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Live by the car . . . Die by the car.
Do we really build any new road for "Safety" first? I think Not. There is no proof that the Paradise Ridge route is for safety. Roads and vehicles are mostly parts of a pump for the transportation of resources for the ever-increasing egotistically driven appetite for wealth by the human hoards. We only make them safe after the fact. They are for empowering human dominance over Nature.
The "car" is to life as Frankenstein's monster is to life. No matter how much you dress it up, the "car" has evolved becoming a the replacement for the dinosaur, completely living, leaching off the rot of those long, dead beasts.
I can't emphasize enough how large a part of my life has been devoted toward the recycling and rehabilitation of the car and all of its relations. I suggest that what this single person knows about cars is easily comparable to what Frankenstein himself might have known about the monster compared with the rest of the peasantry. "Parts is parts." So there . . . how's that for Ego?
The ridge is an island of life and inert resources, the earth its umbilical cord to all other islands of life, existing within its own life cycle . . . It's alive, not like Frankenstein's monster but rather like the peasants themselves, naturally born the way you see them, only with a few clothes on. Well.. and then there are the rakes , pitchforks, hoes, and torches. But I digress.
Look at the ridge from a distance, for the most part you might casually observe some trees, bushes, birds and a few living things standing on it. Like coming upon the planet earth from space and seeing some blue water, some land, and these days some strange shiny things flying around it, you haven't seen anything like what's really there….Really. Can you see the forest from the trees?
Of all the living things on the ridge only one species can write a comment or vote with their pocket book. They elect themselves representatives of all Nature of unspeakable things. This primate chooses to suggest that we are as dependent on and regularly engaged in the enslavement of property, however we define it, with little regard that it might be . . . Alive.
The issue really is one of property. Idaho tends to emphasize owners rights over the public. This is very apparent in District 2. In the case of the new highway, it is easy for the state to find vastly more cooperation from landowners on the ridge than from the owners along the present highway. Especially when half of the land to be utilized over the ridge is owned by someone who lives by the highway and is more than happy to be rid of it (the highway and the land). A person gets paid for land that has been put into CRP, collects cash from the government (you an I) for years, and then sells the same land to the same government, land that would take a lot of investment to bring back into production. Seems like a no-brainer to me. It’s the money.
The district gets paid for and is required to put on a straw hat and cane show for the public. It is totally insignificant. In fact that is why these last meetings are sort of after-the-fact. The decision was made a long time ago. The state employees are not elected. Their jobs are secure. I am not sure that even one person in the whole state highway department is subject to vote. There are few consequences for actions against public sentiment.
As long as the property owners wish, the district will follow the path of least resistance with them.
The proposed routing and even the proposed physical structure of the new routing seems to selectively follow federal guidelines. Guidelines have no enforcement. Laws on property do. Like bad science, if during research you look for the results you want, it's so much easier to find the answer.
Just ask Curious George W. about what "results" are.
Lets not put the road on Paradise Ridge if we can help it.
David Sarff