Our Diminishing Wild Places

From the time I was a young boy, I always felt at home exploring, canoeing, and hiking in the forests, mountains, and wilder places less traveled by other people throughout the Pacific Northwest.  There was always something about these untamed places that seemed to restore my sense of wonder and awe in the world.  There was always something about the sheer magnificence and unparalleled beauty of God’s creation that inevitably stirred my soul and indeed restored it. 

It is hard to imagine a more peaceful setting than the myriad times that I found myself lying back in my trail hammock at the edge of a verdant mountain meadow listening to the babbling of the nearby creek as the gentle wind made the tops of the tall pines sway and dance above me as I looked up at a trillion brilliant stars twinkling in the inky black blanket of the night sky.  I remember countless times watching the fire of brilliant reds, oranges, and pinks of the sunset as the sun slowly sank into the Pacific Ocean while I watched from the tree-lined Oregon coast as the powerful breakers continually crashed over the rocky crags below.  It makes one feel small in such lonely beautiful places, but intimately connected to God’s creation in the universe just the same.

As I grew, I joined the Boy Scouts and wandered even farther afield with them as we hiked nearly the entire Washington and Oregon sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, albeit not in one outing.  The memories of seeing the sun rise over Mt. Jefferson or the coming down off the trail to the little town of Stehekin on the northern tip of Lake Chelan as we passed a small orchard of apple trees nestled between the forest and the town where two black bear cubs were trying to get as many apples as they could reach are some of those most memorable moments that I still recall some four decades later.

In all of my adventures into the backwoods, mountains, and secluded river-ways, I was always struck by the friendliness of the few occasional travelers that we would happen to meet in those remote places.  They always seemed to share that same sense of reverence and belonging to the wild.  Because of this, we and all of our fellow outdoorsmen and women knew that it was incumbent upon us to care for these wild places.  We would always burn our trash in our campfire or carry out what could not be burned.  We were always very careful to leave no trace that we were ever there.  We certainly never were careless with our campfires.

Nowadays, as the coarseness and self-centeredness of our culture has only increased, I am seeing the signs of this being reflected in the neglect, abuse, and even desecration of our wild natural places, and it saddens and angers me greatly. 

Earlier this month I noted a story where a man named Ryan Anderson, with his wife and two children present, carved his and his wife’s initials into the beautiful sandstone Corona Arch near Moab, Utah.  He was caught though and consequently issued an apology as his business received the fallout from his thoughtless desecration of this magnificent arch.  What a poor example he set for his children in the stewardship of our natural treasures.

 I have seen other cases of vandalism and desecration too in recent years.  I saw idiots carve their initials and other such nonsense alongside the Native American petroglyphs that adorn the canyon walls throughout the stretch of Nine Mile Canyon in central Utah.  Many of these petroglyphs date back over a thousand years and now sit side by side with the handiwork of some contemporary of ours named “Kirk”.  Sadly, "Kirk" is only one of may such vandals that have desecrated these millenia old petroglyphs.

One of the incidents that truly upset me was when a group of Boy Scouts pulled up slabs of rock along a track way of 190 million year old dinosaur tracks in a Utah state park and threw them into the river below.  Three of the boys were charged with the crime in juvenile court for their short-sightedness.  This was especially egregious, as these boys should absolutely have been taught respect for their natural environment and known better, since they were scouts.

Sadly, this type of foolishness is not just limited to the inanimate objects of God’s creation, but also is sometimes seen in the treatment of wild animals by the ignorant, foolish, and selfish.  It has long been a problem in many of our national parks, particularly in Yellowstone and Glacier, where people feed the local bears.  This only causes the bears to associate people with food so instead of staying in the back country, the bears come into camps and populated areas of the parks looking for trash and unsecured backpacks or coolers for something to eat.  While the park service tries to capture these bears and return them to the back country, almost invariably they eventually return to the camps and in dangerous proximity to people.  Because of this, the rangers are sadly required to destroy these bears to protect stupid people.

I had the disturbing experience two years ago of seeing a black bear in Glacier National Park having to be shot by a ranger as it prowled through the parking lot near the Apgar visitor center along the southern shore of Lake McDonald.  According to the ranger, the bear was becoming aggressive towards people and had already been captured and relocated once before only to return to where people were, which the bear now associated with as a source of food.

