Re: Paved Paradise

[Greg Burton <gburton@sltrib.com>]

Wow, elegance and grace, gently spoken. Somebody frame this. cheers, greg
burton

david sarff wrote:

> Friends
> My name is Dave Sarff.
> Those who know me know I,m better with a wrench then a pen so please bear
> with me a little bit.
> I am a fifth Generation North Idaho resident......Fourth in the Moscow area.
> The amount of change in the region that this person has been witness to in
> the last 35 years have been heart wrenchingly difficult.
> I think that probably most of the good people who live here are so busy
> working just to keep comfortable or just plain caught up in a game of
> conspicuous consumption that they don't have time to really see where they
> live or even give a care.
> I can see that many of you do and from the bottom of my heart I thank you
> all for this.
> Presently my family and I live in a seemingly isolated pocket two miles
> south of Moscow.
> Of all the changes in North Idaho I am grieving is the loss of solitude.
> In the mornings the air starts to fill with the roar of the town waking
> up.....every year a little louder.
> Day and night jets fly over head .....ever year their numbers building.
> In the night the lights of the stars grow dimmer.....drowning in the light
> from over the hills.
>
> Yesterday a fellow was riding around in back of my home on a four wheeler
> with a GPS unit ......He stopped and we talked a bit. He was gathering
> information for the Transportation Department for the new highway.
>
> You see this isn't just a little widening that these folks have in mind
> For good old 95.. but potentially from my perspective an extreme move that
> could put it right up against the western face of Paradise ridge.
> .. or down lower through a particular hill ..a picture of which can be
> found in National Geographic representing the Palouse...A old farm wife
> holding out a pie as if to share with the world.
>
>   At any rate it'll likely go in front  or in back of this old run down farm
> yard I call home and divide some poor farmers land in two.
>
>   And now I can imagine two Native Americans looking out over the land
> Seeing a big black snake billowing smoke and roaring along.
> They look at each other commenting that this can't be a good thing.
>
>   The people[perhaps some of my ancestors] in the train look out and
> see....Paradise.
>
>   I find myself looking for those people looking out over the land.
> Because in my heart I want to stand with them.
>
>       Dave
>
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