The latest biography of Theodore Roosevelt's life is too repetative to be considered brilliant, and at 900+ pages, it is more didactic than it is literature. Despite that, I recommend reading it, at least the first 20 chapters, because it is a good reminder of two things. One, the preservation of nature has always been political and has been largely unpopular. It has run contrary to business interests and is for the good of all people. Sounds good, right? Well, that is not how things work now, and for a reality check, they never went that route. So as we gear up to do unpopular things in the name of the planet related to climate change, it is good to be reminded that the Grand Canyon was a huge fight to preserve. Take heart. That was a good decision, and so is the decision to reduce carbon dioxide now.
The second excellent lesson to be learned is what it takes to be a leader in an unpopular cause. Roosevelt does not have the background that I would have predicted would have led to the creation of large bird preserves and relentless conversion of public land into protected land, but he did it on a big scale and managed to do it is a way that was hard to undo.
He understood the political process, and while he was not always successful, he was relentless, he listened to people more knowledgable than himself, and despite being vilified at various times in his life, both by people he didn't care about and those that he did, he perservered. I have had a longstanding love of the National Parks and Historic Sites system, and owe a debt of gratitude to this man.
I believe that is also important to emphasize the role that Iowa congressman John F Lacey played in government conservation initiatives. While reading this book he kept popping up and it was very nice for me to see an important Iowan at the forefront of this movement.
ReplyDeleteI acknowledge this oversight and agree that there was quite a lot that Lacey did in the conservation movement, and that as Iowans, we are woefully unaware of. Book in our future to emphasize this? The challenge would be to be a whole lot less tedious and a whole lot more fun about the whole thing!
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