Sunday, July 19, 2015

Deep Down Dark

Book: Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and The Miracle That Set Them Free
Author:Hector Tobar
Edition:eBook read on Overdrive from the Fresno County Public Library
Read:July 19, 2015
504 pages
Genre:  History,  Biography
Rated: 3 1/2  out of 5

Synopsis:
This book follows the lives of many of the 33 miners trapped in a Chilean miner for 69 days. Tobar  gives a brief history of many of the miners, enough so you can understand the type of men who works in these mines. There are three sections to this book:
  1. talks about the miners and what the mine looked and sounded like leading up to the cave-in, along with the first 18 days after the cave-in.
  2. once contact was made, there was a period of 51 days where the men could do nothing but wait and receive food and water and messages.
  3. once a hole wide enough was made, Tobar finishes with what happened to the men.

Thoughts:

There are lessons in leadership, particularly when the miners are first trapped. The head positional person tries to create unity by saying we are all equals. There is two problem with that: First, people naturally do want someone to look forward to in times of crisis, and secondly, people, particularly in crisis, will resort to the law of dogs. The one who us biggest, who can bark the loudest wins. But several others did step up and endorsed his appeal for unity. But throughout the book, there is this tension of who is leading.

Sometimes knowledge does need to be shaded so that panic does not take place. In this case, the shift supervisor looks weak, but is able to talk bluntly without causing panic.

Sometimes our appetites gets in the way of reasoned thinking. This is most evident when some of the miners break into a food cabinet on the first day because they are hungry. Their thinking is we will be getting out soon. But it is this absence of food which comes close to  killing them off through starvation. The power of thinking over appetite is one of the things which separates us from animals.

The sense of divine plays throughout this book. A miner realizes that despite the odds, not one person was killed n the collapse of the mine. For the  most part, these miners are what you would expect: a group of men  who are not particularly concerned about religion or morals. Most are Catholics. One is a Jehovah a Witness. Another is an Evangelical. These two lend spiritual stability to the group. Mario, the Jehovah Witness asks Jose Henriquez, the Evangelical, to lead prayers for the group. He is now known as the Pastor. This is a time of union for all 33 of the men. It is not just a God bless us, but a call for confession, a call for humility a call to honor God. But does it change the men. It at least gets them through the days of darkness and solitude. One of the miners notes that in prayer each man looked taller. This is a lessen to be learned-by going down on our knees, we grow taller.

As the men are found there is discord, some believe the Virgin Mary is what saved them, others think God, and others do not think of salvation in that way.

Interesting, after the men are released from the mine, the Evangelicals try to make Jose Henriquez a hero and build him up. But realizes that it is not him who is a hero. God has shown mercy and had them rescued them because they showed humility. Along the same lines, he realizes that even though below he was called The Pastor, he sees the people who are pastors as having a calling in that direction, one he does not have. So he is content to recede into the background.

Tabor shows the lives of not only the men below, but the women above. The anxiety of waiting, odd occurrences which gets described as paranormal.. But also the complicated relationship between girl friends and wives, .... At first there is the focus on the men. But as money comes into play, there is a dividing line.

The company owners just trying to keep the family business going, but not really understanding mining or even the process of running a company. Also not prepared for disaster, either in planning or mentally. It is that mental weakness which puts them on the sidelines in this story. They are shell shocked that this could happen and do nothing.

Surprisingly who shines are the governmental officials. Yes they are calculating. But they also know how to get things done. The mining minister shows compassion and focus' the government on the situation The president sends in his fix-it man which understands how to get things done. They are the ones who get the rescue started and coordinates the effort. Of course, being politicians, they want their time in the spotlight and they have the tools to make this happen. I think they are moved by compassion, but not just compassion but a calculation to make them look good.

If you are being rescued, what is it that you need first? Obviously medical aid. In this case, it a government official telling the men what they mean to the nation. In some ways, this is what the men need. That their survival has meaning. This gets reflected by the excitement this causes. The dark side of this is it turns into greed and the striving for fame. In the end, see the last paragraph, it is part of the men's search for meaning-their suffering does have meaning.

Money complicates relations both inside and outside the mine. The miners got temporary fame and a lot of money, at least according to Chilean standards. There is a video showing the situation five years after. Most men have mental problems. By now the money has run out. These men are back working or unemployed. Those who work, seem to have fared better than those who do not.

When there was no hope of getting out of the mine, the men were united in spirit, their struggles, their troubles. Once there was hope in getting out, they started arguing, acting independent. They each tried to be the leader, the one who the show was about. Why is that? We each have this desire to be top dog.

