Letter: Ensign off mark on environment

Monday, May 11, 1998 | 10:24 a.m.

Then, on the eve of Earth Day, Ensign pandered to the Sagebrush Rebellion (a.k.a. the so-called "Wise Use Movement"). This is the most bestial anti-environmental movement in America. Since 1964, their main goal has been to separate us from our federal wildlands and open spaces. These folks say: Give it all to Nevada and "we'll take better care of it." Give us a break! They know -- and so does Ensign -- if this ever happened, these lands would be 1) sold off to the highest bidder, or 2) become "trust lands," which means they would exist only for revenue. Ensign compounded all this with his "zero" voting record on the environment (source: National Wildlife Federation.)

In his pro-Rebellion speech, Ensign called us environmentalists a bunch of socialists. That must mean presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge (both GOP stalwarts) were actually bomb-throwing Marxists. Right? It so happens that the most conservative of Republican chief executives was the first head of state on Earth to designate a wilderness area. Coolidge was an avid angler who got upset seeing his favorite Wisconsin state-land fishing haunts sold to developers. In 1924, he authorized the Gila Primitive Area in New Mexico. To prove it was no fluke, "Silent Cal" did it again in 1926 in Minnesota. Today, it's known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. If this is part of being a real conservative, let's have more of it.

Charles S. Watson Jr. Carson City