The “America’s Redrock Wilderness Bill” (House Bill 1550) needs to get passed. The bill would protect the largest wilderness area in the contiguous 48 states (in Utah) and save it for recreational use for ourselves and posterity.
There is no question that the land is special. Amazing rock formations abound, and it is the home of mountain lions. As part of our American heritage, this land should not be developed or altered in any way. There is so little wilderness left that it is imperative that we save this–it is something we owe to the children of our country. We owe it also to ourselves, to our own psychical well-being.
Time magazine’s Aug. 28 cover story describes our psychological heritage and paints a picture of a species that is less comfortable with some of the aspects of the modern age; this species evolved in a more natural state. To take away all wilderness would be then to destroy a part of our identity.
We need the Utah wilderness; it is important spiritually that it is set aside. Even if we never visit it, we can rest better knowing that humans are not the masters of the whole country, that some-where a mountain lion creeps and a rock remains unnamed, that in Utah it is possible to look and see no trappings of human life for 150 miles. We can humble ourselves and understand who we really are; we can become more human.