As an American, we forget that we are not the only ones with intelligence, with spirit. We are one of many peoples. It takes an international effort to rescue the men-not just an American, nor a Chilean. All have reason for pride.

Life in a fishbowl. As they watch sports the world is watching them. Even those who seek this, the price paid for attention is large. For these normal mean, the price is beyond what they can pay.

The movie Patton ends with the phrase, "glory is fleeting". One of the miners, Franklin Lobos, has had experience with this. He was part of the Chilean National Futbol team. As such, he knew what it was to be recognized and honored. Also, what the loss of fame was like once you were out of the news. Why else would he have been in the mines? He knew the sweetness of fame and the bitterness when it leaves. It is an unforgiving mistress.  He knows what is ahead for his fellow miners. The heady accolades followed by the loss.

As the miners are about escape from their long imprisonment, they start to wonder where the bonds of their agreement to tell their stories together starts and ends. Illanes says it the best to be united. He says let's be clear. You don't have anything down here that is just yours. Nothing. Are you going to tell me that if we through you down here for weeks a cleft you completely alone, and then we came to rescue you, we'd find you as fine and dandy as you are now? (409). This is the best statement in the book. It shows a togetherness with all the miners, a dependence each has on each other. This can also be said of those of us above. We each have an interdependency on each other. We, just are not I. They have the circumstances to recognize it.

It is after the escape from the mine is the most moving and heart-wretching of all of the parts of the book. After the forced detox of being trapped in the mine, several have fallen prey to alcohol and drugs. Most still had constant nightmares. Most have run through the money received, while big by Chilean standards is not endless. But the biggest thing is the expectations placed upon these men. They insist they are not super-men, but are normal men. And they are. Most have not faced fame nor the fortune which came their way. They mismanage the money. But they do not see how the fame is pushing them into paths which are destructive to their beings.

Victor Zamora walks down that road. When Tobar first finds him, he is desperate for money. He has wrecked cars in his front yard from blacking out. Later on there Tobar finds a confidence in Zomora. But their is a pretty astute statement which Tobar makes about Zamora-he begins to understand how he can shape his mine memories into something that makes him a better father and husband. This starts to bring him on the road to recovery. This is true of all of us. We all share in some experience which bends and warps us-maybe not to the extent which the miners do. But how we think about it makes a difference in us. The Tutu's say a similar thing about forgiveness.

Also having company, wise companionship is essential as well. Another of the miners is single, and young. He notes that it is a mistake to be alone and not having something to occupy his time. One of my favorite sayings is that nature abhors a vacuum. Whether it is a clean house getting dirty or an empty time schedule, something will fill it. It takes work to keep one going.

There is a basic human question another miner, Juan Carlos Aguilar, asks as he wonders about surviving the mine collapse, What am I supposed to do with this? Is it enough just to have survived, experienced the good things of life for a little while? Or am I to build on this for something greater, for a more goodness among others? His answer is for others. But this question can be asked of us all? Why have I experienced anything? Is it just for myself? For others? How we respond says who we are.

Evaluation:
I look at a book, particularly a true one like this one, in three ways: does the author tell the story well and memorable? Is the story compelling? What do I learn from it?

Does the Tobar tell the story well? Yes, but more in a matter of fact way. He does not get in the way of the story, which is important, but neither does he contribute to it. In many ways, it reads as an extended newspaper article, something you are glad to know, but leaves very little imprint on you. I do not get the sense of particular insight-fullness into my life.

But the story is compelling. You know what the outcome is-the title gives it away. But you feel the lives and feelings of the 33 miners during this time is the story, along with the rescue attempt. The best part, and most depressing, is the after rescue experience. How the lives of many of the men are shattered. Here I think Tobar does well. It is not a happy lived afterwards, but the struggles of these men to make sense and live with what happened to them.

Should you read this book? Yes, if for nothing else, to see what a person can go through, how to live under those stressful conditions. But do not expect a lot more than a good story of normal men put into an unusual situation.



New Words:
  • Borborygmus (204): a rumbling or gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.
  • Simulacrum (393): an image or representation of someone or something.  an unsatisfactory imitation or substitute.

Book References:
  • Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist

Good Quotes:
  • First Line:The San Jose Mine is located inside a round, rocky, and lifeless mountain in the Atacama Desert in Chile.
  • Last Line: "And here I am," he says
  •  He's never traveled beyond the valleys around Copiago, but he is rich in family and a growing circle of relatives takes residence in his sorrowful thoughts. (204).
  • Ambition changes people. (410) Luis Urzua
  • If you make a man a symbol of things that are bigger  than any one person can possibly be, you risk stripping that man of his sense of who he really is. (450) Thoughts of the psychologist Alberto Iturra.

