Posted on 04/11/2018 12:25:39 PM PDT by Thistooshallpass9
This episode examines how a serious injury sustained by a factory worker in 1867 not only changed the course of that man's life, but also set in motion a chain of events that changed the course of American history —in a way that countless people for generations have benefited from. USA!
How about a precis for those of us unable to spend half an hour listening to a radio clip?
Let me guess: John Muir?
Aye, the same!
I second the motion.
Good grief. Just tell us what this is about. Most of us don’t have the time or the inclination to listen to this without even knowing what it’s about.
Yes certainly:
Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency began in 1901, and he read some of John Muir’s writings about America’s forests being rapidly depleted. Roosevelt was moved by Muir’s message so he wrote Muir a personal letter, asking him to take him through Yosemite: “I do not want anyone with me but you, and I want to drop politics absolutely for four days and just be out in the open with you,” TR wrote.
Muir was happy to oblige, and on May 15 1903 they began a 3-day camping trip in Yosemite. During campfire discussions, Muir had Roosevelt’s undivided attention. He emphasized the need for Yosemite wilderness and other wilderness areas to be set aside and persevered for the American public to enjoy.
Roosevelt was deeply stirred by Muir’s arguments, and a short time later, Roosevelt signed the Yosemtie Recession Bill which places all these lands under Federal protection.
A little later in his presidency, Roosevelt signed five more national parks into existence, and 150 national forests and 55 national bird sanctuaries. Altogether, Roosevelt set aside about 230 million acres of public land for all Americans (and foreign visitors).
Muir died in 1914. But his legacy lives on. Anyone who’s visited Yosemite, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon or the Grand Canyon has Muir to thank. He had a direct role in the establishment of all those.
And indirectly, because of his profound influence on Theodore Roosevelt, we can thank Muir for almost all of America’s millions of acres of national parks and forests and other protected lands.
You have to be right, I Googled the image and it did respond as “john muir.”
Tnks
OK ... so we can thank John Muir and the progressive Teddy Roosevelt for giving Bill Clinton the tools to lock up huge anthracite coal deposits in “protected lands” where they won’t compete with his Indonesian buddies’ mining interests ...
Yes, I reckon that’s about right. But after traveling through parts of China where industry is king and nature is viewed as an alien force to be conquered and exploited, I think some regulation and preservation is warranted. All things in moderation, you know?
Communists, whether in China or in these United States, know nothing of moderation. Their goal is absolute State control of EVERYTHING.
So should we pave over the Grand Canyon and turn it into an industrial park, or strip malls?
Should we lock up the largest anthracite coal deposit in North America, as a payoff to the president’s foreign cronies?
No we should not.
Trouble is, Government has displayed three serious problems.
1) Poor stewardship of lands it currently controls as parks and monuments.
2) Graft, abuse, and corruption in the acquisition of lands. The acquisition of lands to form the Smoky Mountain and Shenandoah National Parks amounted to ethnic cleansing and borderline theft. For example.
3) An ideological bias against people actually living in rural areas. "Agenda 21" has been much discussed on this forum.
Yes I agree with you about these deep rooted problems, and appreciate the balance you are helping bring me to on this issue.
More on the east side of the Mississippi less on the west.
“So should we pave over the Grand Canyon and turn it into an industrial park, or strip malls?”
I’m thinking a really big dam and we make it into a massive lake.
(-:
OK ... I wonder ... If you dammed the Colorado where it exits the Grand Canyon, how long would it take to fill up?
;’}
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