71
Peter Bahouth, Greenpeace
P.O. Box 3720
Washington D.C.20007
Dear Mr. Bahouth:
Thank you for your letter. I have lived a long time.
I was born and raised in the Province of Manitoba,
in Western Canada. As a child, there was still unspoiled
prairie. It was a natural paradise. I fell in love with it.
So all my life I have been a conservationist.
I was brought up with the idea that all of us owed a debt to
past and an obligation to sustain the environment. I was
taught that one must have a cause that is bigger than
themselves. That they must fight the right battles even if
they are not winning at the time.
You are fighting the right battles. Our nation seeks better
weapons. That is not enough. We must also demonstrate a
better way of life. Otherwise war seems inevitable.
When I arrived, there were few electric lights to spoil the
view of the stars. The sky could be magical. The Northern
lights were a thing of magic to a child. On a sunny day,
on the prairie, one was never out of earshot of the beautiful
song of the meadowlark. High in the sky, was the sweet faint
song of the horned larks.
There were plenty of hawks, often perched on fence posts.
People often shot them. Said they were chicken hawks. This
gave me anguish. I loved hawks.
There was quietness. At night , in the spring and fall,
one could hear the honking of the great flocks of Canada
geese. In the winter. I used snow shoes and studied
the tracks of various wild creatures in the snow.
I became clever at snaring rabbits. They had made paths in
the snow. I used copper wire.The Indians must have used
natural fibers. They needed the food. I didn't. I am not
happy about this.
Our remote ancestors must have lived in close harmony with
nature. The Cree Indians in James Bay which is part of
Hudson Bay, depended on the moose for survival. They looked
on them as brothers. They would only kill them when they
were in their prime. They would only shoot them when they
were fairly certain that they could kill them. If they
wounded a moose, they would track it, until they were able to
put it out of its misery.
The Quebec Province in Canada is presently destroying the
homeland of the Cree Indians to create an enormous electric
power project. They expect to sell the surplus to the U.S.A.
The culture of a gentle people who have sustained their
resources for over 500 years has been destroyed. It would
have been better if the Quebec people had learned from them.
instead of following the obsolete attitude of conquering
nature. People everywhere could have learned.
William Wordsworth, the late English poet, expressed these
feelings in his poem which begins as follows.
The world is too much with us:late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we find in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
Wordsworth expresses similar thoughts in his famous poem.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils:
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
There are four verses. the last verse ends as follows.
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
I was happy to learn that a group of nature lovers and
admirers of Wordsworth, have planted many thousands of
daffodils in the lake country where he spent so much of his
life.
I will be thinking of you and your associates. I will
store you in my memory bank. I have told thousands of
people to do the same thing, to fill their memory with fine
people and fine happenings. If we allow Television and
other amplified noise to capture our minds, we have lost our
freedom. We should also try to maintain some affinity with
nature. This is important to our mental health.
Wishing all of you good health, long life and the joy
of working for a great cause.
Sincerely.
Robert H. Little
