The Navajo are pushing to build a Visitors Center,..stores on the rim and a gondola down into the Grand Canyon at the Confluence of the Colorado and the Little Colorado rivers. The basic point of our national parks is to provide a respite from the stresses of the modern world. The industrial age fundamentally altered humans relationship to the Land. We became estranged from the Land and ourselves. Before then 90% of the human population worked the land to feed itself. Our ancestors back to the dawn of humanity walked everywhere we got and carried everything we owned. They lived Nature everyday. Nothing like the worlds most of us live in now. Importing the modern world into the Grand Canyon belies why it was set aside in the first place. So what? Why should the past matter? That was them ,..this is now. Its called progress you might say? Why did our ancestors set this place aside? The human body is designed to walk and work,..200,000 generations made it so. When that all got waylaid by the hydrocarbon revolution,..burning coal for energy, which lead to the industrial revolution and the modern state structures, humans became estranged from their basic nature. These places are protected to be a touchstone to our basic human nature,..along with being beautiful in their own right. Much of that beauty exists because the mechanized world is kept at bay. Most of us here know this truth in our bones and have voted with our feet (of boats) as the saying goes. If its Disney World people like,...there are many many such contrived environments for them to go spend their money at.Woo woo for them,..I say go have fun,..if thats your idea of it. To convert or import rides like helicopters and gondolas INTO the national parks is to betray their very reasons for being formed as a national parks. National means ,..the nation,..including the Indians,..they also are under the aegis of the United States,...despite their wish to play both sides of that imagined sovereignty coin. Making a quickie bucket list check off box for bored tourists and gamblers from Vegas isnt the reason weve protected this amazing place.Otherwise,..lets just sell the Land and fill it up with vacation homes,..Disney gondola rides,..zip lines,..bungee jumps,..tourist traps,...and ticky tacky gift shops,..and other so called modern conveniences. Problem solved! The very difficulty of access, not based on hydro-carbons,..but raw human and animal power is just one aspect of what makes our National Parks and especially the Grand Canyon so special. Gravity rules here! Otherwise lets build a bullet train thru the place and we could see it all in about two hours from Vegas! Woo woo ,..wouldnt that be fun! Have you ever seen Niagara Falls or the Royal Gorge,...human zoos of commercial ticky tack. Is that really what we want the Grand Canyon to become because were too lazy and distracted to protect it? The problem with the helicopters coming below the Rim is that helicopters below the Rim are the camels nose under the tent,...and now the Navajo can use the excuse of equitable treatment to claim they should have a similar right with their little slice of the industrial tourist pie on the edge of Paradise. Gondolas! Woo Woo! Hey they can do helicopters why cant we do gondolas?! Like kids complaining to mommy Mommm Billy built a tent over the couch, why cant I build a fort under the dining room table! Waahh,..why are you always so mean to meeee! What we are really seeing is the rapacious clawing hand of commerce weaseling into the National Parks under the slippery guise of fairness to the Indians, attempting to guilt trip Americans,...who created this sanctuary from all the mechanical industrialized world as a respite in the first place. As usual Commerce is playing the edges ,..trying to cash in on the very attraction of the century long protection afforded the Grand Canyon. Its so beautiful,... lets ruin it with Disney rides! Profit is not the issue or the first purpose in the Grand Canyon. Respite from the modern worlds hydro-carbon fixation on easier, faster,..more and now. Gimme gimme gimme NOW,..is NOT why the Grand Canyon was set aside in the first place! Untrammeled spectacular nature is the issue and the purpose of the Grand Canyon,..when we let clawing commerce steal it under our noses were abandoning our birthrights. The Canyon is perhaps the worlds premiere site of guarded nature,...set aside as a sanctuary from an ever encroaching abuse by the modern worlds constant degradation of nature for profit. We are betraying our ancestors and short changing our children if we allow the camel noses any further under the tent. The essential history of this place is to keep it as a respite from mechanical/ machine based development and modern society. President Roosevelt was right,...we cant improve it we can only mar it.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 19:57:53 +0000
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