Dear HCN,
Ed Marston’s remarks
about Wayne Aspinall and his allies demonstrates that Marston lived
in another world during Mr. Aspinall’s tenure as chairman of the
Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (HCN, 11/10/97). Theocracy,
indeed! Mr. Aspinall may have been Mr. Chairman, but his
accomplishments came about because of his ability to forge
political compromise and consensus. As a result of his genius, the
Wilderness Act of 1964, the Redwoods Act of 1968, the Colorado
River Basin Project Act of 1968, and hundreds of other pieces of
legislation which help make the West what it is today were
enacted.
If Mr. Aspinall’s accomplishments were
thoughtless and destructive, why is it that the West is so popular
a place to live, attracting people from such faraway places as New
York? I suspect that most people like the West the way it is today,
rather than the way Mr. Marston imagines it could have been without
the efforts of people like Wayne
Aspinall.
Frank E. (Sam)
Maynes
Durango,
Colorado
The writer is an
attorney and longtime proponent of the Animas-La Plata Project in
southwestern Colorado.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Cheers for Mr. Chairman.
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