Hooters is expanding operations into Israel and the Holy Land.
Tokyo had a St. Patrick's Day parade.
A blind auto mechanic hired a deaf shop assistant.
A skyway was built over part of the Grand Canyon.
They're all real news stories. News can be so weird anyway, and I had to tame down my selections as it was.
Hooters in the Holy Land..."Would you like some Jerusalem Tea to wash down those buffalo wings?" A business man just bought the Hooter rights for all of Israel and will open the first restaurant in Tel Aviv. Oy ve! 
Somehow an Irish celebration on the streets of Tokyo is something that made me go 'huh?' instead of 'hmmmm'....and it was held a day late, too, I might add. Something about a pair of black pointy shoes, a shamrock hat, and a kimono make me tilt my head a moment...
The skyway over the Grand Canyon is one that is fascinating, simply from a designing and engineering perspective...but it was the real impetus for today's post. There is no doubt we as a nation not only have failed but continue to fail miserably in properly recognizing and assisting the First Nation peoples of this country; their dire need to improve many of their impoverished reservations (especially in the west) leads them to sometimes innovative solutions to bolster their own recovery. The Hualapai allowed a private investor to build a $30 million clear-bottomed skywalk on which you can walk and look down over 4,000 feet...for a nice fee, of course. No doubt tourism dollars are a good source to beef up an almost non-existant economy.
But like everything, there is a price to be paid, a flip-side to the coin, the other side to a story.Personally, I'm not an advocate for major alterations in the natural world. Mt. Rushmore, Stone Mountain, Crazy Horse Memorial, none of them do a thing for me. Granted, they are master works of art, but at what price? I'm not a fan of mountain carvings or any construction that greatly alters a landscape, or activity that alters an environment. My family was living in western North Carolina when they built the hiddeous "Top of Sugar" super-high-rise condo complex at Sugar Mountain, which forever altered (read 'ruined') the views from anywhere around that region.
My hope is that more and more people truly embrace the idea that we are not masters of Nature but stewards, which entails a responsibility to live with the land and not just on it.
4 comments:
"Amen" to that, Bob! "Stewardship" is certainly the key word!
I didn't know anything about the first 3 stories you mentioned, but I did hear about that Grand Canyon thing on the car-radio news the other day. My initial, audible reaction was "Are you kidding me?! That is just WRONG on so many levels." And what this country does, or succumbs to, for the "almighty (tourist) dollar" just astounds me sometimes .....
Suzy
If given an environmental issue we asked the question, "What would a STEWARD do?", I bet actions would be a lot different. A steward wouldn't carve a beautiful mountain up. A steward wouldn't start a business to fly helicopters and airplanes up and down the bottom of the Grand Canyon to make money. A steward would replant an area that he/she cut down for lumber and development, to the best of his or her ability. And yet the money-mongering goes on, often white-washed by rhetoric of economy boosts and standards of living. It all starts with personal responsibility, Suzy. Thanks for sharing!
In my opinion, CRAZY HORSE belongs there. He is the greatest warrior of all time. He should be remembered. The memorial is a reminder of the "spirit of Crazy Horse". His daring brought him respect amoung his people. He was a quiet spiritual man who did not like the killing, but found it neccesary to protect his people and their land and their way of life. Why not Crazy Horse? The faces on Mt Rushmore do not belong.
Went to CH many times, and certainly respect him and his peoples to the 'Nth' degree...many of his peoples are split on this issue...since Rushmore is there, CH belongs, no doubt about that in my mind...but I would prefer that no mountain had been carved in the first place. Land is sacred, and a giant carving, to me, is not a sacred, respectful use of the land. Rushmore was a major slap in the face of Native America on many levels; from that respect, I'm all for CH dwarfing it.
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