Have you heard of Edward Abbey?
I'll bet folks in Tucson have. Our local weekly free rag had a story about him. The reason is water. Edward Abbey was from New Mexico. He was hired to be a ranger in 1956-57 by the United States National Park Service at Arches National Monument.
When the Colorado River was dammed up to create Glen Canyon Reservoir, Ed was quite upset. He was an environmentalist of environmentalists who knew the ruin this would cause. He famously and calmly believed in "sabotoge and subversion as the last resort" for protecting the environment. Karo syrup in gas tanks of bulldozers and spiking red wood trees were things environmentalists did in the old days to thwart and slow down the total destruction of the environment.
Ed had disciples such as Dave Foreman who founded Earth First! These folks of course are classified as eco-terrorists today. Bill McKibben doesn't advocate for the tactics used by these early environmentalists. He prefers what he calls "the sensible middle path" which uses social media as the main tool to spread the gospel. It is interesting to me that when Bill recently gave a speech in Chico, CA he warned young people to avoid doing anything for the environment which could result in arrest because that would seriously mess up the potential for opportunities in their lives while saying retired folks should be the ones on the front lines getting arrested because it can't harm you.
Well, Edward Abbey was written about in our local free weekly rag because there's a new book written about him by David Gessner titled All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West.
Ed wrote books too. Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang are like guide manuals for activist environmentalists because Ed was about agitating vs. taking the "sensible middle path."
Edward Abbey is back in vogue again because we've seen a dramatic decline in protecting our earth during the past 15 years and reaching back all the way to 1980. Even though he started the activist environmental movement, it wasn't on purpose. It came out of his personal philosophy. Speaking about himself he said, "I have no desire to be a leader of any kind. I dislike being called a guru. I think every man should be his own guru. Every woman their own gurette. We should all be leaders."
Ed inspires young environmentalists to this day. Remember Tim DeChristopher? He was the young man known as "bidder 70" who got control over a bunch of oil and gas extraction claims in Utah. I was extremely impressed by that. Unfortunately he got in legal trouble because he couldn't actually afford to pay for all those claims. They got him for "financial fraud," but he's a hero in my book for doing what he did to protect the environment and our land. He was inspired to do what he did by reading Edward Abbey when he was 18 years old.
There's a lot to know about Ed, but I'll leave it here. If you want to learn more about him google him. Here's the wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/...
Here's a link to the article in the Chico News and Review written by Brad Rassler which inspired tonight's diary: https://www.newsreview.com/...
And here's a neat seven minute interview with him from his Tuscon home:
Edward died in 1989 at the young age of 62 after an operation for esophageal varices. When asked what he wanted on his grave he said, "no comment." He was buried somewhere in the Arizona desert by friends. If you really did some detective work, you could find him, but why on earth would you want to do that for?
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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