Wilderness has been much on my mind of late; more specifically, the relationship between wilderness, other protected lands, and social/political health. Anthropologists argue America was discovered thousands of years ago when people crossed the Bering Straight ice bridge and perhaps, floated across the Pacific Ocean from island to island until finally reaching the land mass of what we now know as the Americas. I’ve had friends who dismiss such foolish talk because, after all, those who were here prior to the Europeans sprouted out of the ground, or emerged from a different universe from a ladder; no less logical or unreal than Adam and Eve’s garden. One thing is certain, wilderness is always the place where people have gone to get right with God, the Creator, or what you will. Atheists and agnostics also find solace in the wilderness. In other words, it is imprinted upon our spirits and health and well being depend upon it.

The reason wilderness made such an impression on me is I’ve been considering writing my dissertation on the relationship between politics and wilderness. Additionally, my trip to the desert in March of this year was made in a trailer to an area filled with people. The OHV area I wrote of in my last article was packed with people in expensive RVs with all the necessities for towing their 4 wheelers and setting up home in the desert a stone’s throw from the city. Noise and dust hovered incessantly, especially on the weekend. Yet, I was able to hike ten minutes into the desert without hearing nary a sound. Hell’s Gate Wilderness lay near the area so I started pondering: what is the relationship between what many would call a sacrifice zone for OHVs and the broader protection of nature?

Surely the existence of the OHV area which allows people to get out into nature (albeit with all the comforts of home in a 100K RV equipped w/TV, bathroom, and storage for toys) plays a tremendous role in building support for the greater purpose of preserving wilderness from the expanding reach of industry and technology.

Now, I am not a fan of 4 wheelers or dirt bikes or the other motorized forms of entertainment which so many of my fellow citizens can not seem to do without. Still, I am a child of the late twentieth century and a man of the twenty first century. I do not live in the wilderness, nor do I want to. And, unlike advocates of a utopian ideology promoting a return to agrarian lifestyles, like Wendell Berry and so many others, I do not want to farm. Capitalism and the division of labor allow us each to pursue our interests while seeking profit from those interests.

What I wonder throughout all of this is: whether having zones where people can go and experience at least a modicum of nature, while enjoying their toys, can be used to develop a greater appreciation for the earth thus enhancing our abilities to continue expanding wilderness protection and building up our national system of protected lands.

The evidence I witnessed outside of Phoenix leaves me thinking this is a pipe dream. In the end, we will use every resource available to us with abandon until we are left like a spoiled and unappreciative child who dropped his ice cream in the sand. Generations will wail and gnash their teeth until we figure out what people like Berry have been trying to tell us all along, we don’t have to continue living the way we do.

The depressing portions of this journey were not related solely to the noise or the absolute consumptive abandon in the desert (although these have given me pause many times since). Trash was the culprit causing my greatest despair. Inevitably, whenever you travel into the woods or other natural areas, man leaves his trace. Now, in wilderness thinking, this is anathema to our ability to truly appreciate nature.

Bill McKibben wrote, way back in 1989, that nature no longer exists due to human infection. I agree with McKibben’s prescription for dealing with our problems with nature, a greater respect for nature’s reason d’etre beyond human wants/desires/needs, but I don’t fully agree with his analysis of the situation we face. Human traces existed in 1492 all over the lands we now call the Americas. Every white explorer who claimed to be “the first” to “discover” this or that was both arrogant and ignorant and we still coddle their departed egos today.

But when we continue to illustrate contempt for nature’s needs and trash the planet with such reckless abandon, I feel a sad slipping away of my natural optimism and my outlook turns towards the bleak and hopeless abandonment so often expressed in nature writing and ridiculed by those who sponsor “progress”: the ripping out of every tree and the endless dumping of toxins in areas where children will some day play.

It is always easy to blame the big evil corporate overseers for the pollution, selfishness, greed, and environmental abuse. What does it mean, though, when all of the regular folks out enjoying the weekend with the whole family (there were small RV/OHV villages out there) discard the amounts of garbage I saw? It means we really, as a society, do not give a darn about our world or what we will bequeath to tomorrow’s generations.

We have been working on a tremendously mistaken concept of what the good life is and how to live it. I am not saying everyone needs to be a monk and live off their own little potato garden like Thoreau or climb mountains with only bread and tea like Muir. I do not do these things.

I do have to wonder, however, if we will ever learn from our past mistakes or continue to use and discard in an endless cycle. What does it say of our culture that we are so wasteful? What does it say of our country that we care not for the rights of anything or anyone but ourselves? It is very sad sometimes.

The desert in the springtime is a truly awesome and inspiring sight to behold. The land can be green and brilliant wildflowers dot the landscape. These photos were taken on a trip outside of Phoenix at Lake Pleasant, an area filled with boaters and recreationists, while we camped in an area designated for Off Highway Vehicle use.

At night, the lights of Phoenix can be seen brightening the sky and yet there are areas here that are relatively wild. There is another story regarding the tremendous number of OHVs in the area where we were camped but that is for another time. For now, I simply would like to relate the magical nature of the land around the lake. Most of the photos in this post were taken after about an hour’s hike from where we were camped.

As soon as we were close enough to the water, Marley sniffed it out. The wonder a big lake (or any water for that matter) causes in the mind a black dog in the desert can only be marveled at. He was in dog heaven. I must admit, despite being from the area of Lake Michigan and having swam in some of the coldest waters I’ve ever touched (whether in Michigan or one of quite a few mountain streams) I was wary of jumping in. It was actually quite chilly in Pleasant in March. I did eventually jump in and it felt great.