Table of Contents:
  • Cities in the desert
  • Beneath the mountain of thunder and sorrow.
    • A company man
    • The end of everything
    • The dinner hour
    • "I'm always hungry"
    • Red alert!
    • "We have sinned"
    • Blessed among women
    • A flickering flame
    • Cavern of dreams  
  • Seeing the devil
    • The speed of sound
    • Christmas
    • Astronauts
    • Absolute leader
    • Cowboys
    • Saints, statues, Satan
    • Independence Day
    • Rebirth 
  •  The Southern Cross
    • In a better country
    • The tallest tower
    • Underground
    • Under the stars.

References:
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Location: Copiapó, Copiapó, Atacama Region, Chile

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The Glass Castle

Book: The Glass Castle
Author:Jeannette Walls
Edition:eBook on Overdrive from the Fresno County Public Library
Read: July 14, 2015
464 pages
Genre:   Biography
Rated: 3 1/2  out of 5

Synopsis:
Jeannette Walls is a gossip columnist in New York. This book tells of her and her siblings childhood as they grow to maturity, escaping the turmoil of two dysfunctional parents. She starts with an incident where her mother let her cook her  own hot dogs on a gas burner at the age of three, catching herself on fire. She then talks about life as a nomadic desert person, mostly around Arizona and Nevada. Her junior high and high school years were spent spent in a shack in Welch, West Virginia, before escaping from her parents to New York City.

Thoughts:
What would it take for an adult child to be embarrassed by ones parents? In Walls case it was a chance sighting of her mother shifting through garbage looking for something to eat. Later on in the book, but before this incident, Walls has a friend who comments that all the homeless are scam artists. Later on a professor gives a liberal interpretation that the homeless are as a result of economics. Walls does not raise her own experience in either case. Walls raises several questions with this story, some intentional, some unintentional. Such as why is Walls embarrassed? Why do we have so much useful stuff in our garbage? Can a child ever be properly embarrassed by parents? How did the mother get this way? (With the father, there is ample reason why.)  Would a person look down on another because of their parents?

The Walls starts right off with an incident where she was severely burnt while cooking hot dogs as a three year old. Why was a three year old cooking hot dogs? The mother says that Jeannette was mature enough to do it. Here we start learning the character of the father-loving, caring, egotistical, distrustful of institutions and authority, such as hospitals and doctors. Rather than work within the framework of society, he abducts Jeannette from the hospital and takes the whole family away from the situation.

Rex Walls, Jeannette Walls' father is intelligent, creative man. But as we find out late in the book, his example was his mother was a heavy, uncaring drinker. Rex Walls tried to get away from but ended up with the same destructive drinking habits. Evidently this behavior started after the death of his second child.  You wonder what life was like in the Walls family before this death.  How far away can a person roam from their upbringing? He also rebelled against authority. His solution was to not have things of value and leave whenever he was to be held accountable for his actions and debts.  He would call this skedaddling. He did this almost where ever he went, except back to his home town of Welch, West Virginia.  The plus side is that Jeannette saw a great deal of the country which most people never see, she was able to experience a lot of the desert country.

But that is not the only side of him. When Jeannette is hurt, he is the one who cares for her. When she suffers from discouragement, he is the one who tries to show her she has strength. When Jeannette is $1,000 short on her tuition, he goes out for a week, plays poker and wins almost all of the difference. This is a man who loves his daughter, but has deficiency of character to be able in a relationship with her.  Rex Walls is not a single demented villain but a man who has a lot of weakness, but a lot of strength as well. Also when they went to Welch and stayed with her Grandmother, Jeannette saw a side to her father's family which helped explain some of her father's behavior. She would wonder if her was molested by his own mother.

At one point Rex Walls says that Jeannette is his favorite child. He would not know what to do if she lost her faith in him. Like a young child she promises never to do that. This raises a whole boatload full of questions.  Such as was he someone whom a young child should have faith in? Faith to do what? I think one of the prerequisites of faith is the person whom you have faith has to have integrity of character. A person may have faith that a person will act in a certain way, but if that way is evil, then what. As an aside, that is why it is so important to get your God right.

And what is Rose Mary Walls, the mother, like?  Jeannette Walls says it well: Mom liked to encourage self-sufficiency in all living creates [even her own children]. .... Mom also believed in letting nature takes its course.  But in a lot of ways, the children were more necessitates to be burden with than humans to love. She avoided responsibility, such as working, feeding the family, cleaning house, ... They blocked her from her writing, from her painting, from her getting that adrenaline rush of adventure. It is telling that when the children found a diamond ring, the choice she made was to keep the diamond ring to improve her self-esteem rather than sell it and get food for the children and fix the house they were living in. Or even worse, she had land in Texas which she inherited. When her brother died, she wanted to buy his land of the same size and location. The price tag? $1,000,000. How much family suffering could have been avoided by selling or living there?

