I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Oh, Lord, through the revolution
Steve Miller Band
It seems like a different lifetime -it was so long ago; certain images and events during my years in the United States Air Force connects me to that period of my life that has become the bricks in my current foundation. Certainty, it's unlikely I would have lived in or even visited North Dakota and Guam. I wouldn't have even gone down a silo of a live Minuteman missile, reaching out to touch it, only to have nightmares for weeks. (I actually dreamed one night a nuke hit my dorm, as I stood outside with family members. We all ducked just in time for the radiation to go over our heads, and then standing erect again, all we saw was devastation.)
I remember drinking water from a pump on the side of the road. The fresh water from that well is still the best and coldest I ever tasted. I also remember on one lazy day, our response team parked on an isolated road, and saw an odd- looking rag fluttering on a barb wire fence. One of the guys suggested it might not be a rag, but some kind of animal. We climbed out the peacekeeper and marched over toward the object. Sure enough, it was a living animal...barely alive, but still majestic: it was a hawk (North Dakota has nine species of hawks).
Surveying the area- it was easy to see what happened. There was a gopher hole near the fence, it was clear the hawk zeroed in on his prey when "smack", the barbed wire fence snared it in a menacing yoke. It would have been a death trap, but it's a good thing I was on duty with a couple of country boys that knew exactly what to do. We covered the hawk's head to block its vision, and consequently stopped the bird-of-prey from attacking. Then, my buddy pulled out his pocket knife, and we delicately cut- off the part of the wing that was too tangled to finesse off the fence.
We radioed the base, and within a couple of hours officers from the state wildlife agency arrived and took the bird, assuring us it would live and probably even fly again.
It's a moment I'll never forget. I don't consider myself an environmentalist, and yet two years ago when a bald eagle circled my backyard and rested on the tallest tree, it was magnificent. I've watched giant white owls at dusk circle the skies without flapping their wings; and have gotten a thrill seeing an osprey in Wyoming swoop into a river seeking prey. It's been a blessing to see all these majestic scenes. I'm not the only American with a soft spot for birds-of-prey, especially eagles.
Haliaeetus Leucocephalus Forever
In 1782, despite opposition from Ben Franklinwho favored the wild turkey, the bald eagle (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus), native to America, became the official bird emblem. Ensuing years saw nonstop hunting to the point that the rapidly thinning population triggered alarm bells. The American eagle received federal protection in 1940, and the act was strengthened in 1972, which included golden eagles. Fines up to $250,000, with a second violation being a felony, underscored just how much we love the symbol of America's strength and freedom.
Well, as it turns out, there are some things more important than the symbol of America's greatness.
Windmills!
The Obama administration is granting 30-year waivers to wind farms whose turbines and equipment cause the death of bald and golden eagles. The news is disheartening. Moreover, it's amazing how many fossil fuel projects have been held up over the years, including Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, (ANWR) and associated pipelines in Alaska which stalled and faced unrelenting opposition over a variety of wildlife concerns, including:
> Ivory-billed Woodpecker
> Polar Bears
> Porcupine Caribou
> Eider
> Short-tailed Albatross
The same forces that made it hell for Alaska oil production recently shook down Texas shale driller for $20,000 per well, pledges to repair the land later (over the Dune Sagebrush Lizard), and complain of risks to animals from a Keystone pipeline, have turned the other way, with the all clear to kill the symbol of America. Years of handwringing over endangered, and threatened animals, have proven to be a farce, in light of the willingness to slaughter all manner of birds to make way for windmills.
I continue to find it amazing how easy it is for the White House to amend or change laws at will. Where's Congress? Where's the American public? Can the bald eagle motivate like the spotted owl?
Creation of a Power Base
Anyone remember how 160,000 loggers lost their livelihoods to make sure the native habitat of the Northern spotted owl was preserved? It was a pitched battle, which ushered in a new level of power for environmentalists, which used guerilla warfare tactics, including sabotaging trees with giant spikes that ripped electric saws to shreds, while severely wounding loggers wielding them.
In the end, it was a series of laws that proved to be better weapons.
Wilderness Act
"A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."
After eight years and more than 60 drafts, Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964. That law and many others helped to destroy logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, a joke of a compromise was offered by President Clinton, which saw a small patch of land set aside for loggers. Some of the fastest growing counties, which had created great jobs over the last two decades, have descended into hopelessness. Some of these counties report up to 30% of the population on food stamps.
The battle over the Northern spotted owl was never the true concern of protestors; they simply hated commercial logging from the days of would-be robber barons to large corporations. Environmentalists were propelled into an amazingly powerful force in American politics. As for the Northern spotted owl; its population is thinning at a rate of more than 7% annually, and will soon be extinct. Who is the culprit? Try its larger more rambunctious cousin, the Barred Owl, which continues to confiscate nests and food sources, and in the process hastening the demise of its spotted kin.
It doesn't matter now...environmentalists have got the power; commercial interests have been dealt a blow - formerly proud hardworking Americans have been reduced to government handouts.
Laws have been changed, symbols of freedom destroyed, and hypocrisy reins...Oh, Lord, where is the revolution?