 |
Racist interlopers - What nonsense!To Sierra Club Members, I am tired of hearing of these alleged outside groups that are organizing a takeover of the Sierra Club. The implication appears to be that people who are concerned about immigration are racist interlopers and that we must therefore defeat anyone who feels that immigration is one of the factors that we need to consider as we seek to conserve our environmental heritage. What nonsense! I have been a member of the Sierra Club since 1981 (almost a quarter of a century), am a liberal Democrat veteran of the civil rights and women's movements (and Viet Nam) and am an avid environmentalist. I have long realized that population, as touchy a subject as that may be, plays a major role in environmental problems. Even the Nixon administration's report on Population and the American Future recognized that fact. And while immigration is an equally touchy subject to many, it is a major factor in our nation's population growth and must therefore be considered. The Sierra Club used to understand this rather basic fact, perhaps because it based its policies on numbers and logic rather than on political correctness and emotional responses to difficult issues. I, and many like me, want us to return to our previous position. One word about the election. It was bad enough that some former presidents decided that they knew better than the rest of us who was and was not an appropriate candidate. Worse yet was the Executive Director's effort to get involved. But now I understand that the Board may actually send out "information" to members that can only be construed as a condemnation of some candidates and an endorsement of others, all based on the immigration issue. I can assure you that if you do this I will have to reconsider my long association with the Club, for it will have become obvious that democracy is no longer the primary motivating factor of the decision-making process. Thank you for your consideration, - J. David Markham, Olympia, Washington, February 12, 2004
Home Press Releases |