NEPA

Consultants dream
Rules, laws, rules, regs
Fear, fear run away
… But we cannot leave
This land is ours
Our forests are family
Who runs this show
Not We da people
Who says we go
Not We da people
Laws, rules, laws, regs
Tell us what to say
We cannot listen
Show issues, alternatives
We must do our work
Science asks queries
Honestly seeking truth
Economix crossfire
With emotional hue
Hug a tree as it falls
Regs, laws, regs, rules
Time evaporates in
Studies of fictional harmonization
Of data, of people, of values
Community leadership required
From We da people

ReadPoem arose from public comment on the Elliot State Forest, offered in Roseburg, OR on May 24th. Fifteen local citizens were met by an equal number of ‘the gang’; the collection of federal and state agency representatives and their Portland consultants, prepared to do ‘the work’ of NEPA – the National Environmental Policy Act - and spend nearly half-a-million dollars of ‘accountability’ outside the region before allowing the local community and public schools to make a small profit by cutting state forest land.