It is that sense of adventure I think is what made the family both work and being dysfunctional. the sense of what is going to come next was both both looked for and was terrifying to them. In about a 3 years span Jeannette Walls figured they had moved at least 11 times, and probably more. When the children was not being feed, Jeannette broke one of the unwritten rules: pretending life was one long and incredibly fun adventure.

The title of the book is from a set of plans which Rex Walls created to build a self-contained glass house in the middle of the desert. He called it The Glass Castle. This was his dream, his lure. The plans were self-created by Rex Walls. They were also a lure for the children. He fired their imagination with it. He would gamble, prospect for gold, take odd jobs to try to make this happen. But drink always defeated these plans. The question is, would he have ever worked on the building if he had not had the drinking problem? Or would his sense of irresponsibility take over and defeat him?

There did come the day when The Glass Castle dreams would not hold the children and they understood they needed to escape. As the oldest daughter became a senior in high school, she and Jeannette worked out a scheme to allow her to go to New York City and, live and finish high school. That they were able to do this was amazing, it shows the intelligence of the family. They were able to work out the finances and living arrangements.Shortly afterwards Jeannette followed the same pattern and was able to work her self through high school and college.

When they first moved to Welch, WV, Jeannette was enrolled in school. Because she could not understand the Southern accent and the principal could not understand her a western accent, the conclusion was Jeannette and her brother were slow learners. Lesson: do not mistake differences in speech for lack of intelligence.

There is a comment that like her Dad, her Mom had an addiction: reading and adventure. She describes the togetherness her family felt reading together. Also later on she says she is also addicted to excitement.

Hunger was Walls constant companion. Many times she writes about rooting through dumpsters, garbage cans and the like to have something to eat. Sad this became the normal for her. Also it appeared that while not really accepting it, she was not repulsed by it. It was survival. She had been raised with it. Also as a side note, you wonder how much garbage we throw away which is edible?

The moving part of this story of is when the author leaves Welch. The father tries to convince her that she should stay, there is a mixture of not wanting to see his daughter leave him, knowing that it would be a long time, if ever before they are reunited. Another part is that she was someone who he shared his dreams with-no longer would this dream be there. Lastly, his ability to control her would be crushed. On the other hand, her mom thought too sentimental for her to wake up in the morning to see her off. How sad.

Her last chapter, Thanksgiving, I would rather have had it left out. She is trying to draw the book to a close with having the family coming together, no longer dysfunctional, remembering the father who passed five years before. The salute being "Rex was not boring". But the end seems a bit contrived. While the end of the previous chapter where she sees the planet Venus and her father giving it to her is much more powerful to me.

Could this book have been written while her father was alive? How would he react? How much hurt?


Evaluation:
I started getting interested in this book through Jeanette Wall's sequel, Half Broke Horses. (review being written)  It seems like there was much which Walls left out of that book, which might be in Glass Castle. While the statement is true, the family stories are different.

The first thing which you become aware of is that Jeannette Walls' family is Dysfunctional and that is with a capital D. Walls father is a parasite and her mother runs away from any responsibility. If the story was just those, it would be a ho-hum biography, which would leave you wondering why do I want to read this. The prose are good standard writing, they are not memorable; the story is.

What you do find out is that both parents are highly intelligent and creative in different ways. The parent's family history is one which directs their adult lives, not because they have control over the parents lives, but because of revolt the father and mother have against their upbringing and authority. Now each find themselves trapped by this revolt. The victims? The children.

Walls runs through this biography of her young life and her parents in a mostly non-judgmental way-one can never escape judgement totally, especially of ones parents. This is a book which gets you thinking about upbringing and its effects, homelessness, creativity and how intelligence is used.

 


New Words:
  • Caryatid  (339): female figures serving as supports. The most likely derivation of their name is from the young women of Sparta who danced every year in honour of Artemis Karyatis
  • Caprice (441): a sudden and unaccountable change of mood or behavior.
Book References:
  • Black Beauty
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder stories
  • We Were There series 
  • Zane Grey
  • Oz stories
  • Charles Dickens
  • William Faulkner
  • Henry miller
  • Pearl Buck
  • James Michner
  • Lord of the Rings
  • The Grapes of Wrath
  • The Lord of the Flies
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
  • Francie Nolan

Good Quotes:
  • First Line: I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.
  • Last Line: A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order.
  •  Once you'd resolve to go, there was nothing to it at all. (368)
Table of Contents:
  • Part I: A Woman on the Street
  • Part II: The Desert
  • Part III:  Welch
  • Part IV:New York City
  • Part V:Thanksgiving


References:
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Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Fight for Conservation

Book:The Fight for Conservation
Author:Gifford Pinchot
Edition:eBook from Gutenberg
Read:July 5, 2015
70 pages
Genre:  History, Political
Rated: 3  out of 5

Synopsis:
In this series of essays, Pinchot leads us through why we as a nation should conserve and some of the what conservation is, at least in his eyes.

