Hi folks! Isn’t it a great day in the US of A? I am going to proselytize a little about a certain local piece of open space that is important to me, but I promise I will get off of the environmental issues soon. Maybe I will talk about CIA conspiracy theory, or anarchical syndicalism, or neoliberalism. You know what Samuel Johnson said? "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." I kind of agree with that. Essentially, I love the country I live in, but I also answer to higher laws than the US Constitution. Much like Thomas Paine, "My country is the World, and my religion is to do good." Are you sick of quotes yet? Well, you will be if you keep reading.

Folks, let’s face it, what is more important, obeying the Student Code or living up to your ideals? Acting on one’s values seems more important than paying homage to the sacrosanctity of America’s misguided perceptions of private property rights. As Thomas Drummond, a famous Irish politician, said, "Property has its duties as well as its rights." Joey Adams says, "A bikini is like a barbed-wire fence. It protects the property without obstructing the view." Whether or not you agree that a group of a few dozen trustees and administrators actually own the Bernard Field Station, try to consider whether this piece of property called the BFS is being dealt with responsibly. If you really can look at the details and decide that developing our field station is a responsible thing to do to it, then I hope you do not get to run the World. If you agree with me that developing the Bernard Field Station would be an irresponsible thing to do, then I hope you were at the CUC protest, at least to watch. If you were not at CUC, which of all the fucked up pieces of rhetoric out there has kept you from doing the right thing?

Frankly, even if Robert Bernard and Donald McKenna had said they wanted to build a big strip mall on the BFS, it would not convince me we should develop it. The reality is that the colleges have to do some major reading between the lines to convince us that, if McKenna or Bernard were alive today, they would be entirely for developing the Bernard Field Station. The state of the world is very different today than it was a few decades ago. Besides, these guys are dead! Hello? Have a clue!

Anything can become a valid argument when money is involved. Listen to the wise vibes of Thomas, the roommate: "Mo Money, Mo Problems!" He seems to think this is in the Bible, maybe Mark 10:17-27?

If you consider yourself an environmentally-minded person who wants to preserve open space, you should have been at the CUC protests. According to Ambrose Bierce, "We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." Of course, Bierce also called a quotation "the act of repeating erroneously the words of another."

It is my opinion that most of the World’s problems come from us finding good excuses to do the wrong thing, even when we know it is the wrong thing.

That is what is happening to the Bernard Field Station. If you know that it is right to protect the BFS, do not hide that behind a few convoluted arguments that have been created to help develop it.