[at-l] Respect For AT Wildness Values

[jbkramer@afn.org (Bryan Kramer)]

We need those purists just as long as they can keep their eye on
reality. When I was a member of the Sierra Club and involved in the Save
Our Suwannee effort the philosophy of the group was to ask for more
radical solutions than they expected to get. The idea was that the other
side would make it's own outré demands and both sides would meet at the
reasonable center ground. And it generally worked altho we didn't get
what we wanted.

But lately I think the environmentalists have forgot the meaning of
compromise, they actually have begun to press for the radical solution
and the public be damned. I don't think that they actually believe the
guff that they spout but they have made a cynical political decision to
try to ram the agenda through. They are wielding some big sticks like
the endangered species act and the result of it all may be a loss of
those sticks as the public becomes more disgusted with them.

None of this is meant to be pointed at Weary, once I started typing I
couldn't stop. We do need people who have a narrow vision of what is
happening to the Trail and I'm thankful that they have the energy and
commitment to keep it up.

Bryan

> >
> >    ***   In the Trail universe, there are those weary few 
> who strive to keep 
> >a constantly challenged Trail corridor a primitive and wild place as 
> >stated
> >in the ATC guidelines for the AT. There are many who seek to 
> avoid that and 
> >cast us hopeless hold outs for the Trail as extremists in 
> dramatic, biblical 
> >language in order to justify their own indifference to what 
> some hold dear. 
> >As Weary said before, it would indeed be a shame if those 
> few voices who 
> >stand for what little wildness remains were censored or 
> ridiculed amongst the 
> >Trail community (which purports to be open and in-tune with 
> the Trail) 
> >because they stood up for it. I really hope my humble Trail 
> fellows would at 
> >least step back and consider those seeking to keep the AT a 
> wild place and 
> >think about it, in any case, and not view it so drastically 
> and punish those 
> >who best represent good Trail stewards. At very least, the 
> fundamental 
> >pursui
> >t of AT wildness must be permitted space amongst the Trail's users. 
> >It's important!
> >
> snip
> 
> 
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