Dear HCN,
I thoroughly enjoyed your
essay, “Rearranging the grid” (HCN,
1/29/01: Rearranging the grid), as I do most of what you
write. I have become a little jaded at the stridence of
environmental writing today, the constant inferences that, indeed,
the sky is falling. After 77 years, I know
better.
Your graphic description of how pragmatic
conservative Westerners often are and how they often come around to
goals and means that further conservation is smack on target. After
all, isn’t that what conservative used to mean? Yours was a
thoughtful story about little people, and yet it sustains the
concept that people of good will and common sense can deal with
divisive problems in rational, constructive ways. I fervently
believe this is the template of success, not law courts and
restraining orders.
Your writing reminds me of
Wallace Stegner’s. He was never a heavy breather, but he wrote
sensitively of the West and its problems. Your essay affirms his
conviction that “stickers” who live full time out here will
determine the future of our land, and that the Rocky Mountain West
is, indeed, the native home of hope.
Thanks for
the encouragement.
John M.
Good
Yellowstone National Park,
Wyoming
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline In praise of pragmatism.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