Back in 2014, my wife and I while traveling through Yosemite National Park witnessed a very stupid young man in khaki slacks running up the hill with his girlfriend to get a better picture of a mother black bear and her two cubs.  We yelled for the idiot to get back down to his car as he approached within ten yards of the mama bear.  We immediately called the ranger and reported the jackwagon.  He was indignant at us and didn’t understand the danger he was putting himself and his girlfriend in with his foolish escapades to get a better picture for his Facebook page.  He is damned lucky that the bear did not turn on him and injure or kill him.  Of course, if the bear did defend a perceived threat to her cubs and attacked him, the bear would have had to been killed and thereby also jeopardizing the likelihood of her two cubs surviving.  All this for some arrogant and ignorant snot to get a “cool” picture.

The one that really amazes me though is the story from 2016 of some foreign tourists in Yellowstone that came across a baby buffalo and out of well-intentioned but foolish ignorance were worried about the calf being lost or cold.  They, therefore, decided to pick up the calf, load it into their SUV, and take it to the ranger station accordingly.  The rangers tried to reunite the calf with the herd, but to no avail and therefore had to destroy it.

As human populations grow and our towns and cities expand, we inevitably encroach even more into those few remaining wild places we have left.  We need to be aware that we are not the only inhabitants on this earth and govern ourselves accordingly.  God’s creation is meant for us to enjoy and to be great stewards thereof.  Instead in our selfish, foolish, and arrogant me-first culture, we are rapidly defacing, desecrating, and destroying some of our natural wonders and the wild creatures that live there.  This truly breaks my heart to see this, as my grandkids already will likely never see and experience some of the wild places I treasured as a boy and young man.

The great naturalist John Muir once wrote that “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”  Indeed he is absolutely right, and I wonder what humanity will do when we have destroyed the last of the wild places on our earth.

The Militant Left's Suppression of Our Free Speech Rights

A disturbing trend seems to be gaining momentum in America.  We are seeing fewer and fewer liberals engaging in our nation’s political discourse and a far greater number of militant leftists that are doing so.  Leftists, as was reiterated by a member of that group to me lately, are inherently anti-constitutionalists.  Therein lays the greatest difference between liberals and leftists.  Liberals still tend to be staunch supporters of the rule of just law and especially the laws enshrined in the constitution.  Leftists want to advance a progressive agenda and are less concerned with the trampling of a few laws or constitutional rights in doing so because to them the end justifies the means.  I would imagine my defining of these terms will further anger some folks, but words have meanings and I want to make sure that readers understand how I define these terms as used in my post so that there won’t be any confusion.

The latest expression of this leftism-run-amok is their penchant for wanting to dissuade, if not outright suppress, free speech.  We have seen this occur on college campuses, as the overwhelming majority of professors are leftists set on indoctrinating our bright but ignorant children.  We have seen this occur in the progressive ideology perpetrated in our left-leaning media.  We have seen this occur in the censoring of conservative content on Facebook and YouTube.  We have even seen attempts of shutting down debate in congress from leftists, particularly when it came time to discuss DACA.  Sadly, the problem is growing at a seemingly exponential rate.

Many of these leftists engage in what can aptly be characterized as “Stalinist” tactics as they seem to want nothing more than to issue a gag order on free speech.  This is particularly visible on most college campuses where “safe spaces” are established to provide leftist students a respite from the “racist, sexist, homophobic” conservatives.  These leftists talk about “white privilege” and “micro-aggressions” as a means to stifle debate and intimidate those whom disagree with their leftist agenda.  It is ironic in the extreme that for all of the left’s talk about inclusivity, they certainly don’t want diverse opinions to enter the public discussion.  Only leftist thought is celebrated and championed.  It is the only time where any form of homogeneity is required; homogeneity of thought.

Recently the “Student Power Network” at Penn State University has made demands to the university president that he denounce and defund right-wing “hate groups” that engage in anti-immigrant rhetoric.  Evidently anyone that speaks up for the rule of law in enforcing our borders is now a member of a “hate group” according to them.  Dissenting speech won’t be tolerated by most students there accordingly. 

