Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Nelson. My name is Brian Nelson. I would like to have a good relationship with the environment, and out of this relationship understand the importance of nature; nature being the whole of man's natural environment, the planet earth, the cosmos and whatever exists beyond. These are things I want to be allowed to experience. I believe that the misunderstanding of the importance of nature to the indi vidual is the greatest tragedy of the human race. This tragedy is the undoing of the individual that has created a vacuum for the cancerous and cannibalistic growth of an overly aggressive and overly consumptive nuclear monster. And if not nuclear, then some type of monster that destroys chil dren, families, local stability, love, wisdom, Idaho and the human itself. Yes, I believe this tragedy is a result of people being isolated from the natural environment. The human without a good relationship to the natural environ ment is destroyed and destroys. It is obvious that the destruction of nature is simultaneously paralleling the destruction of humanity. Being human, to me, is an opportunity to experience the ulti mate in life. We have evolved or been given sensitivity, intelligence and opportunities for growth. Through our stimulated senses we are awakened, but without the stimuli our senses become defunct. If one sits in a dark cave without the visible radiation of light, the eyes will become weak and with time probably cease to exist. If one keeps the mind from stimuli, it too ceases to exist. The environment is the stimuli. Without the experience of nature and its rhythms, there is no wisdom. As Luther Standing Bear has stated, Man's heart away from nature becomes cold and hard. I don't believe its productive or necessary for me to point out spe cifics dealing with acreages and boundaries. If one does not develop a good direction, then one is making a farce of these proceedings and hearings and burdening the people of Idaho and elsewhere. Keep the genocidal monster and its parasitic tentacles away. We need every handful of our natural environment. I have testified as an individual who feels the expanded impor tance of nature to the whole of our society. However close or de tached you are to nature, I hope you see its importance and join in the spirit that returns to nature what is taken and realize that the less one takes and disturbs of nature, the more one is of its wisdom and spirit. In adherence to natural laws, I don't believe one has the right to lead an excessive lifestyle by ripping off nature.