Abbey And His Fear Of Progress Essay — страница 2

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second, stop building roads. The third and final step is to set the park rangers to work. For the first step, a giant parking lot would be constructed about ten miles away from the park. This will require people to find other means of transportation, such as feet, bike, or horses to get there. The best plan would be for the government to provide bikes to the people who don?t have one, to use for free. Their necessities: tent, food, clothes, etc. will be transported to their campsite free of charge. Those who are not able to ride a bike would also be shuttled to the campgrounds. In the camp ground there would be a few stores that would supply things that are forgotten, or ran out (Abbey 60). The second step kind of falls into place after the first one is implemented. The money

saved by not making anymore roads could be put into enacting the plan as a whole. Improving the trail systems would also be a good candidate for some more money. The existing roads would be used by the bikes, and the support vehicles. The size of the park will have seemed to have increased overnight, because of the lack of vehicles to carry you across them in under an hour. A two week vacation can be had, and enjoyed in one park; instead of jumping from park to park (Abbey 62-63). The final step is to make leaders out of the park rangers. This will be required once the people start hiking the trails; someone needs to keep them from getting lost, killed, maimed, etc. The people could also use a “tour guide,” one to teach them the history of the land, making the trip all the

more interesting. Who better to do this then the park rangers (Abbey 63-64)? There will of course be people who oppose the idea saying that people just won?t leave the luxury of their own cars. Yes, there are a lot of Americans who would not be up to the challenge, but it might be surprising how many people are lured to the added adventure of actually being outdoors. The amount of people might even be larger than when the parks are flooded with cars (Abbey 64). Abbey was hopeful when he summed it up with a billboard that would be posted at the parks in the future, it reads as follows (65-66): HOWDY FOLKS. WELCOME. THIS IS YOUR NATIONAL PARK, ESTABLISHED FOR THE PLEASURE OF YOU AND ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. PARK YOUR CAR, JEEP, TRUCK, TANK, MOTORBIKE, SNOWMOBILE, JETBOAT, AIRBOAT,

SUBMARINE, AIRPLANE, JETPLANE, HELICOPTER, HOVERCRAFT, WINGED MOTORCYCLE, ROCKETSHIP, OR ANY OTHER CONCEIVABLE TYPE OF MOTORIZED VEHICLE IN THE WORLD?S BIGGEST PARKINGLOT BEHIND THE COMFORT STATION IMMEDIATELY TO YOUR REAR. GET OUT OF YOUR MOTORIZED VEHICLE, GET ON YOUR HORSE, MULE, BICYCLE OR FEET, AND COME ON IN. ENJOY YOURSELVES. THIS HERE PARK IS FOR people. The above plan probably will never happen, but it would save the parks system from a fate worse than death. The parks should be regarded as more than just a roadside tourist trap. Abbey asked, “Are men no better than sheep or cattle, that they must live always in view of on another in order to feel a sense of safety?” Abbey believes that the answer is “no (Abbey 68),” I tend to agree, people need to get away from

the hustle and bustle of their lives. The national parks system is a great way to get away. If we continue to allow our parks to be desecrated by progress our parks system will be just as bad as what you are trying to leave. Abbey strongly believed in his cause. He would also get furious at the destruction of mother nature; he spoke out against this in his lectures and essays. James Bishop wrote in his book The Monkey Wrench Gang (Little 35). Because of Abbey?s madcap but deadly serious novel, people of all ages can never again look the same way at massive freeway systems where desert and farmland used to be; at once-lush forests now clear-cut into lunar landscapes-or at huge dams on once-free rivers. Abbey loved the land so much that he wanted to be buried under a rock, in a

sleeping bag, in the middle of the desert (Sandlin 11). Carved into the rock reads (Little 35): EDWARD ABBEY 1927-1989 NO COMMENT Little, Charles E. “Books for the Wilderness.” Wilderness. Summer 1994: 34-35. Sandlin, Tim. “Nightmare Abbey.” The New York Times Book Review. 1994, December 11. Webster?s Dictionary and Thesaurus. 1993. Landoll, Inc.