Monday, April 7, 2008

Monday morning coming down

Ah, springtime, when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of mud...

Teton Wreck Progress Report - April 6

"Break the Momentum"
By Jim Drescher

"It's my land;
I can do whatever I want with it.
If I want to destroy the forest,
that's my business, not yours.
If I want to strip off the topsoil,
that's my business, not yours.
If I want to liquidate the homes of a thousand animals,
that's my business, not yours.
I own the land;
the law says I can do whatever I want with it."

Who owns a forest that took 10,000 years to develop?
Who owns the soil formed by that forest?
Who owns the plants and animals?
How can you own a tree that was already old in this place
when your grandfather was not yet born?
How can you own the topsoil which has accumulated naturally
for thousands of years from the bodies of untold trillions of beings.
How can you own the animals
each of whom has been your mother?
What kind of law says you can?
Whose law?
We need legal assistance in this dark age
if we are to avoid total destruction
in the name of the law,
the law that makes legal all manner
of arrogance, greed, and stupidity
if you "own the land."

Perhaps there is a higher law
based on gentleness, intelligence and fearlessness:
Gentleness to find one's natural place
in the community of all other beings;
intelligence to recognize that we can be sustained by nature
only if we minimize our impacts on it;
fearlessness to break the momentum
of anthropocentric law.
Is there the possibility of enlightened society?
Is it legal?

(May 30, 1994)

Our 17-acre Enchanted Forest is leafing out in the background.

Flowering dogwood on the eastern edge of the Old Forest.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Thanks for the photo update on the Grand Teton Wreck. A picture is worth a thousand words. I hope CPOP continues to post these visual updates regularly. I still find it unbelievable that the Memphis Zoo is responsible for the destruction of original forestland.

Anonymous said...

yes, thank you for the photo update. i too hope that you continue to post photos as it will be neat to see how the building of the new exhibit progresses. from the drawings you have posted, it looks like it is going to be an amazing exhibit.

Anonymous said...

Record this for posterity...Can you feel the love that we can agree on this one thing? I can. It's really awesome that Anonymous 2 has found this blog and will see regular updates--because one can count with absolute certainty that the Zoo will NOT be including any of these photos in their amazing exhibit.

Naomi Van Tol said...

The most interesting thing about that very attractive drawing in our sidebar is that the Memphis Zoo seems to have forgotten about it. Why isn't it included in the Teton Trek section of their website?