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.
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.
Forget the MOVIE, I just love your beautiful deprogramming example!!!
In the movie, trees are painted on houses that are made out of ... what?? Compressed nothing?
Remember, we have to stop using natural resources because we’re running out AND we can’t keep using natural resources because that will cause climate change.
THEY got either way, don’t they? If we don’t run out of natural resources, we’ll ruin the planet. Not that we know how we’ll ruin the planet, just that it will be something bad.
And, let’s drive Chevy Volts because they run on electricity which makes them very fuel efficient because we all know electricity come our of the socket in walls made out of compressed nothing; and, like those walls, is also made out of nothing, only this is the magic, flowing kind of nothing that makes things go.
At the time the movie was set, real people desperately wanted to connect their towns to the railroad, as it allowed an explosion in living standards. Once you had access to a railroad, you were not trapped within 30 miles of the place you were born, like most people effectively were. You could import goods from around the country, and export them as well. Disney teaches that people wanted poverty not much improved from the middle ages.
The sequel will probably be about a small town that banned internet access and Wall Mart because they gave the town access to the world outside the town.
Anybody who thinks that the minds of young children are off limits to the meddling of the statists is delusional. A great example of this is found in Christopher Horner’s description of the global warming crowd in his excellent book “Red Hot Lies” where he discusses how they try as hard as they can to leverage children to their cause, the younger the better, without any consideration of the effect that this has on them.
It’s pretty disgusting, disturbing and scary.
Freepmail.
Rofl, I am on my 2nd teenager and there is NO ONE SO STUPID as the parent of a 15-year-old. Yes, the same parent who was the smartest person in the world, a wise trusted advisor, just three years ago, suddenly now knows absolutely nothing. Lol. This too shall pass. By 18 or 19, suddenly you’re not that dumb after all. Amazing how Gd takes your intelligence away for 5 or 6 years, then brings it back.
What I find amusing, is how many trees were destroyed over the years to print copies of "The Lorax" since it was first published? Probably many thousands.
I think it has to do with hormones...:)
Why don't you spend two days of your time -- say one day each on two consecutive weekends -- to do the following:
1) Pick up a copy of P.J. O'Rourke's All The Troubles in The World (it's cheap) and read it.
2) Try Googling and reading about the multitude of environmental atrocities which are commonplace in China.
Little things like a BILLION-gallon benzene spill into a river in Harbin.
Cheers!
At first I was jealous because if I take mine to that show, we won’t be driving through gorgeous forests on the way home to make that point. But here in the big city there are a lot of trees and almost all were brought in! Maybe not by lumber co’s but it still shows that humans are good stewards of the earth. In SoCal, all the famous palms, eucalyptus, etc, were all brought in. The only natural trees are the scrub oaks and very few others. An arid desert was made fruitful, literally, by us planting. (we won’t get into the water issues this lesson, lol)
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