It is really a wonderland in the midst of some of the driest and hottest country around. It is no wonder there are so many people who came near. I was amazed, however, at how easy it was to get away from people less than ½ hour from Phoenix. All it takes is a bit of determination and some wandering afoot to arrive at solitary places.

Granted, boats filled with folks were jetting across the lake and there was even people camped just across the first cove we discovered. There was even one individual who had hiked in to where we came to water first. Whoever this person was, they were not around but it may be assumed he/she would have been surprised to see Marley and I as I was to see the tent set up. This is the difficulty with public lands, how to manage them properly for both nature and people.

Nature is self willed and has a right to exist within its own right. This appears to me to be an intuitive truth but it has been making the circles for quite some time in the literature relating to wilderness protection (another future article). Many of us apparently feel nature is simply something to be used until it is no longer of a benefit to humans. Americans need to learn a great deal from our Native American brothers and sisters in this arena.

The cactus, for one, is mighty and mysterious. It holds a power which we fail to recognize at our own spiritual, emotional, and material peril. I can’t quite explain it like I wish I could. Reading John Muir recently has shown me how important it is to relate the feelings and emotions generated through the wild in order to expand our dialogue over protected areas. Standing alone in the midst of the desert the cacti come alive. It is like standing among old growth trees. There is nothing man made with the ability to inspire those feelings about life and God and all of the greatest motivations guiding humankind.

I plan, however, to keep this updated with quite a bit more regularity than I have prior to my finals this semester. I am working on figuring out dissertation ideas and visiting protected areas and studying for comprehensive exams so this is going to work into all of that.

I plan to be gone for a week or two at a time over the near future so will write while I'm gone and post what I have written sporadically but with more content. I have enjoyed keeping the website up so we'll see how I keep to my intended plans.

Now, I don’t normally go for the sexy, engaging, and bawdy new stories and subsequent commentary which may actually make my website more successful. C’est La Vie. Or as Hunter would put it....Sela. I’m sure O’Reilly and Rush have plenty to say on such matters. It’s the fault of the liberals, the godless, the irresponsible hippies...all the same garbage.

What got me thinking though relates to much of my other work . . .. the relationship between the state and society, the responsible use of public finances, personal responsibility, and the role of each individual in pursuing the greater public good.

There appears to have been many poor choices in this situation. Why someone who is single with no job would actively pursue doubling her number of children (which were already hard to handle I would guess) is beyond my faculties. Why a California in vetro clinic would assist boggles my mind even further.

The only thing which could surpass the ignorance, foolishness, and carelessness of this woman and those doctors would be a society which allowed those extra eight little human beings to grow up in despairing poverty and hopelessness.

This is not to suggest any answers to this one specific instance of shamelessness and complete lack of common sense. Who knows, she may get a movie deal and soon have maids to care for them all. Joe the Plummer got a job and I still can’t figure that one out . . .but good for him.

What is the public good?

There are those who would say it is to keep the economic engines driving. Separating the wheat from the chaff by limiting taxes, raising salaries beyond what any human could possibly require, and reducing the role of the government in our individual lives.

This does not work.

There will always be financial gurus who will make more money than good sense dictates. I do not believe simply being wealthy makes someone a poor character. In fact, many rich people are great and do fantastic things and they do drive the economy. And, they should keep their money. But they should be providing leadership. Not only in these bad times but in worse times as well.

The public good rests upon security in knowing your children will be ok. It thrives on hope in this, or any age. This class division bullshit has gone too far. I don’t feel bad for the wealthy. Yes, many of them work hard but many of them, from Halliburton to KBR to Blackwater Security to Exxon Mobile to Shell to Grumman to Boeing to Monsanto and on and on and on all receive tremendous tax benefits when the government is not purchasing their goods.

This corporate welfare garbage did not start in the last six months. It was going on back when Jefferson financed the Lewis and Clark expedition to see what was out there which we could plunder and pillage for the good of the nation at the expense of people who should have been our dearest friends.

We have to talk about the public good. It is not in the interest of anyone to let children be malnourished, in California or in Zimbabwe. It is not in anyone’s interest to turn a blind eye to drugged out child soldiers forced to murder in what seems like a world away. It is not in anyone’s interests to allow our e-waste to fill African lands where children wallow through mounds of our trash to retrieve the miniscule amount of copper or whatever it is after being exposed to the horrendous chemicals spewing out after they break it.

There are those who will say . . . but this is life and it gives them money . . . what else would they do. This is a foolish and ignorant sentiment. Just as ignorant as those who say they have no connection to the starving children in our own nation or that wilderness does not matter.

We are better than this.

The gross manipulation of facts which somehow work to justify and sanitize poverty and pollution and war in the name of so-called realism must be cast away. The world is what we have made of it.

Perhaps if we had thought more about the true relationship between business and the public good, that woman would be married, have a job (or not), and her kids would not become a burden on society. Who knows.

All I know is that when we consider it a burden to pay someone $12,000 per year to support a family (or $20,000) but we think it is fine to tear down our mountains and watch as our fellow citizens live in poverty and we spend billions of dollars making incompetent people wealthy beyond most normal people’s wildest dreams......we have made, and continue to make some serious errors in judgment and I believe these stem from fundamental philosophies. Maybe I should have called the book Re-think America.