Wilderness and the Election
September 30, 2008
Whether you are a Republican, Independent or Democratic voter one of the important considerations in voting for candidates for state legislature and Congress should be if they support the Citizens’ Wilderness and National Conservation Area Proposal for the Organ Mountains. This is the only concrete way to preserve the beautiful Organ Mountains for future generations.
However, we have some candidates: Stanford Locke, Kent “Spaceport Tax” Evans, Leonard Lee Rawson and Edward R. Tinsley III who support Congressman Stevan Pearce’s odious anti-Wilderness proposal. This is a throw-back to the notorious New Mexican Senator and Interior Secretary Albert Fall of the 1910s and 1920s, who, like Congressman Pearce and his cohorts are advocates for selling off all public lands to the highest bidder or biggest campaign contributors. These candidates want to open the Organ Mountains and its foothills to exploitation by greedy developers and mineral extraction speculators for a quick buck and easy money. They support a pseudo-wilderness scheme pushed by a vociferous minority. There is no way ranchers will be greatly affected by Wilderness despite the exaggerated clamors of some extremists.
An overwhelming number of Las Cruces residents support the proposal. We should vote for candidates who support our view as a community. Historians have noted that President Teddy Roosevelt, a rancher, was a conservationist and preservationist, who envisioned the importance of Wilderness areas for Americans. As he stated: “There can be no greater issue than that of conservation.” We have a number of worthy candidates on this issue: Jeff Steinborn, Nate Cote, Steve Fischmann and Harry Teague. It is time to stand up and protect our distinctive Organ Mountains or as our Spanish forbears called them – La Sierra de la Soledad!
Greg Lennes
Las Cruces
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