Remembering David Brower

Re “How to honor an activist -- one more fight,” Opinion, Sept. 8

It’s good to know that almost five years after his death, my father, David Brower, continues to stir discussion about the need for parks and wild places. But there are a few points to clarify in David Rains Wallace’s piece.

PowerBar founder Brian Maxwell, who commissioned the sculpture at the suggestion of climber/photographer Galen Rowell, was more than a “wealthy friend.” Both Maxwell and Rowell were longtime admirers and supporters of my father and his work, which was not limited to saving wild places in California.

Brower advocated living lightly on the Earth and turning away from the unsustainable exploitation that characterizes the industrialized world. Most important, he came to realize that the stakes were too high to bog down in diversions -- aesthetic or ideological -- while the pace of destruction of Earth accelerated, abetted by an increasingly indifferent and oblivious U.S. government.

The real commemoration of Brower’s work is to go on doing it. There is no time for any of us who share his concerns to fight over sculptures or anything else that distracts us from taking up where Dad left off.

BARBARA BROWER

Portland, Ore.