Wednesday, January 25, 2012

three minutes

yesterday, i listened to 14 people speak on behalf of 30 acres of wilderness in utah's wasatch backcountry. the man in charge -- a gray-haired city councilman -- had the ironic surname of "wilde". his stance on whether or not 30 acres of pristine mountain range should be sold to a canadian developer was unclear, but his disdain for the 100+ uninvited guests in his chambers was apparent. he huffed, he puffed, but he didn't blow the public commentary down.

the rally was rife with rag-a-muffins, ski bums on crutches, hippie chicks in knitted caps, reporters, bearded sages,
mt.dew-slurping punks, patagucci sporters, meteorologists, mothers and public utilities reps (namely, watershed officials). the auditorium was packed. one sign stood out among the others: "skilink is a snowjob" and "how many kickbacks does it take to build skilink?" featuring the iconic tootsie pop owl.

mr. wilde explained to the crowd that no decisions would be made that day, and advised us to return at a nondescript but "reasonably near future date". he noted, however begrudgingly, that if we insisted on speaking then our rights allowed us as much. no one budged.

the first speaker was a rep for 'save our canyons'. toward the end of his address to a half-moon panel of puffy-eyed politicians, his voice quivered. wilde cut him off -- "your three minutes are up". a voice from the plebes blurted "he can have mine".

laughter erupted, wilde denied the offer and called the rabble to order. group reps would be granted 5 minutes, individuals 3 minutes.

each speaker was required to state his or her name, address, and affiliation.

one speaker in a lime green jacket and brown trucker hat ran down to the podium. he stated his name, his address, and explained that he was speaking 'on behalf of the unborn'.

he recited a 1916 quote by theodore roosevelt from his iphone:

"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."


two reps from an affected private corporation also addressed the panel -- somewhere, the question of whether public and protected land should be sold in a back-door deal to a canadian developer became a question of whether or not existing resorts may continue to offer summer activities. the legislation changes required to allow further mountain development were cleverly translated into a legal definition crisis for "ski resort" and all that it entails. the two reps underscored the harmless -- even beneficial -- aspects of developing land they don't own, for private profit that will never trickle down to the people who live here. the word pillage came to mind.


the panel discussed the urgency of redefining the legislation (FCOZ) not in order to expedite development plans in public land, but to allow these existing resorts to maintain their summer activities. suddenly, oktoberfest in a parking lot became the central focus and concern of the panel and the highlighted topic of the resort reps who addressed them. nevermind the 30 acres of wilderness on the chopping block, or the threat to a critical watershed for over one million desert dwellers.

the word 'obfuscation' came to mind. the rhetorical red-herring nature of politics played out on a micro scale. nevermind clean water. nevermind the precedent of auctioning public land in private with broad terms permitting untold development. let's talk about humble ski resorts trying to carry on business as usual, provide utahns with jobs (described by one speaker as "slinging hash at snowbird"), and help the plebes out with transportation issues (to the tune of $96/ride that will flow directly to canada).

we don't need jobs. we need to wake up. we need water. we need natural havens. we need to protect what can never be regained once it is sold and scarred for profit.


one speaker noted: what "they" have is the advantage of gold, lawyers, paid advocates and special interests that trump the will of the people or the integrity of our watershed and the dwindling refuge of people-free wilderness. free access to pristine public land is the inextricable wealth of the masses. it made me think about the recession -- i thought, maybe this is mother nature's plan to protect herself. as the divide between haves and have-nots widens, the haves devise new ways to monetize nature, while the have-nots are increasingly recognizing wild earth as a refuge. it would seem that as team have-nots grows in number, mother nature's chances for survival would increase. but this cold war between greed and survival won't be lost because proponents for survival are outnumbered. it is a david and goliath show-down dominated by government's golden rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules. moreover, manipulation and obfuscation are formidable weapons that have been expertly forged by team goliath. but as soon as that paradigm is sufficiently deconstructed, i think team david will find its lucky stone.

i thought about these mountains, out there in the snow, carrying on, oblivious....how we could sit in a cramped auditorium and debate the future and integrity of such sinister beauty with which we share a sacred symbiosis. i thought about the absurd asymmetry of what was at stake compared to what we had to defend it: three minutes.

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