For money you can have everything it is said. No, that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; gray hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money. - - Arne Garborg

A Lunatic Rant to an Environmental "Advisor"

Dear XXXX,

Thanks for your presentation today, it was very interesting. Could you send me those maps that we talked about?

Regarding the proposal to make trails through intact native forest: I cannot imagine a worse idea. I didn't bring it up during class because it would have led to a disruptive voice amidst all the oohs and ahhhs... about as welcome as a fart at a cocktail party.

Why is it that we just can't leave things alone? What is this deep seated and irresistible neurosis among humans? We regard everything on the planet as something put here for our convenience. Everything is a "resource" to be "managed", as if the whole biosphere revolved around us.

So the XXXXX wants to take the last and largest pristine native ecosystem and cut trails into it? They want to allow countless hikers with their soda cans and pampers, and plastic tarps... to drag in Clidemia, Miconia, and god knows what else on their boots. In short, they want to turn one of the last intact native eco-systems into some type of politically correct Disneyworld. Have you seen what our state parks look like? Is that what we want for that area?

"Eco-tourism" is a joke. It is a cheap pimp parading as a messiah. It is every bit an ugly greedy beast as the most obscene five-star golf course. And it ultimately is just as damaging. Under the guise of "education", it takes what little is left of our home and sucks the marrow from it... and all for money. It gives nothing back to the land.

That native forest is not a "resource". It has NO cash value. Zero. That is why it is priceless. What will it take for us to stop dealing with this planet as if it were a cash register? Christ, the XXXXX was about the only organization left I still respected.

I have met some of the people you mentioned who think the idea is just peachy. I have talked to them long enough to know how they think. No matter how "nice" they seem to be, their bottom line is always the same... money. For the last 12 years I have watched "well intentioned" people turn some of the most beautiful places on earth into shit-holes. There are always lots of sound fiscal reasons to fuck things up, to destroy beauty. Usually it's done for the "children", or for the "community". There are always good community-minded reasons to destroy our home.

We both know what will happen once that area is open to the public... the same thing that happens when we "widen" the roads to alleviate traffic congestion: We attract more cars. Eventually, (perhaps in a generation, maybe sooner) we will open it up to tour busses. Then we will have no "right" to keep hunters out. What about the rights of the ATV riders. What about the handicapped? Who are we to deny them their "rights"?

"Rights" have nothing to do anything. Deep down inside we believe that we have a god-given Right to fuck up every last bit of the planet to satisfy our greed, and laziness. Or a perverse desire to be "entertained" by the last Amaki'i.

The public does not and should not have a "right" to be in that forest. If anything has a "right" to be in that forest, it's the few creatures that are still left. The only people that have a "right" to be there are those *actively* involved in keeping it alive.

There is a price to be paid for all things. If we don't pay that price now, our children will pay it later. If we don't create natural and unnatural barriers to human impact on what little is left of the planet, we can kiss it goodbye. That price to be paid is not in money... money is too easy. Money is a large part of the problem. The price we pay is by getting down on our hands and knees and working: building fences, growing starts, giving something back to the land.

Please think about this. I hope I'm preaching to the choir.

Aloha ahiahi po kaua

David Leonard