Caves in general are managed much better today than in the past through the efforts of the NSS and local caving organizations as well as other environmental issues. Native Americans have been concerned about growth and expansion since Europeans arrived. It is not likely to stop.
Ron ________________________________ From: John P. Brooks <jpbrook...@sbcglobal.net> To: Louise Power <power_lou...@hotmail.com>; Matt Turner <kat...@yahoo.com>; Texas Cavers <texascavers@texascavers.com> Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 9:30:11 AM Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Kinda hurts my soul Re: [<SPAN id="misspell-2" class="mark" >Texascavers</SPAN>] Kinda hurts my soul Excuse me for sounding like a sour puss....but it is a quarry.....AND WHY isn’t anyone’s “soul hurting” for the caves that have been and are being destroyed by urban sprawl in Central Texas? In my humble opinion; building houses, Walmarts, hotels, strip centers AND patronizing those business is a much greater sin against nature......and yet I know cavers and other environmentalist types who love to live out in those brushy hills...and buy all their cheap plastic stuff at Walmart....and love to go for a Saturday drive in the “country” on freeways that trench a horrid scar across our beautiful karst.... many of us add our little piece of this damage everyday through our daily actions. It “hurts my soul” that I live this way...and have little choice in the matter. To complain about a house in a quarry, that some call a cave, seems to me a bit inauthentic...and it covers a pain that we all feel when we consider the damage being done all around us. If this type of thing offends us, we should be called to action. We should be lobbying for “urban growth” boundaries for out cities to protect the remaining hill country, before it ALL becomes covered with parking lots and fry pits and Walmarts and Big Box retailers. We should being saying enough to the everyday excessive use of automobiles AND insist that development be SMART. We should support initatives that create walkable, more dense cities that have and support mass transit. I could go on.....but will not. But I do hope that we can all see the “cancer” that we are creating....if ones desire is to save caves; one might start by looking at the real problem....and that is how we use our fragile land everyday. And excuse me if I sound brash...I woke up with some kind of stomach crud this morning...jb On 2/20/09 5:10 PM, "Louise Power" <power_lou...@hotmail.com> wrote: Why would anybody want to ruin a perfectly good cave with a house? What family of 5 needs 17000 sq ft? What happened to all the cave formations? Where does their waste go? Does it pollute the ground water? It looks cool, but degrades the whole area! I was appalled. When I was in what was then called Yugoslavia, there were people in the Karst Mountains living in caves out of necessity, not necessarily because it was cool. They also penned up their livestock right there in the entrance. (Where is Glade room freshener when you need it?) Louise ________________________________ Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:31:07 -0800 From: kat...@yahoo.com To: texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: [Texascavers] Kinda hurts my soul http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330306913609&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1123 <http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330306913609&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1123> Just in case someone wants a cave home in missouri. I'm sure it had low energy bills. Matt Turner "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle "Empty pockets never held anyone back.Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."- Norman Vincent Peale
