POLITICS AND NATURE

There are a lot of pundits and pollsters telling us all how to think, what to think, and who we are going to vote for. People are tiring of the Democratic primary, we are told. This is bad for the Democrats, good for John McCain, and, by inference, it is bad for democracy and the republic itself is in trouble.

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"Current environmental policies are based on antipathy for business, support for increasing government intervention and regulation, and a belief that the ecology and economy are conflicting systems." William C. Mitchell and Randy T. Simmons, Political Pursuit of Private Gain: Environmental Goods, In Debating the Earth: The Environmental Politics Reader, Edited by John S. Dryzek and David Schlosberg. 1998 Oxford Press.

This is an article about privatization. It's authors argue that privatization of all lands will benefit both the land and the people who reside upon it. They assert that all government is bad and inefficient and with private ownership, the land will be managed more cost effectively, and for the greater good, while generating profits and expanding private industry.

My question is, if this is true, what is the cost to the rest of society? The authors argue against taxes but for tax credits. One of the funny things that is missed at all times when this argument is made is that governing takes money. Credits are seen as a means to influence business but in a positive way while taxation is negative.

The problem I have is that government is not a business. The original intent of protecting our public lands is that they would be open to all people so that workers and productive citizens could rejuvenate their spirits out in the natural world...this would then make them more productive.

I wonder what our readers think about privatizing Yellowstone or Yosemite? It may seem like a mute argument but public lands are being sold off to private interests all over the country. To me, this seems short sighted and it appears to benefit private individuals accruing short term gain at the expense of the long term health of our overall society.

Please respond to this e-mail and let me know what you believe. I would love to post some privatization argumments as well as those in opposition to privatization. 

Thank You.

Hello to everyone still checking out the website. I have great news. My book is almost finished and has been accepted for publication by Booklocker (at booklocker.com). The release date should be on or about May 12. It could be a bit sooner or a bit later. Please, anyone interested in receiving a signed copy, let me know via my e-mail at jdbuthman@yahoo.com so I can make arrangements and figure out the best way to go about things.

Jim

Biill Buckley died recently and I wrote a message wishing him eternal Rest in Peace. He was great man and he fashioned an ideology which was solid and thoughtful. Whatever our disagreements, I respect the man and his convictions. He was a great American. The problem arises out of the reluctance or refusal of those grasping conservative ideology to respect others who stand on my side of the theoretical aisle. Buckley apparently held this respect from what I understand.

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Politics and Nature is an online journal working to get through the over-simplified and combative rhetoric and spin of our times. There has been a serious focus on the race for the White House and examinations of the role media has played in the process but our environmental politics is always near the forefront of my thinking relating to politics, nature, and society. I am currently finishing a book on the American political system and hope many of you will consider purchasing it once it gets through the entire publishing process. Look for it soon.

To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude

that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions,

and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations

and by the bitterness of their invectives.

Alexander Hamilton; Federalist #1

     Fiery Oratory. Antagonistic analogies. Unapologetic damnation. Sins of the past waging war on the hope of the future. Obama's preacher said some nasty things and the invective aimed at the hopeful Democratic front runner is loud and clear. He denounced the Reagan coalition, conservative pundits, and the original failures of the Revolution!

     He has been attacked by his opposition as pandering to appease the black community, denouncing his own grandmother, and elevating America's racial divide into the forefront of a presidential campaign. Unfortunately, he did not do any of this. He took on the issue confronting his campaign in what I found to be straight-forwardness and clarity.

The Anger

     The past has a great deal of bearing on our present and it will affect our choices in the future. The words of this minister have a place in the campaign, just like the words of Robertson, Falwell, et. al. who said the same things but justified their misplaced anger over 911 and Katrina on the backs of homosexuals and others of "liberal" ilk they claim are the cause of God's disgust with our nation. Obama's preacher blamed whitey and highlighted our ill-gotten gains and perverse reactions to foreign policy. All over the discussion over Obama, the spotlight is shown on the preacher's damnation of America. 

     Both sides are misguided. It is so very hard to disseminate the worth of this issue over the outrage. As one who has taken the other side's god-laden rhetoric to task for its judgment and confusion of God's will with their own, it would be disengenuous for me to ignore this blasphemous attack on our nation from this angry liberal preacher. It seems fair to me to say there is no wrath of God raging against our society. Our ills can be fixed. They are human caused and there is a great deal of anger on both sides. Let's discuss our differences more rationally.   

Remember, the book is due out soon and I hope to get some response as to who may purchase it. I am, after all, a capitalist.

Jim 

I have recently heard that the Exxon-Mobile folks have been saving the money they may lose in the lawsuit against them for the accident which occurred nearly twenty years ago. Does anyone know anything about this?

 The funny thing to me is if an environmental protection group litigates to save some trees, the fanatics are out to get them but Exxon's ability to litigate over twenty years and billions of dollars in damages seems ok. Hmmmm?!

There are a great number of obviously computer generated solicitations coming on this website. I don't know if it does any harm or if they just post their websites in the hopes of getting people to come. Does anyone know about how this works? I'm just trying to give my views.

It is difficult these days to figure out what is going on. And those of us who have already voted have cashed our chips in, waiting for the main bout to begin. And most of us have already put our money on the side of the ring we want to win so nothing will change this. Politics is often a game of percentages. 35-40% of the vote will go to pre-determined parties. Of this, I am guilty. It is highly unlikely I will vote for John McCain......although I have voted for him twice, I think, as my own Senator. I will vote for whoever is the Democratic nominee.

