Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504170010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEVE KARK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Many regard each environmental initiative as an infringement of individual freedom and an assault on the idea of private property. Their feelings are understandable; these are, after all, basic American values.
Viewed this way, environmentalists are often perceived as outsiders who have no business telling landowners how to use their own property. This attitude prevails in much of rural America, which is unfortunate because that is also where most environmental efforts are directed.
Both points of view have their advocates in the New River Valley. Ours is a community renewed by young minds and new ideas. It is also a community that has been built on sturdy agricultural foundations. We are enriched by the presence of two universities, a community college and fine primary and secondary school systems.
We also take pride in an agricultural tradition that goes back more than 200 years. People farmed the New River Valley when the land west of the Appalachian Mountains was untamed frontier.
That differences of opinion exist should come as no surprise to anyone. The New River Valley has always been special for me because it is a place where people tolerate diversity and respect the opinions of others.
You can imagine how surprised I was, then, when I heard that some people applauded when the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors recently approved a zoning amendment that will permit a gas station across from Pandapas Pond in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. I was sorry to see that the issue had become divisive enough to cause this sort of response.
Though I personally disagree with their decision, I respect both the supervisors' right to make it and the landowner's right to use his or her property as he or she sees fit. What bothers me more is that people on both sides of the issue were divided enough that some felt like applauding when their ``side'' won.
People will always have different ways of looking at the Earth. There are those who cultivate it or feed livestock on it.
Some hunt, some log it. Some even paint it. Others hike or bicycle across it. Others worship and carry it in crystal form around their necks. Some litter it with junk cars.
We warn those who would trespass on our own piece of it. We all want to defend it, each in his or her own way, for private or for public benefit.
There is an old, abandoned homestead near our home in Rye Hollow. A chimney and a stone cistern are all that remain to mark the place. The timbers of the house and outbuildings are blackened by fire and lie hidden beneath a dense cover of weeds and blackberry bushes.
Upon closer examination, the cistern reveals the care that went into building it: The stones have been carefully cut and placed, the wooden lid - which somehow remains - perfectly fitted.
An old pipe enters from the side for filling it with spring or rainwater.
I wonder about the family that built the old cistern. Protecting it so, they cared about the quality of their water. They likely never heard the word ``environmentalist'' when they built it, but I can see they cared about their land nonetheless.
We all have much more in common than we might expect. We ought to take the time to try to understand each other's point of view.
Earth Day is not a day for taking sides. Instead of seeing this day as a sign of our differences, we ought to see it as a reminder of what we share.
There is only one Earth, and there is only one New River Valley. We should mark this day as a new beginning, as a day where we resolve to work together to ensure a future in which we all can take pride.
Steve Kark is an instructor at Virginia Tech and a correspondent for the Roanoke Times & World-News' New River Valley bureau. He writes from his home in scenic Rye Hollow, in a remote part of Giles County south of Pearisburg.|
by CNB