Thoughts:
When the natural resources of any nation become exhausted, disaster and decay in every department of national life follow as a matter of course. (Chp 1 - Prosperit)y   a nation whose natural resources are destroyed must inevitably pay the penalty of poverty, degradation, and decay.  (Chp 11 - The New Patriotism)  When will we as America run out of our resources.  In chapter 11, The New Patriotism, Pinchot names essentials: wood, water, coal, iron and agricultural productions. Is this still true today? I think the essence is, with a little renaming, such as energy instead of coal, for instance. If you think about what happened when America became energy dependent on the Middle East and how that changed our politics, you can what would happen if we cannot supply our own food. Decay and decline will follow as Pinchot said.

for the destruction of the forests means the loss of the waters as surely as night follows day.  (Chp 1 - Prosperity). Interesting and that would be a yes. The forests holds in the soils and prevents erosion. If if we have enormous reservoirs, they would fill up pretty fast with silt. Since that time, we also have learned how dependent on the forests for clean air and retaining carbon from the atmosphere. He goes on and shows the opposite is true by saying:  A river is a unit, but its uses are many, and with our present knowledge there can be no excuse for sacrificing one use to another if both can be subserved. (Chp 5 - Waterways.) He understood the interconnectedness of things, even if the science was not there yet.
 
The most valuable citizen of this or any other country is the man who owns the land from which he makes his living. (Chp 2 - Home Building for the Nation). Almost sounds like GK Chesterson here. Only thing GK would have said it more eloquently (such as in The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him in a 1911 newspaper column)
The easiest way to hide a real issue always has been, and always will be, to replace it with a false one.   (Chp 2 - Home Building for the Nation). Isn't Pinchot ahead of his time? Or should we say that not much has changed since his time?  This assertion has been repeated so persistently that there is danger that it may be believed.  (Chp 5 - Waterways). This was a theme which Pinchot and Roosevelt had to deal with-false information. We see it today as well.

The conservation movement cannot be checked by the baseless charge that it will prevent development, or that every man who tells the plain truth is either a muck-raker or a demagogue.   (Chp 12 - The Present Battle). IOn Pinchot's view, conservation says that we must not overuse our resources. We must manage it in a way that there will be resources there for tomorrow. But those who want their money now fought to oppose this and exploit as much as they could. They fought with every trick in the book-scandal, witholding funding, name calling, ...
 
The object of education in general is to produce in the boy or girl, and so in the man or woman, three results: first, a sound, useful, and usable body; second, a flexible, well-equipped, and well-organized mind; alert to gain interest and assistance from contact with nature and coöperation with other minds; and third, a wise and true and valiant spirit, able to gather to itself the higher things that best make life worth while.  (Chp 3-Better Times On The Farm) What are we equipping our students to be today? Test takers, not thinkers.


 To-day we understand that forest fires are wholly within the control of men.   Chp 4-Principles of Conservation. But there are places where he is not right. Sort of like computer virus', forest fires have a way of outracing human abilities to restrain them. Take a look at the big fires we have today. Even with our technology, we still get huge fires and are racing to prevent the next big one. We have also seen that it was not good to completely do away with forest fires.


There are things higher than business. (Chp 3-Better Times On The Farm)   There are many men who believe, and who will always believe, in the divine right of money to rule     (Chp 10 - An Equal Chance) In a lot of ways, Pinchot had socialistic thinking. The resources are for the people, not a person. It is the common man who should benefit. Reagan's trickle down theories are old, as old as the scoundrels who opposed Roosevelt and Pinchot. There only goal was to make money, and heaven help those in their way. 

 conservation should obtain, when all is said and done, conservation goes back in its directest application to one body in this country, and that is to the children.   (Chp 9 - The Children)   The profoundest duty that lies upon any father is to leave his son with a reasonable equipment for the struggle of life and an untarnished name. (Chp 11 - The New Patriotism) In its simplest form, conservation  looks to what is the future like, capitalism looks to how can I make more money today. Still true and still being fought.

