Maple Falls, Washington recalled gauzy days when big tubes in stately radios were aglow.
“It’s up to us,” said Caroline.
“We can’t expect the BLM or the Department of the Interior or anyone else in Washington to stop this. Too much money’s at stake.
“The history of protecting western land is a history of neglect. So much has been lost.
“And not just the land. Look at the buffalo, the bison. We slaughtered just about all of them and the government didn’t care. In fact, the Secretary of Interior thought the slaughter was good for the country.”
“Who was that?” asked Dorothy.
“Columbus Delano. A conflicted man, tough to pigeonhole. On one hand, he was supportive of conservation, he pushed hard for the establishment of Yellowstone and laid groundwork for establishing national parks. But Delano also pushed Indians off their land, banishing them to small reservations, useless land that couldn’t possibly support them.
“That’s one of the reasons the government encouraged the buffalo slaughter, to make life tough for the Indians and force them onto reservations. That was their food supply. And curiously, a lot of this happened close to Yellowstone.”
“So what happened to Columbus Delano?” asked Sarah.
“President Grant fired him. Too much graft. The spoils system was working overtime in the Department of the Interior and everybody knew it. That was back in the 1870s.
“So now we can’t help but wonder how much has changed, with all the oil and gas lobbyists throwing money at the government. What is it, more than $120 million a year? Ten million a month? What do the frackers get for their ten million a month?
“Is this why so many regulations have been waived? Why the EPA doesn’t regulate fracking and ignores all the chemicals blasted into the earth? The provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act don’t apply. The lobbyists haven’t just prevented new regulations. They’re making sure the oil and gas companies don’t have to follow laws already on the books.”
In a sheltered living room in Maple Falls, Washington, a little boy turned on a big radio and waited for the magical vacuum tubes to glow.
