It’s disconcerting to me that esoteric ideology and manipulation is so easily dispensed and promoted by the wealthy, who picture themselves saviors of the world. There exists a great disparity between those who are being manipulated and maligned and those who help funnel millions of dollars into pro-monument campaigns. Thus, when Brooke Williams describes his experience campaigning against hard-knock ranchers, farmers, local government and schoolteachers in Escalante, Utah, who are still fighting for survival, I don’t feel much sympathy for such egocentric ponderings.
It must be a tough life splitting time between two homes, while there are still Navajos living on McCracken Mesa without running water and who must haul wood to heat their homes in winter. These people are concerned about biological survival for sure, and worried about more broken government promises.
He recounts, “What I realized during those years I worked in Escalante was it’s not about economics. It’s about control.” That’s exactly how I feel about the pro-monument multi-leveled marketing plan; it’s about powerhouse environmental groups wanting to control others’ lives, including land, animals, grass and air. It’s not just local people who want to have power over their own destinies and land. The Conservation Lands Foundation wants control over all rural land. When there are shared values, then compromise is possible. For instance, water and air are definite must-haves for all living things. But land and how it is used and controlled and governed, is a broader issue. Such was the impasse Williams ran into in Grand Staircase-Escalante territory.
The reason they couldn’t work out their differences is that one group valued constitutional freedoms, and the other promoted globalist ideology and control. The workers, the survivors and rural Americans have been too busy making a living to wander around in the desert validating their purpose. However, they probably know the deserts and plateaus of their area better than those who would save it. The same can be said for those who live in the shadows of the Bears Ears National Monument.
Just because a person has wealth and stealth does not mean they know what is best for everyone else in this sphere of wilderness, isolation, beauty and potential. If Mr. Williams understands Mother Nature and biological life forces, surely, he recognizes Darwin’s survival of the fittest is still true today. The desire is innate in us all, and had it not been for his pioneer ancestor’s desire to survive, he wouldn’t be here to chastise and denigrate other equally valid lifestyles. One doesn’t have to be a carbon print copy of all others to be of worth. The common man trying to survive also loves the land and everything it has to offer, whether it be vistas, solitude, experiences or raising crops. Each has its joy.