  President Hadley well said that "the fundamental division of powers in the Constitution of the United States is between voters on the one hand and property-owners on the other     (Chp 10 - An Equal Chance)  Arthur Twining Hadley was the President of Yale, first as a Greek scholar, then an economist, and an expert on railroad tariffs. The question of who owns the land and how did they come to own it is a particular concern to Pinchot. In the West, you could homestead your 160 acres and own the land. What people would do is stake a claim for a property and then quickly sell the property to lumber, mining and rail interests, making the owners rich in property and later on rich in cash.

Danger to a nation comes either from without or from within.   (Chp 11 - The New Patriotism)  If there be danger, it is not from an external source.  (Chp 11 - The New Patriotism) In 1910, Pinchot viewed there was three great crisis': 1) The American Revolution, 2) The Civil War, 3) Those who deprive the Nation of future resources.  It seems like an overstatement. But at this time, the Nation was coming to a place where it could not expand more, so  how was it to deal with future ws a big question in Pinchot's mind about the future viability as a nation. Could we continue to clear cut forests, strip mine mountains? Or did we need to be conscious of where we are going? His answer was to be conscious of our usage and think about the future uses.



 What is Conservation?
  • The object of the great Conservation movement is just this, to make our country a permanent and prosperous home for ourselves and for our children, and for our children's children, and it is a task that is worth the best thought and effort of any and all of us. (Chp 2 - Home Building for the Nation)
  • Conservation means the greatest good to the greatest number for the longest time.  (Chp 4-Principles of Conservation)
  • The first great fact about conservation is that it stands for development. (Chp 4-Principles of Conservation) 
  • In the second place conservation stands for the prevention of waste.   (Chp 4-Principles of Conservation)
  • The central thing for which Conservation stands is to make this country the best possible place to live in, both for us and for our descendants. (Chp 7 - The Moral Issue)
  • Shall we continue, as a Nation, to exist in well-being? That is the conservation problem.     (Chp 9 - The Children)
Taking these statements as a whole, even though in different essays, one understands conservation not as an end to itself, but as preservation of resources for future development and use. It also means, that the Nation's resources is not just for those who have, but for all. Pinchot's notion is that the land with its riches are for all, not a few; bot for the now but for all Americans, even those in the future. If we think that way, then we think more in terms of sustainability, not in quick gain.

 But it also means that preservation is not an end to itself. Later this comes into play where he is in great conflict with John Muir over Hetch-Hetchy. Pinchot saw Hetch-Hetchy as a means for future development, Muir thought it was to be preserved for itself. We still have that argument today. Probably the answer is that it is for both and how we find the criteria is what will be the key question for now and the future.

 We can see the divide very plainly. The US Forest Service took Pinchot and went even farther than he thought and was for development and development now. The National park Service took Muir's ideas and it has become hard to do anything which humans do on that land.
There is ...   no interest of the people to which the principles of conservation do not apply. (Chp 4-Principles of Conservation)  I wonder how far you can take this statement.


 Who Owns the Nation's Resources?
  • The natural resources must be developed and preserved for the benefit of the many, and not merely for the profit of a few.   (Chp 4-Principles of Conservation)
  • it is well understood that the influence of the corporations in our law-making bodies is usually excessive, not seldom to the point of defeating the will of the people steadily and with ease   (Chp 5 - Waterways)  
  • The conservation movement is calling the attention of the American people to the fact that they are trustees. (Chp 6 -Business)
  •  It[conservation] asserts that the people have the right and the duty, and that it is their duty no less than their right, to protect themselves against the uncontrolled monopoly of the natural resources which yield the necessaries of life.   (Chp 7 - The Moral Issue)
  •  There is no form of monopoly that has ever existed or can exist which can do harm if the people understand that the natural resources belong to the people of the Nation, and exercise that understanding, as they have the power to do.    (Chp 9 - The Children)
It becomes very obvious that Pinchot feels the land is of the people, for the people, by the people. It is not for the rich. The land is to be used for the benefit of those who live on it and each person or family should have a place they could own.

A friend of mine commented 30+ years ago how much the US Government owns of California. He thought it was too much; I thought it was too little. the concerns continue to this day.





Connection between the Common Man and the Nation's Resources
  • Conservation has much to do with the welfare of the average man of to-day  (Chp 7 - The Moral Issue)
  • And unless we win our industrial liberty, we can not keep our political liberty  (Chp 7 - The Moral Issue)
  •  The result is always the same—a toll levied on the cost of living through special privilege.   (Chp 10 - An Equal Chance )
  • we must face the truth that monopoly of the sources of production makes it impossible for vast numbers of men and women to earn a fair living      (Chp 10 - An Equal Chance)
Without the rights to resources and the land, the general public becomes more like the serfs with the kings and lords; or blacks being sharecroppers. Always doomed to servitude and a kind of economic slavery. Pinchot ties liberty to ownership. In our society, what other way can there be? Maybe in a kibbutz type of economy you can get away from personal ownership.
  

