Edward Abbey – A Voice in the Wilderness
http://youtube.com/v/_LvfSoDdWLc
Well, since I’m on the YouTube train tonight, might as well post another one.
This short clip shows Ed at his former station in Arches, a place I visited in September ’06.
I was shocked at the numbers of people, but shouldn’t have been. Ed warned us the man swarm cometh.
Got a brand spankin’ new visitor center packed full of shit you can buy and help keep the NPS in business.
Hotels in Moab are packed and The Chamber of Horrors folks are happy. Industrial tourism full bore ahead.
I see you got ahold of the old youtube video. It’s amazing the way things grow. Even Wilmington, you think it’s done growing and then they build condos on top of condos. I had another meeting about an environmental film/media fest I’m going have through the school this next spring. Went well, I think there’s a lot of support for that kind of thing in this community, but people just don’t have an outlet for it. About time we give them one. All I know of Moab is what I read about in Outside magazine. I know if a magazine like that says it’s a great place to live, I’d better steer clear of it. Reminds me of how Cowboys and Indians magazine will post a shit-ton of real estate and land parcels in the back of their magazine. Ironic, and yet still somewhat unsurprising.
You’d think that water would keep things at bay in the west, but that’s obviously not the case. People just dam the rivers and destroy more habitat.
That abomination over in Nevada is probably the worst example. Proud I’ve never been there.
Moab used to be a much smaller place, but it’s now a tourist trap. The main street is jammed with cars, retailers selling worthless crap and restaurants selling awful food. Add some weird liquor laws and the Mormons and all of the sudden Moab looks like an ugly melanoma.
Apologies to my friends that live there. I know there’s much to be proud of, but it’s all outside the city limits.
You should visit it, however, Sean. I think it’s worthy of trip, particularly Canyonlands and Mesa Verde, just across the border in Colorado. The Four Corners is, as Abbey often said, one of the most spectacular places on earth. A beautiful cathedral bracing itself against the onslaught of our greed and hubris.
Sometime in this next year I want to do a month long road trip full of hiking excursions. There’s a bunch of the country I haven’t seen yet, and plan to. I’m sure I’ll get out there, I want to, but as of now I’m in no position. In other ugly news, Wilmington’s mayoral race is heating up. The current mayor is going for re-election. They released his campaign finance report today and surprise surprise he’s got a TON of money from real estate and developers/lawyers. He himself is an owner of a real estate business. “Economic progress” is top on his list of things for the future. Not that it is of any real interest to you, but my buddy wrote about it. You can read his post here if you’d like http://apachepilgrims.blogspot.com/2007/09/satisfying-saffo.html
Money talks in this country.
I think it’s impossible to remove economic interests from government, since that’s one of the main reasons governments exist. To protect economic interests.
The interdigitation of business and government is completely unretractable on a large scale. There exists some hope in pockets, perhaps in small communities. Forget it in Washington. At least during our lifetimes.
I know, it just seems like enough is enough already. You’ve raped, pillaged and extracted almost all the land and money from this place, what more could you want? Answer: more money and power. It’s funny to think in 50 years it won’t be the condos appreciation value were worried about, it’ll be where do we get our fresh water. Mother nature wins again in the end.