This column by Minneapolis Star-Tribune outdoor writer Dennis Anderson sounds a theme that conservationists in Minnesota, Michigan and practically any other state could recognize. And its citation of Republican conservationist Teddy Roosevelt is worthy of reproducing:
"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying 'the game belongs to the people.'
"So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction.
"Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5349230.html
Posted by Dave at April 15, 2005 06:33 PM