Public Good 

  • A bureau may keep within the law and yet fail to get results  (Chp 5 - Waterways) 
  • I hold it to be his second duty, and a close second, to do everything the law will let him do for the public good, and not merely what the law compels or directs him to do.  (Chp 5 - Waterways) 
  • To every public officer the law should be, not a goad to drive him to his duty, but a tool to help him in his work.  (Chp 5 - Waterways)
  • Recently the attention of our people, thanks largely to President Roosevelt, was focused upon the presence or absence of the common virtues and the common decencies in public life ( Chp 8 -Public Spirit)
  • It is the first duty of a public officer to obey the law. But it is his second duty, and a close second, to do everything the law will let him do for the public good, and not merely what the law directs or compels him to do.      (Chp 10 - An Equal Chance)
Just to think that at one time a great deal of the Republican party felt and thought as Pinchot did. That the law should be instructing public servants and prodding them to do the public good, rather than restricting them from taking action.Today the tension is does the law allow me to do something, versus what does the allow want me to do.
  • It is a greater thing to be a good citizen than to be a good Republican or a good Democrat (Chp 12 - The Present Battle)
  • Who is to blame because representatives of the people are so commonly led to betray their trust? We all are—we who have not taken the trouble to resent and put an end to the knavery we knew was going on.   (Chp 12 - The Present Battle)
  •  When political parties come to be badly led, when their leaders lose touch with the people, when their object ceases to be everybody's welfare and becomes somebody's profit, it is time to change the leaders. (Chp 12 - The Present Battle)
Today we are more interested in being politically correct according to the standards of our association: democrat, republican, tea party, .... But we only give lip-service to what is good for the country? What is right? What is moral? We seem to be losing our way.



What we need is the use of the law for the public good, and the construction of it for the public welfare.     (Chp 2 - Home Building for the Nation ) How many of our laws is not for the common good, but for a small group to get ahead?


I   have known of no case of persistent agitation under discouragement finer in a good many ways than the fight that the women of California have made to save the great grove of Calaveras big trees   (Chp 9 - The Children) Only quoting this because of the reference to Calaveras Big Trees.

  The task of correcting things is based on two things: Honesty of public servants; and 2) publicity of all public affairs-what we would call transparency..  (Chp 12 - The Present Battle). Both of which is always in short supply. I think there is a third and fourth things to correct situations-probably Pinchot assumed these: intelligence and passion.
 

 
Morality of Conservation
  • The conservation issue is a moral issue. Chp 10 - An Equal Chance
  • The war for righteousness is endless, but this is one of the great battles, and its results will endure   Chp 8 -Public Spirit
  • Among the first duties of every man is to help in bringing the Kingdom of God on earth.   Chp 8 -Public Spirit
  • The conservation issue is a moral issue, and the heart of it is this: For whose benefit shall our natural resources be conserved—for the benefit of us all, or for the use and profit of the few? Chp 12 - The Present Battle
When framed with how the concentration of resources amongst a small group of people, you start understanding why this is a moral issue, not so much because of conserving to save because the item has intrinsic value, but because of the effects greed has upon others. Greed harms both our follow man, but also because it harms the children and their children. This a very man-centric view rather than a pantheistic view.


 wickedness of national waste   Chp 9 - The Children. Just the phrase says what I think. As I consciously waste, I do not bless the God who made these resources. Hence, the wickedness.



Quality of a Man

Great decisions are made or great impulses given or withheld in the life of a man or a nation often so quietly that their critical character is seen only in retrospect. Chp 8 -Public Spirit. We, as individuals or as a nation are defined not only by the great moments, but by the small decisions we make. One thing, does Pinchot say that in order to be a conservationist you also need to hae a moral character? Can you enjoy the beauty of the outdoors while having an ugly heart?

