🚀 go-pugleaf

David B. Doty -  Just Intonation Network (dbdoty@well.sf.ca.us) wrote:

: Fortunately, the bill passed the house last week, but yes, I go to the
: desert and enjoy it, several times per year if I get the chance. Thus, I am
: well aware of the need to fence off parts of it from people whose
: "enjoyment" requires driving over sensitive parts of it in vehicles with
: HUGE TIRES, discharging firearms at anything that moves (and some things
: that don't), scrawling their names on petroglyphs and pictographs, and
: committing various other crimes against nature and culture. I don't know
: whether Mr. Longo is one of the people described above, but if he expects
: the desert bill to interfere with his "enjoyment," he probably is.


	I have some concerns about the desert bill as it relates
	to one of my favorite hot springs... Saline Valley, just
	west of Death Valley National Monument. It was 'improved'
	by some folks a generation or two ago who were living 
	out there, and currently is a place that can be freely
	visited, even a place where homeless families set adrift
	in their cars have gone to live for various lengths of
	time. There is currently minimal regulation by the BLM,
	and people can go and make use of the hot pools there
	and just be themselves, but, if it has been included in
	the Desert Bill Act, then I am afraid that this access
	may be denied.. access that is not intentionally harmful
	nor disrespectful of the natural environment there...

	But the management of national forests, national parks,
	and monuments has by and large gone down as a wholesale
	giveaway to gross commercialism, in the form of one 
	monopolistic vendor, like Curry Co. in Yosemite, while
	overlooking the basic idea of promoting a healthy syncronicity
	of humans in nature, as well as dealing with our social
	and economic concerns (like the whole issue of 'homelessness',
	a problem we have created out of our western legal system
	in institutionalizing 'land ownership' and in creating 
	a society which dehumanizes 'have-nots' in such a system).
	Three friends and I (two of whom were from France) rode
	our bicycles to Yosemite Park and were TURNED AWAY by the
	a ranger who we tried to reserve a campsite through, who
	informed us we'd have to leave the park before nightfall,
	while all around us were Winnebagos, cars, etc. A campsite
	for all of us would have taken less space than a single
	parking space, since the weather was good, and we planned
	to sleep on the ground. The only way we could deal with
	that was to guerrilla-camp anyway... but the French tourists
	were anxious to be legit and went and kissed butt until 
	they could legally buy a space... even though they were
	furious as well, and pointed out that this would never
	happen in France....

	Will there come a time that nude bathing, or bathing at 
	all in the hot springs will be 'outlawed' by overly vigilant
	rangers at my desert hot-spot? Even though I'm of course
	concerned about all the raping and pillaging of the 
	environment that's gone on so far, I think what we've
	been teaching people - that the wilderness is a place for
	a minimal visit... and that people belong in the cities
	and suburbs as their rightful place... any where except 
	on public land - really sucks as far as insightful policy-
	making is concerned.


	[Note: I used to live in Mariposa County out on some land
	out there, near Yosemite, for a couple years... Used to 
	go hang out at the recycling center and thrift business
	out at the county dump, looking for reclaimable materials
	which would be useful and imaginative for building purposes.
	Also helped with some recycling there... Just amazed me
	that while hiking with friends in Yosemite, they wanted
	to pick up every last pistachio nut shell off the ground,
	whilst 'throwing away' all their 'refuse' in the proper
	containers in the park, completely unaware that an entire
	valley nearby, deemed less 'valuable' was being sacrificed
	for 'sanitary landfill'... a place where red-tailed hawks,
	buzzards, and seagulls soared, stopping to pick up something
	interesting from time to time, or crawling over it desparately like 
	the poor families in the Philippines on the outskirts of 
	the U.S. military bases..]


	-medium rare