Diane Alden
Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003

Not long ago economist and Professor Emeritus at George Mason University Walter Williams asserted: "Activists in the environmentalist movement have a callous disregard for people. You say: 'What do you mean, Williams? We can't think of a more caring people.' First, I'm not talking about sensible people who're concerned about clean air and water. I'm talking about the movement leaders and the politicians they have under their thumbs."

Recently, the good people of Libby, Mont., were shafted big time by our elites, inside and outside government. Williams' statement, "Activists in the environmental movement have a callous disregard for people," is the truth. It isn't only the green movement in which heartlessness lives.

It also thrives among their cohorts, promoters in the federal bureaucracies, in American foundations, among the trial lawyers, courts and media, not to mention the Democratic Party and politicians who are in the pocket of the green movement.

All of them show a real and callous disregard for people, as well as total disregard for the rule of law as stated in the U.S. Constitution. Unconstitutional environmental foolishness, which includes the well-intentioned Endangered Species Act and the Wilderness Act, trump the God-given rights contained in the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution.

Libby, Mont., is a mountain community located in Lincoln County in the northwestern part of the state. The travesty that is happening to the people of Libby and Lincoln County is a microcosm of what is happening in the rest of the United States.

Lincoln County's basic industries are mining and logging, in addition to ranching. That was until ill-conceived laws like the Endangered Species Act and the Wilderness Act threw common sense out the window. Ideological, religious and big-money earth worship replaced common sense, fairness and real concern about what is best for the environment. (Read Outrage in Montana or The Green Matrix.)

Until a few years ago, Libby, Troy, Thompson Falls and Lincoln counties were home to vermiculite mines employing a significant number of people. For several generations the jobs and attendant prosperity meant that Libby and Lincoln counties were viable communities.

In recent years, however, the Environmental Protection Agency found that vermiculite was tainted with Asbestos, which had become one of the 'satanic elements' in the litany manual of the EPA. In any event, the end result was that the mining companies went bankrupt, leaving many workers in Lincoln County out of work.

The other major industry in the area is logging.

In October 2002, the last large sawmill in Libby, Stimson, announced it was closing. Impacted by countless environmental lawsuits brought against the U.S. Forest Service, Stimson just didn't have enough logs to cut economically.

The resultant cutback by the Forest Service in permits and allowances for timber harvests means death to the sawmills and timber jobs in western Montana. In addition, harvesting of salvage timber and pulp was also curtailed because of environmental lawsuits. The result was another 300 people out of work.

The one bright spot in this bleak picture was that the Environmental Protection Agency planned to hire many of these unemployed people to deal with forest fires and the asbestos "problem" in the Libby area.

Forget it.

It wasn't the greens who were the villain this time. Rather, a lawsuit brought by the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund demanded that the Forest Service institute racial preferences in hiring. MALDF was the culprit.

As always, the buccaneering leftist judges in the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco complied with minority set-aside and ethnic preferences brought by MALDF. The jobs that should have gone to out-of-work locals would instead be given to out-of-area Hispanics or other minorities.

The locals, therefore, are not only hammered by the green juggernaut, they now must also endure a dose of preferential hiring and an end run around the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act and several court decisions since that time maintain that there should be no racial or ethnic preferences in hiring practices. Yet which collectivist/leftist group, court or federal bureaucracy pays attention?

Never underestimate the avaricious and heartless collectivists in power. In particular, former President Bill Clinton stabbed the rural poor in their collective back. Using executive orders, Clinton found a way around a colorblind court decision that maintained that there be no racial preferences in hiring federal employees.

As writer and commentator John Lankford states in his article on the Libby situation, through executive order Clinton "gutted Adarand v. Pena (no racial quotas for government procurement contracts) ... Clinton then brags to his minions ... of achieving 74% evasion of racial quota elimination decreed by the Supreme Court while publicly claiming complete compliance."

Meanwhile, locals in Libby and dozens of other locations throughout the Intermountain West find that some new-hire college intern is telling the out-of-work miners, loggers and ranchers to "go get other jobs."

People who live in the real world understand that it is not that simple. Working in the sawmills and forest products industry, in mines and ranching and farming is not just a job, it is a way of life.

Outrage Redux

Recently, Missoulian newspaper (in Missoula, Mont.) reporter Sherry Devlin related: "Hats and hearts in hand, two dozen civic and business leaders from Eureka, Troy and Libby rode a yellow school bus to Missoula on Wednesday and asked environmentalists to drop a lawsuit that threatens to stop logging in the Kootenai National Forest." The lawsuit was brought by the Ecology Center of Missoula.

The townspeople stated in their plea: "We acknowledge and accept the responsibility for maintaining and enhancing the forests that surround us," said Lincoln County Commissioner Marianne Roose, who read a statement signed by all in the entourage. "We also are entrusted to expend whatever energies we may possess to ensure the social fabric of our community and county is not torn to shreds."

Before Stimson lumber closed, before the most recent lawsuit, the people of Lincoln County, where Libby is located, passed an $8 million bond issue to build a new high school. The closure of Stimson, as well as the accompanying impact on all businesses in Lincoln County, means that the money for the school may not be there.

In that regard, the townspeople begged the people running the Ecology Center. "We urge you to evaluate the facts and reconsider your position," Roose said, "and play a positive role for the environment and the suffering citizens of Lincoln County by stopping the lawsuit."

Ms. Jewel reports the response from the Ecology Center. Their answer to the people of Libby and Lincoln County is typical: "At Wednesday afternoon's meeting, Jeff Juel – the Ecology Center's ecosystem defense director – told the visitors that he believes the lawsuit 'is the right thing to do.' Let the court decide if the Forest Service is doing its job, he said."

One of those impacted by the lawsuit is Mike Cuffe. Cuffe's response to Juel is a simple truth: "The businesses on Main Street are part of the ecosystem, too. So are families and schools. We take care of ourselves. We don't look for handouts. But we do look for people to treat us fairly, and we don't think you are."

Meanwhile, last summer the Ecology Center sponsored an international bike race. As the Missoulian newspaper reported at that time: "More than 200 racers from the United States and Canada will attend this weekend's Ecology Center Classic, a four-stage bike race that will attract not only some of the top competitors but also some of the most sophisticated bicycling equipment."

" 'It's gone from the ridiculous to the sublime,' said Jeff Crouch, one of the race organizers, about the latest equipment. 'Nobody rides a steel bike.'

"Today's bikes are manufactured out of lightweight carbon fiber or titanium with some wheels costing $1,000 a pair and allowing riders to reach breakneck speeds. ... 'We've always tried to put together a race from the racer's perspective,'' said Crouch. 'It's well run, great courses, it's a pretty area. ... We've always tried to do the extra stuff, and I think that makes a difference.'

" 'What everybody is shooting for is that end,' said Crouch. 'It's not always the guy who wins the first day who wins the whole thing.' ''

How very special, Jeff.

Meanwhile, those who can't afford thousand-dollar wheels for their bikes can go eat cake. A cake provided by groups like the Ecology Center of Missoula, Mont., or the Sierra Club, or the Nature Conservancy, or the dozens of other groups and individuals, NGOs, government bureaucracies and federal courts that never fail to exhibit the thoughtless cruelty of out-of-control elites.

To comment, write alden@newsmax.com or visit my Web site at www.aldenchronicles.com.

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