August 1999: Giving a Damn...
by Jim Stiles
One time, several years ago, Ken Sleight saddled up his horse and attacked a D-9 bulldozer that was tearing up pinion/juniper woodlands on the mesa above his ranch. It was something of a mismatch--I have no idea how many horsepower a D-9 bulldozer has, but it's definitely more than Ken's horse, Knothead. And perhaps Sleight's Charge was nothing but a symbol of his frustration, but I'd swear that in that critical moment when Sleight and steed faced off with fifty tons of steel, Ken thought he just might win.
To me, that's what "giving a damn" is all about--putting conscience and honor before complacency or the conventional, prevailing wisdom of the time. Most moral battles are waged, at least in the beginning, against overwhelming odds. Often, the cause worth fighting for is not even that well-defined in the minds of most people. It can seem absurd to many---a folly to most.
Consider the most recent "Lost Cause" of some citizens, who want to drain Lake Powell on the Colorado River and restore the once magnificent Glen Canyon.
The idea has been ridiculed and mocked by a variety of special interest groups. Of course, all the houseboat/jet ski recreationists are stunned and dismayed by such a notion, but even longtime river runners, especially Grand Canyon river runners oppose the plan. They claim that draining the reservoir will de-regulate the flow of the river and put their own jobs in jeopardy. Even many environmentalists scoff at such "radical" notions---they don't like the dam, they say, but it's there and there is nothing we can do about it. They think restoring Glen Canyon is such a fantastic notion that to embrace it would damage their own credibility on other issues.
But isn't that the way it has always been? Every time our civilization has bumped forward a bit, it has occurred, at least in the beginning, over the objections of the vast majority. Look at the institution of slavery. Although its moral value was severely questioned, slavery was believed to be an economic necessity even to such visionaries as Thomas Jefferson.
It is wrong, but it is there---we'll have to live with it.
Consider other hopeless causes: Women were not allowed to vote until the second decade of the 20th Century, because the prevailing view by men was that women were incapable of casting responsible and informed votes. The doomsayers predicted political chaos if the women prevailed. The same Chicken Little Proclamations were heard after child labor laws were enacted in the early 1900s, after FDR introduced Social Security in 1935, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and after the Clean Air & Water Acts of the early 1970s. Again and again, our collapse as a society was predicted, and each time we learned that we could do the right thing and survive--even flourish.
Someday I think the same will be said about this latest "Lost Cause." Glen Canyon will be restored.
THE SIERRA CLUB COMES TO MOAB
In that spirit of giving a damn, some Moabites are organizing a grass roots 'group' of the Sierra Club. For many years, the canyon country of southern Utah has had no real active Sierra Club participation at the local level. At times I have despaired at the apathy that seems to grip this part of the red rock wilderness; yet, I have often found myself at odds with the Sierra Club, who sometimes seems more interested in doing upscale and expensive outings for rich and trendy yupsters than really fighting for issues.
But now all that seems to be changing. With Ken Sleight (here he comes again) as chairman and longtime Moabite John Weisheit as vice-chair, the Glen Canyon Group, as it has decided to call itself, offers a chance for all of us to get involved in the battle to save the canyon country in a very personal way.
The Group hopes to take an active role in supporting wilderness, stopping the transportation of radioactive waste into southern Utah and...restoring Glen Canyon. Two years ago, the national board of the Sierra Club voted unanimously to support proposals to drain Lake Powell. But the Utah Chapter has taken a public stand against the national board, saying that it violated protocol, if not procedure, when it made that decision without consulting the state chapter first.
Technically, the Utah Chapter may have a point. But how can we ever let procedure get in the way of what's right? To oppose the restoration of Glen Canyon because it is not the politically expedient thing to do at this time is to deny one's own basic beliefs.
However, I believe that the Sierra Club's members are wise enough and tolerant enough to at least respect each others' sometimes divergent positions. In that spirit, the Glen Canyon Group will hopefully soon be a reality. It plans an Open House meeting at Pack Creek Ranch on September 7 at 6 pm. If you're interested, stop by.
If you would like to join the Sierra Club, you can sign up via the internet, by going to: www.sierraclub.org. Or you can write to them at: P.O. Box 52968, Boulder, CO 80321-2968. I think it's $25. Then and only then, contact the Glen Canyon Group at: P.O. Box 477, Moab, UT 84532, and let them know you have signed up and that you want to be a member of the Group. DO NOT SEND MEMBERSHIP DUES TO THE MOAB ADDRESS. Until the Group is approved by the Utah Chapter, the Glen Canyon Group is trying to put together a grass roots membership; however, once it becomes official, anyone, coast-to-coast, can be part of the Glen Canyon Group.