There are many other numerous cases of conservative students having their first amendment free speech rights threatened on college campuses.  Last December a couple of young men wearing “make America great again” ball caps were accosted in a Fordham University coffee house that doubles as a “safe space” by a social justice warrior.  The young men were not even discussing politics but rather their preparations for finals when they were yelled at and asked to leave. “Get out! Five minutes,” the worker barked. “I’m protecting our customers … you are wearing hats that completely violate safe space policy. You have to go. ” She exploded when Michael Esposito, 19, asked her to explain. “Fascism, Nazis!” shouted the militant leftist. “You have three minutes.”  Evidently this is just one more example of leftists protecting their campus from any dissenting opinion.

This has long been the case too at many universities throughout the nation when conservative leaders are invited to speak on campus, especially at commencement ceremonies.  The Leftist students and faculty are not content to simply not attend the speech and ignore it if these so choose, but they must make sure nobody else can safely attend either.  This was ironically illustrated at Berkeley last year, the supposed birth place of campus free speech, when antifa thugs came out in force in violent response to conservative Milo Yiannopoulos coming to speak.  To these leftist thugs, merely taking issues with a progressive position is considered hate speech.

Sadly, this chilling effect on free speech is not simply limited to college campuses.  I have written this blog under a pseudonym and cancelled my Facebook account years ago when it became possible that I might be laid off and have to seek a new job.  This wasn’t because I supported the KKK or championed misogynistic views towards women.  It was simply because I am a pro-life, pro-traditional-marriage, constitutional conservative. It is because I espouse orthodox conservative views that many PC members of most large corporate human relations departments would nowadays possibly consider as “hate speech”, thereby making me an ineligible candidate for hiring despite my exemplary skills.

This has come to a head where YouTube and Facebook routinely censor conservative content while very seldom doing so for leftist content.  Indeed Senator Scott took issue recently when Facebook blocked two conservative ladies who go by the names of Diamond and Silk who are supporters of Donald Trump because they presented information that was “unsafe to the community.”  Senator Scott asked,

“What is it about two black women espousing their support of the president of the United States that makes them ‘unsafe’ for the community? They aren’t bullies. They aren’t violent. They aren’t inciting riots. I don’t always agree with their methodology or even some of their statements, but I don’t have to agree with them. That’s the beauty of the First Amendment, isn’t it?  Tell me, if they were two African-American liberals espousing their views about a liberal political figure, would they too be considered ‘unsafe’? I don’t think they would.”

It has gotten so scary that California lawmakers are now considering a bill over concerns over “fake news” that would tighten control over free speech on a whole host of online activities.  The fact that the government is looking to control what is “free speech” should frighten the hell out of all of us, even if this first step is only from the moon-bat state of California.

“Beating people up, organizing boycotts for perceived unforgivable offenses, or preventing speakers from being heard on a college campus, it’s all coming from the same place: a desperate desire to stop debate by branding your opponent unacceptable and driving him or her from the public square,” stated Laura Ingraham after having confronted gun-control activist David Hogg and thereby suffering a loss of a few cowardly advertisers due to Hogg requesting a boycott of her show. Ingraham continued, “Their objective is a total transformation of American society, not through rational discourse and open debate, but through personal demonization and silencing.”

Constitutionally-minded liberals and conservatives need to stand together in defending free speech in all places and in all guises.  The political pendulum can and will swing back to the other side, and we do not want either side circumventing or ignoring our first amendment rights for free speech.  Today, it is conservatives who are having their free speech shut down.  It could just as easily be liberals tomorrow.  We need to work together to ensure neither happens.

There is a reason our Founding Fathers specifically mentioned free speech in the very first amendment to the Bill of Rights.  It was to protect speech, especially political speech, that some might find uncomfortable, controversial, or even disgusting.  If all speech was agreeable and non-controversial, there would not ever be a need to protect it.  Now is the time for conservatives and liberals to work together to ensure this right is never subverted, for to allow it to become so would be the next major step in bringing down the liberties of our constitutional republic.

To Fully Realize Martin Luther King's Dream

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” 

~ Rev. Martin Luther King

As America sadly takes note of the 50^th anniversary of the death of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King at the hands of a vile assassin, I am reflecting on the events and the progresses we have made since the 1960’s and am contemplating if we have seen the fulfillment of Reverend King’s dream come to pass yet.  While the issues that our parents and grandparents had to contend with regarding race relations have improved dramatically, are we still so far away from seeing the fruition of that dream?

