Take Blue Highways

America is Already Great

See for yourself

Our travels in the West continue to amaze. After leaving the high desert, we went to Las Vegas so my wife could present at her professional association’s annual conference. The difference between the natural beauty of the mountains and parks and the fake aura that is Las Vegas was made all the more stark by the blistering heat. We then crossed the low desert into the Los Angeles basin and remarked at the lack of apparent life along the way. Cactus and solar farms stretched for miles with little else to break the heat. 

Once in Southern California, the temperatures moderated some by nightfall. We went to one of our favorite haunts in South Pasadena, the Henry Huntington Gardens and Library. This was once the home of a railroad titan who spent his money collecting classic art and old rare books while building spectacular gardens to recall his various world travels. Thousands of plants along with an original Gutenberg Bible, an original Ellesmere edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and handwritten author’s notations on Mark Twain novels along with the original Gainsborough painting of The Blue Boy are on display for all to see. Couple those with an exhibit on Octavia Butler, an African American science fiction author from Pasadena, and it made for another memorable visit.

Leaving my home stomping grounds, we drove north to Moro Bay and then up the central valley from whence come most of our vegetables to Berkeley and then to Point Reyes Station across the Golden Gate into Marin County. Pt. Reyes is where the San Andreas Fault leaves the mainland and goes into the Pacific through Tomales Bay. It is home to a National Seashore preserve that protects many species of birds and sea mammals as well as providing miles of accessible beaches on the Pacific Ocean. It was good to be back at the ocean once more.

Once back on the road, we drove up US Highway 101 into Oregon. Once again, we were transfixed by the changes in scenery and topography. Open valleys filled with vineyards gave way to steep mountain ravines dotted with trees standing in brown waving grasses. We took a side jaunt before reaching Eureka that meandered along the Eel River through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The road is aptly named the Avenue of the Giants as the groves of those magnificent beings stretch to the sky on trunks wider than two cars. The canopy shadows the road even in full sunlight. The aroma of damp redwood is sublime.

Our journey the next day took us along the coast of Southern Oregon. Tall conifers line the highway until steep mountain cliffs to the sea provide breathtaking views of rocky coastlines and an ocean that does not stop until it reaches Asia. Many of the low areas sport signs warning of Tsunami hazard areas with well marked evacuation routes to higher ground. Our tornado sirens are replaced there with Tsunami sirens. Roads that hug the costal cliffs and provide the only routes connecting costal communities are engineering marvels. Many were carved out and maintained by hand to provide paths for lumbermen and gold miners of years gone by. The beaches and surf lines are dotted with rock formations that provide wonderful vistas. Small natural harbors along the way provide homes for fishing fleets that venture out to provide today’s catch to city eateries up and down the coast.

We finally turned east towards home and started up the McKenzie River along Oregon Rt. 126 out of Eugene. The mountains are heavily forested with old and new growth as logging is still in full swing here.  We will go over the McKenzie Pass and into Idaho on our way back to Wisconsin. 

We have driven to many great places in this diverse country over our years on the road. I think very few can compare to the span we have covered on this trip. We are a great nation because the people who inhabit it face unique challenges posed by their local environments and each have risen to meet those challenges in order to survive and prosper. Traveling and experiencing those differing environments while reflecting on the history of these places helps break down barriers of perceived differences among our peoples.

When you have the chance, get in your car and drive someplace you have never been. Take the blue highways. Get out and look around. Talk to the people who live there and eat local food. You will begin to appreciate how lucky we are to live in America.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.

Flat Earth Madness

The GOP Flat Earth Madness

The current Republican madness can easily be summarized with three recent examples of their governing prowess.

First, we have our own local Rep. Jesse Kremer's recent pronouncement during a legislative hearing on a bill limiting free speech that, "the Earth is 6000 years old. That's a fact."

Second, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, recently told a meeting of the Recreational Vehicle Association that he did not want to be in the business of running campgrounds because his audience would do a better job than the National Park Service. This explains his budget proposals severely curtailing the fine work the Park Service provides to the public.

Third, the Secretaries of both U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy have declared that humans have no impact on our changing climate and that the scientific consensus to the contrary is nothing more than a "hoax." They are systematically cleansing their agency's public information systems of all references to climate change while slashing funding for research into what can be done to reverse it and save the planet. They are reversing policies promoting the development of renewable energy systems and curtailing the continued use of fossil fuels.

My wife and I are currently traveling in the West. We recently spent time in both Arches and Zion National Parks. In both and along the Interstate highways leading to and from them, one can easily see that Rep. Kremer's "facts" are nothing more than beliefs based upon selected biblical references that are fine in church on Sunday but have no place in legislative deliberations. As we marveled at the towering mountain cliffs etched vertically down thousands of feet, we could clearly see the effects of millions of years of sedimentary deposits subsequently upthrust from the horizontal to near vertical and then eroded over millions of years by wind, rain, snow and swollen rivers into deep canyons. The National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey have clearly not caught up to Rep. Kremer's beliefs turned into "facts" upon which laws can be crafted. The signage the Rangers provide at viewpoints and on trails clearly proclaim the passage of many millions of years for the creation of the formations we saw.

