
And with me being a carpenter/cabinetmaker, The Lorax doesn't stand a chance.
Ya gotta get em when they are young.
Whether it’s Radical enviromentalism (quasi-science and anti-human pro-nutbarism) I would say its anti-God in my not so humble opinion,too.
Or, anti-capitalism is delusional and historically ignorant. Compare capitalism to any other system.
But lets all listen, and follow, a bunch of dingwads who would have us return to the pre-industrial era.
No wiat, correction: they want everyone else to return to the pre-industrial era.
They want to fly around in jets and spend other people’s money on lavish galas and so forth while they spread the word.
Thanks for letting me ramble..:)
I loved The Lorax. It was well made.
I disagree with many who have already posted. People need to take care of the environment and not abuse it. Some on the left and right go to both extremes of the spectrum. Thanks to many environmental policies I can visit nature not too far from my house in the city.
I think many here read too much into things and forget to have a good time and enjoy life. They do not think critically.
“Driving through Idaho in Grandpa’s V8”
And I hope grandpa educated the kidlets about how much more expensive it is to run his V8, thanks to the very same environmental whackos. We all like clean air and water; then there are those who just don’t like business and/or capitalism.
Thumbs up then?
What do you say when one of the kids asks about clear cutting tropical forests that are not being replanted?
Great way to handle the greenie propanda - Thanks for the post!!
I told my 14 year old daughter when the subject came up - trees are renewable and can be replanted. She has zero interest in seeing the movie, (thankfully) and also immediately recognized the logic in the trees are renewable position.
The job killing greenies are out of control! I care deeply about the environment by the way - I refused to use disposable diapers for 4 babies, for example, but with proper ingenuity jobs and industry can be managed and the environment can be sustained at the same time.
Crude oil is a completely natural substance - let’s use our God given intelligence to figure out how to use it cleanly!! (That’s another topic, though)
Thanks again for the great post.
It's Obama that wants to kill algae to make gas.
Simple truth: Some organisms must die so that I may live.
ping
A great thing you did, Jeff. As you said, you took what the kids already knew and used that to point out the contradictions inherent in the propaganda they experienced in that movie. Illustrates the extent of the corruption of our schools and our culture.
"Everything that's made of wood (was once a tree)"
Thanks for the ping!
We're not quite to the grandkid stage yet, but have done this sort of "teachable moment" talk with our kids on every subject imaginable -our youngest two just turned 18 and we are still having these talks. Just the other day we discussed Rush and the "slut" ordeal (hope you will get a bye on that one for a while, Jeff!)
Teachable moments are out there just waiting for parents and grandparents to reinforce commonsense ideas and to refute the phony illogical liberal "truths" they are exposed to on a daily basis. The key is, like Jeff, to ask questions, and to gently guide them to the discovery of a right and proper response.
The really cool thing is it has legs - because you chose to teach and not preach, I guarantee that your precious grandkids will patiently explain to their friends the very concept you taught. I've seen it in action, and it's the best feeling in the world!
Well that’s just Crazy talk from grampa ! < /sarcasm> .....:o)
Stay safe buddy....!
"Idaho."
Thanks for reading. We now return you to your marginally more series thread.
I doubt that too many people who truly understand what the EPA and the movement is all about can truly be happy and enjoy life as they whistle past the graveyard of history. Of course, we want to care for our environment but we want it done through truth and not lies, through freedom and not slavery, through wisdom and not insanity. Unfortunately, the critical thinkers are to be found on the other side of this issue..Also, it is doubly true that in times like these, the “wise man or woman is seldom glad.” Too many of the environmentalist wackos do not have children..Therefore they do not need to think about the next generation. Americans need to fall at the feet of
Lord Monckton and his voice of reason for which we starve. The pollution which is killing us is made up of the false propaganda our minds are fed each and every day from the government run journalists. I once read that it takes around eight years for ideas to permeate society. That is nearly a generation..The West does not have that kind of time to turn this around.