Indeed there are so many achievements that have occurred with race relations in America and wonderfully wild successes by people of color over the preceding fifty years.  From elected officials of color in state and local jurisdictions across the nation, to representation in the United States Congress and Senate, we have seen what was once thought of as not only unlikely, but unfathomable for black Americans.  Further, we have gone from having a segregated military to having Colin Powell serve as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and thus the highest ranking member of the uniformed military under President George H.W. Bush.  We have seen a continuation of representation on the Supreme Court of the United States from Thurgood Marshall’s day to the brilliant constitutional jurist of Clarence Thomas today.  In business and academics, there is not a field untouched by the contributions, innovations, or leadership by people of color.  Indeed, with the election of Barack Obama, even the presidency of the United States saw a man of color sitting in the oval office.

There have been truly remarkable and extraordinary advances in race relations and the continuing eradication of true racism and hatred over the preceding five decades since the good Reverend King’s untimely death, but sadly there is still plenty of work that must be done.  Even more sadly and even ironically, some of the biggest unintentional antagonists to racial parity sometimes come from folks that should be erstwhile allies of Dr. King and his dream.

It has long been my fervent wish, dating all the way back to my junior high school years when I first became politically aware, that we ALL could help the late Martin Luther King realize this dream for All Americans.  Sadly, after decades of incredible progress when it came to negating racism, fostering acceptance, and seeing each other as human beings first, we now as a nation seem to have slid backwards some in race relations once again.

And while there are some very small minority right wing groups that truly do hold vile and repugnant racist views of others simply based on the color of their skin pigmentation, they are typically easy to spot, disavow, and ignore for their evil and decidedly un-Christian attitudes towards their fellow human beings.  What is truly frustrating are the charges of racism by some folks simply because of political differences that have no bearing on race.  This is counter-productive towards eliminating real racism accordingly. While it is absolutely incumbent upon all good Americans of conscience to point out, fight against, and help to eradicate true racism when it raises its ugly head still today, I think that a vastly overwhelming majority of Americans do indeed enjoin the battle with each other in just this fight.

America has passed civil rights laws and largely wiped out the evil legacy of Jim Crow laws; however, the mere passing of laws will not change all attitudes, and sadly some people will cling to their hatreds and racism.  These people, thankfully, are small in number and even smaller in their influence. 

The compounding of this problem occurs though when misguided but perhaps well-meaning people see bigotry and point out racism where it does not exist.  Disagreeing with a person of color on any given issue does not immediately denote racism.  Wanting the lawful punishment of those that break the law, regardless of whether they are black or not, does not denote racism.  Wanting people hired for jobs or accepted into schools based on qualifications and merit instead of the color of skin pigmentation does not denote racism.  It does a huge disservice to discerning and eliminating true racism when we succumb to political correctness or political agendas by fabricating cases of racism where none exists.  Further, by doing so, we actually set our race relations back in time, as we seem to have done currently.  The breaking of a just law by any person, regardless of their color, is an indication of the content of their character, and I know by his own words, that Reverend King would agree in their just punishment accordingly.

On March 31^st of 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson told the nation that “There is a division in the American house.”  His statement of fact also was one of prophecy as less than a week later Dr. King was cut down by an assassin’s bullet.  Since that time, we have healed many of our nation’s wounds when it comes to race relations, whereby a majority of voting Americans saw fit to elect and then re-elect a black man to the presidency of the United States of America. 

King achieved greatness in the service of a great and noble cause—the cause of human liberty, helping to replace an unjust order with a new order of equal rights for all.  He didn’t want special rights for black Americans.  He simply wanted just enforcement of the constitution so that all Americans would have the same equal rights as promised in that inspired document. Dr. King was deeply grateful for America itself, for its original and enduring promise, and its intrinsic propensity for reform. He was grateful for “the best in the American dream”—for “those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Today, we can honor his memory and further seek equality and justice for all Americans not by “fundamentally transforming America” as our previous president stated, but rather by preserving and perfecting it.

Has Reverend King’s dream of judging not by the color of one’s skin but by the content of one’s character been fully realized yet today? 

No.

However, if we put aside our partisan politics and stand together in denouncing TRUE racism as brothers and sisters all created in the image of God, then perhaps one day soon we will be able to see that noble dream finally come to its full fruition.

Reverend King said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”.

He was right.