Good Stewards of the Earth

Townhall.com ^ | April 21, 2022 | Jackie Gingrich Cushman

[Kaslin]

The never-ending media outrage machine is undoubtedly focusing on the next soon-to-be crisis and amplifying anything that could possibly pit one of us against the other. Outrage drives ratings up, but it also drives people apart. I've been focusing instead on causes that bring people together. Since this Friday we celebrate the 52nd annual Earth Day, I want to focus on my love of nature.

For years, I thought my love of nature was due to the times I had spent as a grade school student outdoors with my family. When I was a child, my father (former House Speaker Newt Gingrich) was an environmental studies professor at West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia) in Carrollton, Georgia. When I was still in grade school, our family of four often tagged along on my father's college student field trips, during which we hiked, canoed and camped in the Okefenokee Swamp.

But recently, I came across photographs that lead me to believe my love of nature came even earlier. I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, where my father was a graduate student at Tulane University; the earliest photos of our family were taken at Audubon Park, which was within walking distance of our duplex apartment. The 350-acre park was originally a plantation and now houses a zoo, sports facilities and a variety of wildlife. It is a refuge from the surrounding urban jungle -- a place to walk, play or simply sit and be still while enjoying God's creation.

[equaviator]

I love a well-maintained golf course. Many are like gigantic botanical gardens where evidence of local wildlife can be found. So, what’s the problem?

[Louis Foxwell]

Love of nature includes caring for animals suffering under impossible pressure. Thousands of small creatures become extinct every year. A small group of devoted protectors are maintaining the remaining members of species that have become extinct or are severely threatened.
There is now legislation before the Congress that will shut down their efforts and end countless species from the earth. Government will be the cause of mass extinction by virtue of its misguided efforts to protect one region at the expense of all others.
Amendments to the Lacey Act, submitted by Senators Rubio and Schatz, will ban all living creatures from importation or trade with the exception of those few animals most heavily traded last year. Utterly insane and certainly will not protect nature.