I voice a lot of
opinions on this blog. Whatever I might have to say, though, I try to back it
up with facts, references, quotes, and hyperlinks. My hope is that you can
check my sources, read what I’m basing my opinion on, and, while you may not
agree, you can at least see how I came to see things as I do.
That being said, I am going to blog about a book that I haven’t read. The book hasn’t even been released yet, although you can pre-order (whatever that means) it on Amazon. The book is Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today by William Perry Pendly. OK, from the title you can understand why I am eager to say something about this book, even though I have yet to take a look at it.
That being said, I am going to blog about a book that I haven’t read. The book hasn’t even been released yet, although you can pre-order (whatever that means) it on Amazon. The book is Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today by William Perry Pendly. OK, from the title you can understand why I am eager to say something about this book, even though I have yet to take a look at it.
The
message I get from the photo, or at least the message that I believe the photo
is meant to convey, is that Reagan is a man of the West who is comfortable in
this environment and whose values are informed by this environment. Though he
grew up and went to college in the Midwest, we retain this image of Ronald
Reagan from his Western movies and, perhaps because it was his last gig as an
actor, the time he spent hosting and sometimes acting in the popular television
series Death Valley Days.
Though
they drink hard liquor in saloons and have all the rough edges of a chuck of
fools gold, cowboys, or at least television and movie cowboys wearing the white
hats, embody for us Americans the values of trustworthiness, bravery, and
honesty. We think of them as hard working, and fair-minded. They are for us the
essence of America, what we believe that our country is all about. And if I
remember the eighties correctly, this is what we wanted to believe of Reagan,
even as he took the reins of power in the oval office.
From
watching hours and hours of movie cowboys navigating their horses through
chaparral and desert landscapes, we also think of these western pioneers as
being in tune with nature, that they value the great outdoors and that their
beliefs square with the natural world. On horseback, eating grub around a
campfire under a star studded sky, nothing that a cowboy desires is out of
balance with the landscape we see him in; at least that is the impression that
we hold. So the book cover gives us a cowboy Ronald Reagan, a man whose
authenticity and integrity could trump the efforts of administrators and
scientists who are working to preserve the environment.
OK,
cover judged. Next, on to the title: Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with
Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today. Wow. Where do I start? Sagebrush Rebel? I guess
this fits in with some of the image we have of Reagan from the cowboy movies
and Death Valley Days. Reagan’s
characters were often at odds with the status quo; mind you a status quo that
was unfair and corrupt. Reagan was the outsider, the rebel who kicks the
no-goodnic out of town and by the movie’s end or by the final Borax commercial
is given the accolades of the townsfolk as their new hero. That he is called a
“Sagebrush Rebel” not only helps to conjure up this Western image, it establishes his environmental bonefides, a man whose inner good character and
good intentions will have him doing right by the environment.
Ronald Reagan, the good rebel who will set things straight by the fourth Borax commercial
As
Russell Baker wrote during Reagan’s first term, calling someone an
environmental extremist could be just another way of calling someone
un-American.[i] And I think
that that the author of this book wants to keep that sort of thinking alive.
Way back in the late forties and early fifties when Ronald Reagan testified to
the House Committee on Un-American Activities on communists in Hollywood, the
fingers pointed and accusations made were enough to have someone blacklisted in
Hollywood or otherwise have his career ruined. It did not matter if that person
were a Trotskyite true believer, an absolute devotee to Marx, or merely someone
who had attended meetings of a communist group. Any kind of communist was a
totally bad communist. That a person could entertain some ideas that were
communistic and be only something of a half-hearted communist did not matter.
Communists were all equally bad. In this Manichean mindset, all
environmentalists, even our recycling Prius driver, are all equally committed
to an idea that is, as in the case of forties and fifties communists, equally
bad.
As
I have written before, during his 1980 presidential campaign Reagan claimed
that environmental regulations had been responsible for the shuttering of
American factories.[ii] He wanted
the coal and steel industries to rewrite the then barely ten year old Clean Air
Act and promised to appoint to the Environmental Protection Agency people “who
understand the problems of the coal industry.”[iii]
Once in office he appointed James Watt, a lawyer who worked to open up more
federal wilderness land to mining and oil drilling, as Interior Secretary. With
this kind of rhetoric and action, I imagine that an average, everyday member of
the Sierra club would seem just as extreme as a 1940s factory worker who joined
the Communist Party.
Book cover judged,
book title judged, now on to the author. William Perry Pendley worked in the
Reagan administration, serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and
Minerals of the Department of Interior. His previous books that he has authored
include: It Takes a Hero: The Grass Roots Battle Against Environmental
Oppression, Warriors for
the West: Fighting Bureaucrats, Radical Groups, And Liberal Judges on America’s
Frontier, and War on the
West: Government Tyranny on America’s Great Frontier. Amazon describes It Takes a Hero as:
Environmental
oppression. It eats out America's vital substance, puts our economy in chains,
violates the public liberty. It hurts people, real people. And they don't take
it lying down. They fight back. This remarkable book documents the battle of
ordinary people against the multi-billion-dollar environment movement and its
offspring, the arrogant bureaucratic government "ecoligarchy." In
story after story of bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, author William
Perry Pendley here spins a rich tapestry of everyday heroism on the part of
Americans being crushed by fanatic environmentalists who threaten to destroy
our freedoms, our homes, our lives. Nowhere can one find a clearer voice in the
debate over the environment than in the personal profiles of It Takes A Hero.
Here are the true stories of fifty-three people who risked everything to stand
up for the truth: The true stewards of the Earth are those who feed, clothe and
shelter all of us, and they are being systematically destroyed by a powerful
movement blinded to our material needs. In addition to inspiring and uplifting
stories of real people, It Takes A Hero also contains a directory of one
thousand leading grassroots fighters against environmental oppression: The Hero
Network. This book belongs in the homes and hearts of every concerned American.
I imagine that his
other books have a similar theme.
Although
I can “pre-order” the book on Amazon, my local library is not showing that it
plans on making this title available soon. So it might be a while before I can
actually get down to reading this book. I’ll update this blog once I do.
[i] Russell Baker, Road to Extinction New York
Times Magazine April 3, 1983
[ii] Kamieniecki,
Sheldon, Robert O’Brien, Michael Clarke. Controversies in Environmental
Policy. New York: State University of
New York Press. 1986. Print p 284
[iii] Crutsinger,
Martin. “Carter, Reagan Differ Widely on Environmental Policies.” Freelance
Star 25 Oct. 1980
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