My late father-in-law hated Dr. Suess. He said he was a communist. I guess he was right.
Thanks Jeff! I am going to see it in an hour with my ten year old granddaughter, who is going green lately..
Of course, with me as her grandmother, she won’t ever become a Lefty ;-)
But I’ve been dreading seeing the movie(except for the fun of being with her)..and now I feel more armed and ready for battle.
View Lord Monckton’s debate with student environmentalists and their professors.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/10/moncktons-schenectady-showdown/
The Lorax had an environmentalist bent to begin with but not in any radical sense.
Well done!
God bless you. Your grandkids are fortunate indeed to have an influence like you in their lives.
The environazis must go to some special facility where their capacity for critical thinking is destroyed.
There was a commercial, about 10 years ago, with some actress who claimed that "...if we use up all the water, there won't be any more..."
The commercial wasn't on for very long.
I think you are confused, and may have thought you were posting on your usual haunt, DailyKos. Please save your stupid liberal blather for your friends over there. This is a conservative site which treasures the free market, and does not welcome progressive propaganda about "the environment".
THIS type of teaching is what SHOULD going on in our schools.
I live in Massachusetts, and my wife and I were given a year-long membership to a very liberal somewhat avant-garde art museum by my sister-in-law. I guess as long as it's not my money going to it, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. For those of you who are interested, it is the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts .
It is almost the kind of place where you expect to see extreme moonbat liberal antiwar and anti-military “art”, but not quite. I have to admit, I was surprised as we drove up to see that active military personnel were admitted free of charge with their families. So I'll give them credit for that.
When we drove up, this is the sign that was in front of the museum, a kind of performance art thing where you could go up and push a button to vote.
The nature of the sign is self-evident (at least it was to me) and what I found disturbing about it was the tally of the votes. You are asked to vote yes or no whether capitalism was working for you, or not. Lincoln, Massachusetts is one of the wealthiest towns in the state. I know that most of the people who go to the museum don't live in that town, but I do know that most of the people who can pay $14 per person to go to the museum aren't going to be classified as poor.
It boggled my mind to think that these people who drove here in expensive luxury cars powered by extremely expensive gasoline, living in nice houses, wearing nice clothes and are able to have leisure time to be able to go to someplace like this, and have the absolute gall to say that “capitalism doesn't work for them”.
Jeff, I think you would be able to school these people pretty effectively!
I do suspect however, that you would have to talk to them at the same level you spoke to your grandchildren! Again, great job with your grandchildren. That was just great to hear!
You mean critical thinking, like the Frankfurt School and Herbert Marcuse.
Thanks to many environmental policies, we get to enjoy a lot more wild fires.
Your enviro-nazi friends push laws that block the clearing of old growth and brush.
The Lord calls us to be stewarts of nature. Instead, you idiots worship nature.
People who “think critically” do not have the luxury of not multitasking. Many people that I know who “think critically” are able to go out, enjoy themselves, and have a good time, but also keep an eye on the bottom line. We do this in the same way that someone is able to scuba dive in tropical waters that may be infested with dangerous creatures, keeping one part of their mind on the beauty around them, while the other part of their mind keeps an eye on their surroundings for the sake of their survival. Because we do this, it doesn't mean we cannot fully appreciate the beauty.
I say that they don't have the luxury, because they have to pull the weight for the vast majority of people who do not think critically, and consume not only the overt message of something like “The Lorax”, but also examine the underlying issues and message.
If you think that the script for “The Lorax” was written without any intention to “educate” younger viewers, you're not only missing the point, you are certainly not “thinking critically”.
I ask you this honestly: do you believe that the men and women who were involved in the scripting of this movie did not intend to impart a specific message to younger viewers?
I do agree with you 100%. In addition, I think that this is a more concentrated environment, because most of the people who would go to this type of place are predisposed to not “think critically” as another poster on this thread put it.
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