How to stop a government heist
Love for our public lands is the unifying elixir.
Yesterday, I was writing about the senselessness of the proposed public lands sell-off. Today, I woke up to news of war.
I keep wondering: How do we navigate a broken heart over what seems to be the worst thing only to be hit with another, even worse thing?
We are in a perpetual spiral. Sink drain. Toilet bowl.
The chaos risks splitting us apart at the seams. In the fragmentation, we lose the ability to wield influence with precision. To cut where it counts.
Why We Must Protect Our Empathy
A recent study published in Nature indicates that increased cognitive load (aka the endless newstream) prevents prosocial behavior.
The answer?
Maintaining our empathy. (TLDR: Don’t lose the plot of our feeling, beating, breathing hearts).
Let us do that together today, for our public lands.
Because we are in a sliver of time where your voice could matter on this one. In a big way.
A Love Letter to Public Lands
I grew up visiting and loving public lands in the Western United States. Vast stretches of Colorado mountains, long-living rivers, wide-open deserts and thick forests.
I do not need to expound on why the beauty, complex ecosystems, and environmental significance of these lands should be protected. I imagine you also have a skin-close love for these places. They are wildly easy to love.
In fact, I fear that I debase the land by begging for others to see the land’s true value. And yet, we must.
Because today, their existence is on the line.
The Threat: 250 Million Acres of Public Land Could Disappear
To catch you up, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a provision in the latest Big Beautiful Bill that would make upwards of 250 million acres of public lands eligible for sale. These are prime recreation, wildlife, historic, and cultural lands throughout eleven states, including California, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and more. The US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management ensure these lands are available for everyone. This would be the largest sell-off of public lands in American history, with no rules or regulations for their use.
How could such a thing even be possible?
Roosevelt's Vision: A Glorious Heritage for the Future
Let’s back up. Between 1901 and 1909, President Teddy Roosevelt established landmark protections for 230 million acres of public lands. He writes,
We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.
- Teddy Roosevelt
These treasures are just that because they remain untouched.
But since land is valuable, there are those who are incapable of seeing natural resources as more than dollar signs. It reflects a wantonly sad and narrow vision of human and biological life. Moreover, it is an indefensible worldview with astronomically damaging effects.
In light of this latest attempt to vandalize, destroy, or permit the destruction of what is most beautiful in nature, we have to both balk at the brazenness, act immediately to prevent it and do the unlearning necessary to shed the domination mindset that is incapable of contributing to a flourishing planet.
I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.
- Teddy Roosevelt
We have already turned our rivers and streams into sewers, we pollute the air, we destroy forests, we kill animals, but this would be our ultimate self-annihilation.
When we destroy the Earth, we hurt ourselves too. Because we are nature.
May we protect our public lands. May we keep our hearts close to the soil.
They are priceless. In a world set on consuming every last natural resource for imperial growth, they stand as a line of resistance, a beacon of remembrance, and a resource of relationship that far outpaces any currency.
So, what now?
A Chance to Stop The Theft
Already I have read that four Republican Senators will not support this provision (Idaho and Montana). If they maintain that opposition, we may have a chance. The vote could happen any day before July 4th.
I am sitting here with a fervent heart, hopeful that people across the political spectrum are calling their senators, pressuring them to do right by our land.
I am pleased that this issue is uniting people with different political views. That the love of the planet could be a unifying cord.
As Teddy Roosevelt writes, “But at last it looks as if our people were awakening.”
Wake up we must.
With eyes and heart wide open, let yourself appreciate these lands. Let your body be filled with empathy and care. Let your heart grow with resolve.
We can stop this government heist. We can and we must.
I believe in us.
With love for our public lands,
Lindsay
What You Can Do Right Now
Ecological Medicine Prompt: Connect with Public Land
I know news like this can feel paralyzing, and it’s very good medicine to come into connection with movement and love. To not feel frozen.
I invite you to visit a piece of public land where you live. You can look for public land managed by BLM here. It’s remarkable how many activities are possible on these lands.
You can also find a national forest here.
Take a journal with you. What Would You Write in Response to the Landscape Around You?
If you desire, share your responses below. I’d love to read what you see, feel and notice.
Maintain our empathy. Yes. I appreciate how important public lands are to our well being. Thank you.