Speaking for the Earth

The threatened development of Fryman Canyon is only one example of how government fails to protect the heritage of land that is rapidly falling under the earthmovers of individual entrepreneurs, whose “right” to completely destroy a habitat is unchallenged by the planning commissions, City Council, courts or any other agency.

My son asked me in a moment of despair, “Who will speak for the Earth?” Thousands of citizens feel the same despair. It is time to halt the foolish destruction of our resources. Land is sacred. When human communities are dislocated from the land which they are bonded to by symbolic, historical and religious ties, they experience disorientation, depression and social pathology. This is fact and there are mountains of data to support this conclusion. Thus, to force the defenders of Fryman Canyon to argue that it is a “cultural heritage” is ludicrous. Land, by its very nature, is culturally bonded to the people who sacralize it by their inherently religious relationship to it.

The legal processes to which Fred Sahedi has submitted his plan to build in the past eight years are cleverly set up to keep citizens out of the planning process. There has never been an open referendum on planning for the Santa Monica Mountains. It is time we demanded one, but only after citizens are fully informed about the alternative “uses” of the land. As things stand, the developers contribute to the politicians; and the officials the politicians appoint to planning commissions do the bidding of the developers.

It is criminal for the planning agencies in this city to continue to approve energy-wasting, air-polluting, million-dollar homes when we face a severe water shortage and cannot hope to meet federal air quality standards even by the year 2000. Sahedi has been offered a fair return on his $8-million investment--$700,000. Let him take it and allow the citizens to bequeath the spiritual assets of land to their children.

JEAN E. ROSENFELD

Tarzana