Closing Thoughts 

This year has been a difficult one for me. I've found myself sometimes overwhelmed and discouraged. I love my country but fear as a nation we have forgotten history. I fear we have replaced the lessons it has taught us with emotion, passion and near fanatical belief regarding our public lands policy and its importance to our overall freedom, both in regards to our recreational access to it and our economic and fundamental security.

But as a parent I know I cannot afford the luxury of doubt and despair, for it can paralyze you to the extent where action is replaced with complacency, and such an attitude is a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. I cannot leave a legacy of chaos built upon the political whims of those who would replace the freedom we cherish with the chains of control; an idea of management based on the religious-like fanaticism that the mainstream environmental movement has embraced.

Our country faces great threats from within and without. It is those threats from within from the radical environmentalists that worry me the most, for they are all too willing to abdicate our freedom and rights in the name of protecting our environment. At times it seems they only see evil in our economic and governmental systems, as well as our way of life. They have instead embraced an economic system that abhors property rights as outdated and has more in common with the failed policies of former communist countries.

"The establishment of an American Soviet government will involve the confiscation of large landed estates in town and country, and also, the whole body of forests, mineral deposits, lakes, rivers and so on."

William Z. Foster, National Chairman of the Communist Party USA, 1932

We must continue to be vigilant to protect against the Stalins, Hitlers, Maos, Bin Ladins, Hussiens and Kims who use terror and murder to maintain control. They act as God, or fool themselves and others into believing that they are acting on His behalf.

They forget that throughout the history of mankind evil has risen. The environmental movement has forgotten that the best protection against the abuse of power is freedom. They are blinded in their near worship of nature and dismiss the threats against our economy and security.

They forget that the American Indians and others through the centuries have sustainably benefited from the resources our lands provide, as written in a recent Christian Science Monitor opinion piece published on August 7, 2003:

"Bush-Utah Pact Challenges What's 'Pristine'"

"...Finding land that is untrammeled and unmarked by humans has been a tall hurdle. Long before white settlers discovered the "virgin" land of the New World and went on to exploit the West, Native Americans hunted down entire herds of animals and deforested land by lighting fires. Many of today's "wild" areas have been retrofitted by nature to some new state.

"...But that fuzziness has not stopped efforts to set aside more public land as 'genuine' wilderness, even though lesser designations, such as parks, might be more fitting. Congress has so far set about 106 million acres as wilderness.

"Few Americans would want the ecology of public lands to be despoiled beyond recognition. But it's also difficult to ignore the human uses on such lands in the past, much of which has been sustainable.

"That leaves the designation of wilderness as mainly a political construct, a recognition of a human need for "wilderness values," such as scenic beauty, outdoor solitude, a return to a pre-civilization experience, and an appreciation of eco-diversity.

"But preserving 'wild' lands from Americans rather than for them takes a great deal of denial about the history of those lands. Even John Muir, considered the father of the wilderness ethic, ran a sawmill at Yosemite Falls."

The environmental movement seeks heaven on earth, yet it forgets that the best way to achieve this is to allow men freedom. Freedom can only exist in a climate of vigilance against those who would hobble our country by locking up the resources of our land and tying the hands of its citizens, yet this is the very thing they espouse. In regards to science and sustainable management they have abdicated reason to fanaticism.

They forget that a sovereign nation must use the resources provided by its land and people to protect against the inevitable madman who would seek to destroy those who will not allow themselves to choke under the yoke of tyranny.

I came to realize that I can ill afford the luxury of doubt when the price of indifference threatens the freedoms of my son and others who will come after me.

It is curious how we get involved in the battles we fight. Is it a case of being at a certain place at a certain time, or a case of grace and providence? Though reason may favor the former, in times of despair I find the latter more comforting.

I leave you with these words: Eternal vigilance against those who would tie our hands both within our country and without is the best defense against tyranny. It is my hope that we are never again lulled into a sense of false security or forget the tragedy of 9-11.

Eternal vigilance...

Chris Vargas