Because The Public Lands Belong To All

What We Have Done With The American Indian Is Its Way As Bad As What We Imposed On The Negroes. We Took A Proud And Independent Race And Virtually Destroyed Them. We Have To Find Ways To Bring Them Back Into Decent Lives In This Country.

I See The Face Of A Child. He Lives In A Great City. He Is Black. Or He Is White. He Is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None Of That Matters. What Matters, He's An American Child.

Most Days I Feel Like The Sole Survivor Of A Shipwreck, Rowing My Paddleboat Across A Sea Of People On Waves Made Of An Infinite Array Of Hands And Crests That Reveal Anonymous Faces. On A Good Day, The Clouds Part To Alight On-lo And Behold-an Island! I Step Ashore, Only Find That It Too Is Made Of People, Mangled Bodies Somehow Still Alive. They Grab At My Feet, Pulling Me Under Like Quicksand. The Last Thing I See Before Suffocating Is The Sky, A Billion Eyes Staring Down, Blinking In Undulating Electric Ripples. The Cold Rain I Feel On My Cheeks Is The Tears Of The People.

It Is Sad That It Was Necessary That Santa Barbara Should Be The Example That Had To Bring It To The Attention Of The American People. What Is Involved Is The Use Of Our Resources Of The Sea And Of The Land In A More Effective Way And With More Concern For Preserving The Beauty And The Natural Resources That Are So Important To Any Kind Of Society That We Want For The Future. The Santa Barbara Incident Has Frankly Touched The Conscience Of The American People.

Once One Determines That He Or She Has A Mission In Life, That's It's Not Going To Be Accomplished Without A Great Deal Of Pain, And That The Rewards In The End May Not Outweigh The Pain -if You Recognize Historically That Always Happens, Then When It Comes, You Survive It.