01/27/2004
January 27, 2004
The story so far:
Save The Sierra Club From The Treason Lobby — Act Now! By Brenda Walker.
A Virginia Reader Suspects Sierra Club Not Worth Saving; Brenda Walker Reassures Him
Now read on:
From: "Former Sierra Club Member"
As a former member of the Sierra Club who long ago passed the point of no return, I will cheer from the sidelines should true environmentalists manage to take back the Club from New Left apparatchiks like Carl Pope and headline-driven opportunists like Morris Dees who believe that they can stifle any dissent by screaming "racist."
The Sierra Club rose to national prominence in the 1960s when it alone stood up to the Johnson Administration’s scheme to build dams that would have flooded the Grand Canyon. The mainstream press suppressed virtually all criticism of LBJ, although not to the extent that it now suppresses facts about mass immigration. Not surprisingly, despite having space for daily reports of Vietnam, the press could find little space to cover this atrocity.
In a desperate attempt to stop the project, the Sierra Club prepared humorous and informational full-page advertisements and paid to run them in newspapers that actively participated in the news blackout. Unlike papers today that cannot be paid to print the truth, The New York Times and Washington Post carried the Club’s ads, which included coupons expressing disapproval of the project to send to LBJ and local Congress creatures. I read the Sierra Club ads, clipped and mailed the coupons, and joined the Sierra Club. The Club’s brilliant campaign, masterminded by the late David Brower, was successful, and the Grand Canyon remains grand.
Saving the Grand Canyon was the Sierra Club’s apogee. Outraged at a rare defeat, Johnson retaliated by directing the IRS to take away the Club’s tax exemption. This counterattack also was successful, and David Brower was forced out. He took the Club’s best and brightest with him to form Friends of the Earth. Like many other activist members, I quit the Sierra Club when Brower left and never returned.
In the 30+ years since the ouster of David Brower, the Sierra Club has maintained a low profile, while politicians on both sides of the aisle have conducted an unrelenting war on ancient forests and other pristine habitats. Despite the Club’s strong support for Clinton, it received nothing in return, besides jobs for some of the insiders. And although the Gore campaign treated environmentalists like the Republicans treat the Religious Right, i.e. as automatic supporters who deserve no respect, the Sierra Club abandoned the Green Party and hitched its caboose to the Gore campaign train, which to paraphrase Westbrook Pegler, took off with a jerk.
As someone who has not followed Club politics, it came as a surprise to me to discover that there are Sierra Club board members who are actively seeking to turn it around by taking a stand against mass immigration.
The Club’s stated policies in support of stronger pollution standards, health and safety protection, and preservation of wilderness, are in accord with the majority of Americans. However, none of these goals can be achieved while the population continues to explode through mass immigration of people with pre-industrial birth rates. On the dominant population issue, it’s about time for the Sierra Club to align itself with the majority of people, rather than the politicians.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.