In the National Parks we visited this Summer and over many past road trips around this beautiful country there are always exhibits covering the local history surrounding the development of each park. Invariably, they were taken from Native inhabitants who deemed them sacred by force or treaty and turned over to local citizen immigrants. These pioneer developers were often railroad titans or other profiteers who saw these pristine places as a means to make a buck when packed with tourists. They cut down trees, re-routed rivers, laid railroads or built roads to their lodges and campgrounds, then charged admission for as much as they could for as long as the resource held up. 

The creation of the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service helped reverse the damage caused by those privateers and preserve the natural beauty and sacred places for us all to enjoy. They manage the resources to preserve and protect them, to tell the histories and local stories, to advance the scientific inquiries into local ecosystems and share that knowledge without regard to profit. Secretary Zinke ignores the very mission of his agency when he proposes to cut its funding and turn over administration of the park campgrounds once more to those driven by profit.

Not content to merely re-negotiate the Paris Accords on climate change as President Trump proposes, his minions at the DOE and EPA are forging ahead to dismantle years of work aimed at saving the planet. On our travels West, we noted long coal and oil tanker trains moving antiquated fossil fuels around the country. In juxtaposition, we saw field upon field of large wind turbines in every state. In the barren Nevada dessert, we saw hundreds of acres of photovoltaic panels aimed at the sun. These are the energy sources of the future that will help prolong life on our planet. Even as our government cuts back on renewable energy, the energy industry is cutting back on fossil fuels and switching to renewables. Energy titans will continue to squeeze the fossil fuel balloon until it runs dry to be sure, but they will already be on the renewable bandwagon when it does.

The GOP, led by Trump and his shadow, Steve Bannon, will continue their madness of dismantling the government as long as we let them. Hopefully, there will still be National Parks to visit and enjoy after we send them packing.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.

Trump Fails to Protect Mother Earth

On Thursday, President Trump glibly announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement negotiated by former President Obama in 2015.

Trump made the announcement to fulfill a campaign promise, but failed to mention that we would be following the withdrawal protocol in the accord that will take three to four years to complete. That means we can change course by voting for the environment in 2018 and, more importantly, 2020 before the damage becomes too permanent.

The reactions from all but those in fossil fuel industry pockets were universally horrible. The clear winners were climate change deniers like Scott Pruitt, Trump’s head of the US EPA and shadow president Steve Bannon, whose primary goal is to dismantle the government.

Trump’s decision relies upon severely discredited theories on the impact of climate change, a deeply flawed belief that the way to economic prosperity is found by using more coal and oil and ignores the clear scientific consensus on the environmental and public health consequences of failing to reduce carbon emissions.

Pandering to a small base of his supporters, Trump ignored at his peril the majority of American voters who support the Paris Accord. A November poll by George Mason and Yale universities shows 70% of registered voters say we should stay in the Paris Accord and only 13% contend we should leave.

Foreign leaders around the planet condemned the decision. Trump ignored our global allies pleas to remain in the international effort to save the planet. Unwittingly, he turned over leadership on climate change to the Chinese who have used their economic engine to ramp up production of renewable energy technologies and are poised to take over solar panel production, which just happens to be one of the fastest growing sectors of the American economy. China’s leaders are already stepping into the global leadership vacuum Trump’s decisions are creating and exerting all the leverage their economic engine can produce to extend their influence. Trump even ignored the letter from a noted scientist who also happens to be Pope Francis urging his continued support to reduce the effects of climate change.

American businesses understand the climate change science and the economic opportunities it provides. In January, 630 business leaders and investors like DuPont, Hewlett Packard, Pacific Gas and Electric signed an open letter to then president-elect Trump urging him to reject climate denier theories, to continue investment in a low-carbon economy and to not withdraw from the Paris Accord. As Trump was finalizing his decision, other prominent business leaders such as Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk and GE Chief Jeff Imelt, all urged him to stay in the effort to fight climate change. Musk and Disney leader Robert Iger resigned from Trump’s business advisory council in protest over the decision. US farmers, already reeling from increasingly bad weather due to climate change, stand to lose even more from Trump’s decision to change policy.

More enlightened state and local leaders also stepped into the breach, vowing to continue the Paris Accord guidelines to reduce carbon emissions. Mayors from New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston all vowed to continue their environmental protection efforts. Over 60 mayors wrote an open letter to Trump urging him to stay in the Paris agreement. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has joined with other mayors, state governors and business leaders and plans to donate $15 million to the United Nations Climate Secretariat to continue its work on reducing global climate emissions in anticipation of Trump’s cutbacks to UN funding. California Governor Jerry Brown has already committed to continuing to use renewable energy sources and to reduce carbon emissions.

Not unexpectedly, climate scientists and environmental groups that have been sounding the alarm over greenhouse gas emissions, rising seas, vanishing glaciers and polar ice caps, rising temperatures, increasingly violent weather patters from hurricanes to tornadoes and other environmental catastrophes for decades also joined the condemnation of Trump’s decision.

Besides gearing up to defeat the climate change deniers in the White House and halls of Congress in the upcoming elections, there is a lot we can do locally to combat the looming disasters caused by carbon emissions. Buying food grown locally by small farm entrepreneurs will cut down on carbon emissions from food trucked over long distances. Conserving energy with efficient appliances and lighting, buying electric vehicles and installation of renewable energy technology in homes and businesses are good places to start. Join an environmental group and work to protect our clean air and water. Go to politician’s offices and town halls and demand they stand up for the environment by supporting bills to combat climate change. 

Our economy will react favorably to the need for technological changes to protect the environment. There is no Planet B to head to if we don’t protect her.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.