[at-l] The AT Dream VS the AT Reality (LONG)

[saunterer@jimbullard.org (saunterer@jimbullard.org)]

RnR responded after I said:
>I've said before and I say again, I respect and
>appreciate his contribution but the AT never was and is not now the
>exclusive property of Benton McKaye.
>
>*** All well & good, but if you subtract MacKaye from the AT you subtract 
>the AT all together. Somehow I'm struck with the impression that people 
>are fighting what they don't understand here even though they're pretty 
>much in favor of what the AT stands for in general. I have to believe 
>these statements come from people who don't understand the greater 
>achievements MacKaye attempted and are attempting to lessen the demands 
>such a calling entails to make it easier on themselves. (which is sort of 
>like marginalizing/forsaking the plan of the man who created the Trail)...

I'm going to tell you a story.  This is a real story, meaning it really 
happened or as Dave Barry says "I'm not making this up".

12½ years ago my employer decided to consolidate two previously separate 
divisions and have all the employees cross trained to do any of the work 
unique to either division.  In learning what my counterparts in the other 
division did every day I had to learn to use their mainframe computer 
program.  They were happy with the program but to my mind it sucked swamp 
water and being the pushy supervisor that I sometimes am I set out to 
create my own PC based program that did it better.

After getting it up and running we were visited by the Regional Director 
who saw what we were doing and liked it.  He insisted on duplicating what 
we were doing across the region and soon he had copied my program to 8-10 
other offices.  Since it was built on a commercial DB I told him that every 
office that ran it had to own a 'legal' copy of that software for each 
machine that used the program.   That never happened and the RD and I had a 
major falling out.  I bailed on developing the program further and he 
turned it over to others using different software and centralized it so 
they wouldn't need multiple copies of the software.

Eventually the State's IT leadership that was clinging to the outmoded 
mainframe software (because he designed it) died and the entire state 
converted to a system that followed the model of the system I had started 
for my one little office in a far corner of the state.  Meantime, another 
guy (who saw my program and came up with a similar one) claimed credit for 
being the originator of the idea, wrote up  a glowing account of how he had 
changed the way the State did business and got a $5000+ bonus.  Because of 
the copyright problem I hadn't dared publicize my role so...  More time 
went by and now the Feds are pushing a system (currently 7 states, 
eventually to be used nationwide) that follows the basic pattern I dreamed up.

The point?  I'm happy with the outcome.  It isn't precisely the system I 
would have designed if I had followed through and done everything myself 
but it does what I wanted my system to do and whether or not I got credit 
for it, or it is exactly the way I first envisioned it, ***it 
happened***.  From one obscure corner of my state I changed the system for 
the entire state and perhaps eventually for the whole country.  McKaye did 
the same thing.  He had an idea, he promoted the 'idea' but at some point 
left it for other people to realize the completion of the idea and ***it 
happened***.  Like my idea, what happened may or may not be precisely what 
he first thought of but that is not the point.  The point is that in 
general he wanted a recreational trail from Maine to Georgia for stressed 
out people to escape the cities ***and we got it***.

At some point in being a leader you have to allow those you are leading to 
take ownership of the project and put something of themselves into the 
idea.  To insist on slavish adherence to what you want is called 
dictatorship.   I repeat (how many times must I say this before you hear 
me?) I respect McKaye and his AT vision as the source from which the AT 
arose but... he didn't do it alone.  In fact I don't believe he himself 
bought/contributed so much as one acre of AT land or built so much as one 
inch of the trail.  Which brings me to the following...

RnR responded to Jim:

>*** I don't see any Trail community organizing against Baxter Jim. Why?

Simple.  Unlike McKaye, Baxter bought the land and contributed it to the 
people of Maine with stipulations.  His money, his land, his prerogative.

Aside from the difference between what McKaye did and what Baxter did, once 
again you are adding your own interpretation.  No one here is organizing 
against the AT.  No one here is organizing against McKaye or minimizing the 
role of his dream as the source of the AT.  We are trying to keep his 
vision in perspective.  To insist on slavish adherence to every detail of 
that vision is to make him a god or a dictator with everyone else as his 
minions.  If you are going to continue to insist on promoting conservation 
along the trail corridor "because McKaye wanted it that way" you will be 
doomed to failure.  Yes, he thought it up, but the trail belongs to those 
who created it, maintain it and hike it with the sweat of their brows.

sAunTerer