The problem I  have is the ongoing debate between Hillary and Barack is now being promoted as a destructive component of the Democratic Party. As if democracy is destructive. Open-ness and debate is the heart of democracy and this is how we do it here in America. For this I am very proud. This is a great republic and we have the power to influence society if we so choose. If debate and deliberation outside the pre-planned party lines is destructive, then I consider myself a destructive force. I like debate. I enjoy deliberation over the most important issues of the day.

I have not written so regularly of late and for this I apologize. I have been desperately trying to finish my book and get it out asap to whoever might be interested in what I hope is a readable and engaging saga of America, a defense of the system in all its glory....if you will.

The whole publishing process takes a while. The book itself is almost finished and then will be available in a couple months. Probably by June, I'm thinking. I hope it's available by June anyway.

I would appreciate any input from any of you reading this website to get an idea of how many people may be willing to purchase a book about:   where we are and where we may go in the future.

Please Please, Please........consider responding to this article in the comments section or sending me a quick note to jdbuthman@yahoo.com to let me know. I don't even need your names, just a quick, one time, yes I would be interested so I can have some idea of how many I will start with. I think it is worth it and I have taken a great deal of effort to make it worth your reading while.

Thanks, Jim

William F. Buckley passed away at his desk at 82 years old. He was a giant among men and his staunch advocacy of conservative beliefs goes way back before it was chic to be conservative. He taught Goldwater and Reagan. He was a revolutionary in his time and the National Review is a great magazine, despite my differences with it in ideology and belief. I didn't know some things about Buckley. He was a world class sailor and a musician who was apparently pretty good. He will be missed.

The Bald Eagle. Our symbol of courage and wisdom. Ben Franklin did not like the choice of the Bald Eagle as the national bird. He would have preferred the Turkey. Eagle's steal the prey from Ospreys and Ben believed it was a cowardly bird. The turkey was perhaps not the best but it was quite common and it was, in Ben's view, a courageous bird. The Bald Eagle is the only eagle unique to North America. They like to eat salmon and about 1/2 of the total number of them existing live in Alaska. The story of the Bald Eagle was quite nearly a tragic tale but its numbers have come back thanks to efforts aimed at protecting its habitat and reducing the effects of dangerous pesticides such as DDT.

This bird was sitting on a tall tree by our home. Jean arrived after work and got me to get the camera, jump in the truck with her and head back to see if he was still there. He was until I freaked him out and he took off. Every time I see wildlife, especially charismatic birds of prey like our national symbol, I realize how important nature has been in my own life and I ponder over the beauty of creation. In a word, it is very cool. So I decided I had spent enough time on pure politics for a time and should get back to the natural world. I looked up some information on the Bald Eagle to get a sense of how this bird received its special place in our national narrative.

On June 20, 1782, The Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States. It shows what we see in our symbols. If you look on the back of one of the old quarters, you will see the image of the bald eagle with wings spread showing it in all its magnificence. It is also shown on many other national emblems. On the back of the dollar is among the most famous of images. The picture shows the eagle again with his wings spread and in his right talon he grips an olive branch with thirteen leaves. In the other, he holds thirteen arrows. The eagle's head is turned in the direction of the olive branch. The symbolism seems clear, although I didn't find any actual explanation of it. We as a society choose the olive branch of peace but we do have the arrows available if necessary. According to one website, the Wisconsin regiment during the Civil War named "Old Abe" survived 42 battles "relatively unscathed" despite the desire of enemy riflemen to hit the bird www.classbrain.com/artfree/publish/printer_188.shtml.

The Bald Eagle came perilously close to leaving us with just a memory in the past. There are estimates that 300,000 to 500,000 bald eagles flew around in the 1700s. By the 1950s, there were 412 nesting pairs left in the lower 48 states.

These birds need open water with abundant food and old growth trees for nesting. They became endangered through the loss of habitat, shooting them, oil/lead/mercury polluting their food and water. One of the major dangers was DDT, hi-lighted by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962 and starting the modern environmental movement. DDT thins birds' egg shells reducing survival rates.

The U.S. government and Canada got together on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 which protects the Bald Eagle. Then, in 1940, the U.S. enacted the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. In 1967, there was a special act preceding the Endangered Species Act of 1973 which protected the Eagle. Until 1995, the Bald Eagle was "endangered" in 43 of the 48 lower states and it was "threatened" in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Washington and Oregon. In July 1995 the Fish and Wildlife Service lowered the status to "threatened" in all 48. It was taken off the list on June 28, 2007. So you see, federal action works. The Endangered Species Act works. Nature heals herself. People care. By the 1980s, the numbers of Bald Eagles had risen to an estimated 100,000.

I recall laying in a canoe in Florida about fifteen years ago when this giant bald eagle flew directly over my head. It was one of those gorgeous days, warm and calm on the water. It sticks in my memory because of the wonder of the bird. Somewhere, I read a group of Eagles flew over the head of the Revolutionaries during some battle or another and they believed they were spurring them on. I can dig that. The old faith in nature has dimmed over time because we rarely get out of the house nowadays, or the car, or the office, etcetera. You get the picture. When we are lucky enough to spend a time with one of nature's other wonders, we grow in our humanity. And as we watch our national bird fly away, we get a small glimpse into the wonder of it all.

Websites of the Bald Eagle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Eagle

http://www.eagles.org/moreabout.html

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Bald_Eagle.html

http://www.usflag.org/baldeagle.html

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3520id.html