web powered by 
Home 
Opinion Editor's Note: Passion can’t be left strictly to the fringes
Editor's Note: Passion can’t be left strictly to the fringes
|
“I understand you’re green.” She said it approvingly, but I still responded with gentle sarcasm: “Flesh-tone, actually.” It was near the end of our first-ever conversation. We’d been talking about news coverage of something. If it caught me a bit off-guard, it was only because it distilled into a single word, “green,” a point of view that seems to represent one side of the political spectrum in Del Norte County. More than Republican/Democrat or liberal/conservative, we break down along environmental lines of thought — especially when it comes to local growth. The “greenest” of us seem to want no growth. On the other fringe are those of us who think almost any growth is good. There are folks at the far edges of any public issue. Like the lady who told me any improvement to Pebble Beach Drive that led to higher usage would be a mistake if we want to preserve this area’s environmental integrity, even though in some stretches pedestrians are perilously squeezed between guardrails and oncoming traffic.
Or the guy who grumbled that there would be plenty of good-paying jobs
around here if only we were still logging some of our remaining
old-growth redwoods.
The problem with political discourse is that the people on the fringes often have the loudest voices, their radical stands leaving those in the middle turned off by the whole debate. Richard Nixon referred to a “silent majority” that he rather disingenuously claimed supported his policies. After all, who knows where the “silent” stand? What we need are passionate moderates. People who are open to collaboration and compromise, and pursue them with something approaching the same fervor that fuels the radicals. People who are comfortable in the middle, but far from silent about it. I’m not sure why the woman on the telephone considered me “green.” Perhaps because I write a hiking column and blather on about the joy of traipsing through one of the most beautiful places on Earth. A day later, though, I was writing an editorial basically saying, enough with the wetland studies, let’s build a bigger airport terminal. Some people say environmentalists have already won the philosophical war in Del Norte. A glance at a county map will tell you that vast amounts of land have indeed been preserved. Nevertheless, balanced approaches are important with each new proposal for expansion or improvement so that we do the best possible job of protecting our incredibly good-looking environment while also nurturing our economic quality of life. Finding that balance means a brighter future. It means embracing the concept of “sustainability” for both our natural resources and for job-creation. That’s something to be passionate about. |
Triplicate front page
Get home delivery of the Triplicate for only $7.94 a month. After filling out one simple and secure online form you could be on your way to learning more about your city, state and world than you ever have before.