In a day when the vast increase in wealth tends to reduce all things, moral, intellectual and material, to the measure of the dollar; in a day when we have with us always the man who is working for his own pocket all the time; when the monopolist of land, of opportunity, of power or privilege in any form, is ever in the public eye—it is good to remember that the real leaders are the men who value the right to give themselves more highly than any gain whatsoever. Chp 8 -Public Spirit   Amen

 I am assured that the great fundamental difference between men, the reason why some fail and some succeed, is not a difference in ability or opportunity, but a difference in vision and in relentless loyalty to ideals—vision to see the great object, and relentless, unwavering, uninterrupted loyalty in its service  Chp 8 -Public Spirit

The man for whom all the barriers to success have been broken down is not, as a rule, the man who succeeds. On the contrary, conflict is the condition of success. The quality of the man himself decides.   Chp 8 -Public Spirit


Evaluation:
Fight for Conservation is a compendium of essays and speeches given by Gifford Pinchot, one of the founders of the modern conversation movement. Published in 1910-I am not sure if it was before or after the Big Burn, after being expelled by William Howard Taft as being the Head Forester of the US Forest Service, Pinchot lays out his thoughts on how conservation benefits America.
Because this is all Pinchot, there is a good part in that you are reading the thoughts of what conservation is. You are getting the frame work of where we are today with the offspring of Pinchot and Roosevelt's thoughts, such as the ecology movement. On the other hand, as a book, you are only hearing Pinchot's voice and there tends to be reputation. Also much of the conservation movement has not followed Pinchot's thoughts.

As you read him and about him, you realize that today we are a far distance from what his vision was. Today, we want to conserve for the sake of things. Pinchot wanted to conserve so that the common person and future generations could use and enjoy America's resources. Read the book for the man's thoughts, but not for his prose; read for what he wanted for America, not for what the movement has become.

New Words:
  • vicissitudes : a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.
  • tenantry: the tenants of an estate.


Good Quotes:
  • First Line: The following discussion of the conservation problem is not a systematic treatise upon the subject.
  • Last Line: I believe the young men will do it.
  • When the natural resources of any nation become exhausted, disaster and decay in every department of national life follow as a matter of course. Chp 1 - Prosperity 
  • The most valuable citizen of this or any other country is the man who owns the land from which he makes his living. Chp 2 - Home Building for the Nation
  • The easiest way to hide a real issue always has been, and always will be, to replace it with a false one.   Chp 2 - Home Building for the Nation
  • What we need is the use of the law for the public good, and the construction of it for the public welfare.     Chp 2 - Home Building for the Nation
  • The object of education in general is to produce in the boy or girl, and so in the man or woman, three results: first, a sound, useful, and usable body; second, a flexible, well-equipped, and well-organized mind; alert to gain interest and assistance from contact with nature and coöperation with other minds; and third, a wise and true and valiant spirit, able to gather to itself the higher things that best make life worth while.  Chp 3-Better Times On The Farm
  • There are things higher than business. Chp 3-Better Times On The Farm
  •  Conservation means the greatest good to the greatest number for the longest time.  Chp 4-Principles of Conservation
  • A river is a unit, but its uses are many, and with our present knowledge there can be no excuse for sacrificing one use to another if both can be subserved. Chp 5 - Waterways 
  • The central thing for which Conservation stands is to make this country the best possible place to live in, both for us and for our descendants. Chp 7 - The Moral Issue
  • Great decisions are made or great impulses given or withheld in the life of a man or a nation often so quietly that their critical character is seen only in retrospect. Chp 8 -Public Spirit
  • The war for righteousness is endless, but this is one of the great battles, and its results will endure   Chp 8 -Public Spirit
  • Among the first duties of every man is to help in bringing the Kingdom of God on earth.   Chp 8 -Public Spirit
  • In a day when the vast increase in wealth tends to reduce all things, moral, intellectual and material, to the measure of the dollar; in a day when we have with us always the man who is working for his own pocket all the time; when the monopolist of land, of opportunity, of power or privilege in any form, is ever in the public eye—it is good to remember that the real leaders are the men who value the right to give themselves more highly than any gain whatsoever. Chp 8 -Public Spirit
  •  I am assured that the great fundamental difference between men, the reason why some fail and some succeed, is not a difference in ability or opportunity, but a difference in vision and in relentless loyalty to ideals—vision to see the great object, and relentless, unwavering, uninterrupted loyalty in its service  Chp 8 -Public Spirit
  • It is the first duty of a public officer to obey the law. But it is his second duty, and a close second, to do everything the law will let him do for the public good, and not merely what the law directs or compels him to do.      Chp 10 - An Equal Chance
  • a nation whose natural resources are destroyed must inevitably pay the penalty of poverty, degradation, and decay.   Chp 11 - The New Patriotism
  • The conservation issue is a moral issue, and the heart of it is this: For whose benefit shall our natural resources be conserved—for the benefit of us all, or for the use and profit of the few? Chp 12 - The Present Battle
  • It is a greater thing to be a good citizen than to be a good Republican or a good Democrat Chp 12 - The Present Battle
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