Into the dreamworld slowly I creep, into the land that I visit when I sleep

I heard a quote while watching Ken Burns Presents - The West: A Film By Stephen Ives that I thought was great in describing a large amount of the American population:

“Gentlemen, why in heaven’s name this haste? You have time enough. [...] Ages and ages lie before you. Why sacrifice the present to the future, fancying that you will be happier when your fields teem with wealth and your cities with people? In Europe we have cities wealthier and more populous than yours, and we are not happy. You dream of your posterity; but your posterity will look back to yours as the golden age, and envy those who first burst into this silent, splendid nature, who first lifted up their axes upon these tall trees, and lined these waters with busy wharves. Why, then, seek to complete in a few decades what the other nations of the world took thousands of years over in the older continents? [...] Why, in your hurry to subdue and utilize nature, squander her splendid gifts? [...] Why hasten the advent of that threatening day when the vacant spaces of the continent shall all have been filled, and the poverty or discontent of the older States shall find no outlet? You have opportunities such as mankind has never had before, and may never have again. Your work is great and noble; it is done for a future longer and vaster than our conceptions can embrace. Why not make its outlines and beginnings worthy of these destinies, the thought of which gilds your hopes and elevates your purposes?”

James Bryce was a British jurist, historian and politician who felt the call of the western frontier in America and became a leading voice of the times, and later became the British Ambassador to the United States.

It seems that, at the time of this writing, there was an overwhelming feeling, almost a depression, about the lack of an unknown frontier in the west. Part of the excitement of living in this era was the existence of large areas on the map that were unexplored. And part of the American Dream for many was to be able to get ones’ piece of the pie that was up for grabs for entrepreneurs. This American Dream philosophy still permeates our endeavors in the modern times. From those who cling to lottery tickets to those who bury their noses in their work, we are all striving for something better, sometimes at the expense of truly enjoying what we have in the present and what we may have in the future.

"Truth is not limited to time and space it is eternal and can be applied to nations as well as individuals." This bit of wisdom should echo through the humand mind, corporate board rooms, and the halls of congress. It is sad that so many did not listen to him, as the day is fast approaching when our govenment is going to open vast tracts of public lands in order to use the resources they comtain for renewable energy projects. Ken Salazar has as much said so in his March 2009 address to the Senate Committe on Energy and Natural Resources (”On Energy on the Public Lands and Outer Continental Shelf”). There is a fox guarding the henhouse while the average American is distracted with the economic crises and the many wars we are waging abroad. The special interest groups will have their way unless we speak up and object to the wholesale giveaway of our land. They will not be satisfied until every river is polluted, every mountaintop blown off, every drop of oil is squeezed from shale, every ounce of minerals are plucked from the earth, and every tree felled.

I feel the most poignant sentence is “You dream of your posterity; but your posterity will look back to yours as the golden age, and envy those who first burst into this silent, splendid nature…” He practically predicts the future.

p.s. Go Project Earth! :)