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Environmental Letter to the People of Michigan

Environmental Letter to the People of Michigan image
Parent Issue
Month
April
Year
1989
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
Rights Held By
Agenda Publications
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OCR Text

Welcoming the " New Breed"                                Fifth of a Series 

Congratulate us, we made the front page in February. We were appraised for bringing Michigan a "New Breed of Environmentalism" and for being an industry "front." That is high appraise indeed.

The human record shows that people become effete, flabby, feeble, and foolish when they practice extended inbreeding. If a New Breed shows up, there's cause for rejoicing. As a representative of SMERA, Solomon Eagle hoped for open arms and glad banners from area environmentalists. But some of the Cru-Envies, Ama-Envies, and Pro-Envies (Crusading, Amateur, and Professional Environmentalists) are in a dither about who we are, and a few are worried about our "uncomfortably threatening tone."

O be of better cheer, friends. We come not to bury the DNR and the environmental "movement" but to help save them. While we're at it, we'll try to save Michigan jobs and homes as well. The Old Breed of environmentalists worked hard to sniff out SMERA for criticizing the DNR, perhaps because that task is more manageable than realistically addressing genuine environmental issues and getting some real motion into their movement - little things like the greenhouse effect, droughts, shrinking glaciers, advancing deserts, rising seas, and the sticky fact that 1988 may have been the hottest year yet recorded.

A New Breed of Environmentalism is just what SMERA pragmatists prescribe for Michigan and the rest of the Earth. The Envies often have preached to the converted and stroked themselves so long they've gotten a cute case of omphaloskepsis. New SMERA blood can't help but prove ventilating and therapeutic. Old Breeds sometimes need protection from premature senile adolescence.

So we gladly wear the honorable labels, front for industry, front for business, front for Michigan citizens. Without industry this region would revert to wilderness. Surely there are less drastic methods of saving and surviving the future than giving Michigan back to Mother Nature. Imagine this state without the products and wages of industry. Where would we be? That 's easy, at an empty trough waiting to be fed. Wealth is the vital catalyst for all our hobbies - be they Greenpeace, whales, Nukes or DNR - and the starting place of wealth is where people work, produce, and deliver. Industry, love it or just live off it, is an essential environmental resource.

We represent the small business people and entrepreneurs who work 16-hour days to keep businesses afloat and provide jobs to help Michigan stay afloat economically. We represent millions of citizens who want practical attention to urgent environmental problems that oratory, bureaucracy, editorials, and pietistic indignation never solve. Buckminster Fuller advised renaming this planet "Poluto" because of environmental pollution and severe brain pollution due to overdoses of bad information. Since we are what we eat and also what we read, SMERA wants to provide a healthier mental diet of facts and truth. If you prefer comfort to discomfort and pabulum to medicine, sorry folks. Converting Poluto back into the Good Earth that Frank Borman described from the Moon requires more than mental pabulum and quixotic edicts.

Who are we? "Maybe we ain't us," says a Little Rascal wistfully when his group's identity is questioned. Be assured that we are us, determined to enliven and revitalize the environmental struggle in Michigan. We are us, committed to speaking out, whether or not DNR Envies Volente. We are the New Breed of Environmentalists, sleeves rolled up and a job to do. Climb aboard!

Sponsored by

SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCE ASSOCIATION (SMERA) 

POST OFFICE BOX 3165 ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106-9998