Mike -
I openly admit I have fallen into the category of the "Fair Weather Soldier" with respect to Bonneville. I don't believe the type of sustained leadership necessary to pursue the cause is there, and I have some issues with the rhetorical boilerplate of the designated mouthpiece. I do believe we had momentum a year ago, but the last 11 months, starting in Oregon and ending in the recent coup d'etat of the Republican Party, have simply taken the starch out of me. It certainly didn't help our cause that the BLM was able to put together a promotional piece showing what appeared to be a fully functional event.
And realistically, we're in a holding pattern until the study is done.
I'm certainly not looking for a savior in Washington. The recent election and the assentation of the former Speaker of the House to the position as "Chief Planner" - provided he has the ear of the President elect - does not bode well for environmentalists such as myself with regard to restoring the Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway.
I've had this comic strip posted in my basement for 20 years -
http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1996/01/14My memory is long on these issues, and while I fully recognize the need to mine for products that make this modern world what it is today, and the need to make America competitive in the world markets, I think we should also balance those needs against the desires of those who have traditionally used places such as Bonneville for recreation.
My fear is that we will be viewed as standing in the way of making America great again. It's my hope that we are recognized as a component of that greatness.
Maintaining lease agreements with marginally profitable companies, utilizing third-world extraction technologies that leave the surrounding environment blighted, in order to compete in a market of cheap, internationally traded commodities is not a strategy for greatness.
My views are always evolving, and I know things change, but today, I am not optimistic.
