[at-l] The Other MacKaye Vision

[RoksnRoots at aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

In a message dated 7/22/2005 12:01:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
spiriteagle99@hotmail.com writes:
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As for the "morally repugnant and shockingly naive." part - you REALLY, 
REALLY need to re-read the original AT proposal and figure out just exactly 
WHO - and HOW the Trail and all it's attendant infrastructure (as MacKaye 
proposed it to be) were supposed to have been built and maintained.  We 
fought a war, in some part, to free slaves - and MacKaye proposed the 
creation of an entirely new class of slave.

       *** After correcting Texas' lack of correct context, Jim then goes on 
to advise Texas he wasn't critical enough. Jim typically then inserted another 
forced conservative spin on MacKaye accenting only the exaggerated negative 
side of the Project. Meanwhile Jim only gives passing recognition to the fact 
that those very same efforts gave us the Appalachian Trail (but only when it 
was saved from enslaving and overturning the nation (a veiled reference to the 
AT being a vehicle for US communism [Which Jim will never admit directly]). 
Thank goodness those of pure vital life juices saw this and corrected it.

          I won't venture into the new class of "slave" we now have. Suffice 
to say it is one who is told that progressive land destruction is good and 
pure and politically correct.

          
  And he proposed it in the naive 
assumption that mining, farming and logging would be "FUN" for those who 
toiled in the factories and cities for most of the year.  Sorry, Bubba, but 
I know what mining, farming and logging are like --- and it ain't fun for 
more than one day.  And mostly not that long.

        ***   No matter how many times you repeat that those logging and 
farming lands were designed to be locked into the Project and therefore preserve 
the lands which they encompassed, you will be ignored, and frivolous, skewed 
references misquoting MacKaye and distorting his intentions will be offered. No 
discussion of the 3 jobs it now takes inner city bottom rung persons to afford 
an overpriced rent will be mentioned while talking about slave classes, but 
most importantly, absolutely no discussion will occur over the environmental 
outcome caused by the lack of those Project components, the subsequent 
development which occurs in their absence, and its relevance to MacKaye. This most 
critical aspect of MacKaye will not only get no response from the so-called "Trail 
Community," but it will also get you ignored, filtered, and name-called.

       What I love about conservative right wing rhetoric types is they are 
the first to call for draconian cuts and self-supported welfare, but then when 
you actually design one that serves a functional environmental purpose the 
political baiting machine turns on full power. God forbid the Project ever 
worked. Meanwhile we will never see discussion of the Project's conservative 
substitute - coming in the form of the present Pennsylvania developments or Plum 
Creek. Nor will we see any discussion of the alternative, well-apportioned "slave 
class" - the cost of which will be an overdeveloped nature-less hell of a 
future for our descendants.

         


None of this, BTW, is a put-down of MacKaye - he was a product of the 
society he lived in.  But I think it's a damn shame when those who "defend" 
him make him into a one-dimensional character and then twist his words to 
fit their own personal agenda.  That implies an ignorance of history and of 
human nature that I find repugnant.  MacKaye was MUCH better - and MUCH more 
of a real human being than some people give him credit for.

            ***   I cringe thinking that someone so profoundly void of any 
real appreciation or understanding of MacKaye's real good would have the gall to 
present such an insulting review of the man who created the object of our 
attention and all that that same person enjoys. These persons are not, of course, 
guilty of any "one-dimensional" interpretations themselves. Or focusing on 
political distortions in order to detour around the otherwise obvious.

            I wonder if Jim would care to comment if the present 
multitudinous rapes of the AT from one end to the other are possibly "a product of the 
society we live in"??? It's clear that such a narrow definition of MacKaye can 
only be achieved through casual indifference to what is most important about him 
and the Trail...