Protecting the Environment

The vivid picture in The Times of motorcycles plowing the desert (Part I, Nov. 29) has the ironical caption that the race “. . . was marred by a sabotage attempt by protesters.” Who marred what? The sabotage is something no one wants to see, but it is brought on by the frustration of people who feel they have no other way to express their opposition to this desecration. The Bureau of Land Management is supposed to be working for all the people, not a selfish bunch of elitists who don’t give a damn about the desert. The cyclists are mad at Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and the Sierra Club even though they did not oppose the race. These macho madmen are not interested in the 42,000 miles of roads and washes that Cranston would set aside for them in his proposed national park. They want the exhilaration they seem to get out of tearing up creosote bushes and squashing threatened desert tortoises and other life forms.

We are blessed with a magnificent country: rivers, wetlands, mountains, prairies, forests, wildlife. Already more than half of this heritage has been sacrificed to our ignorance, our thoughtlessness, our greed. In a real sense we are committing suicide, poisoning our water, our food and the very air we breathe. And when we chew up the desert or clear-cut the redwoods or shoot mountain lions we are losing touch with the wonder of creation. We are losing our souls.

SANFORD WOHLGEMUTH

Reseda