US ‘Pyramids’ On the Chopping Block!

I switched positions to gain a better view of our Sun, now tracking south.

Happiest day, beloved Joy Train Rider! I love you! Bless you! I affirm we are doing well, and headed for much better.

I’m happy to report that the weekend spent with visiting family was exquisite. I missed the opportunity to run (race?😂) with our grandsons for multiple reasons including oppressive heat by the time they woke up, and I also didn’t realize that a young person striving to race professionally can’t risk injury from something so spontaneous.

I admired their readiness to try the fruits of our land including guineps, naseberries, jackfruit, starfruit, soursop and otaheite apples. In every way they opened our eyes and delighted our hearts, especially with the high level of their political knowledge and astuteness. I told them I don’t recall any other period since I arrived in the US in the 1970s when teenagers were so keenly engaged. Recalling the changes brought about by young people in the 1960s helped reassure us that our future is in good hands, if we’re sufficiently motivated to get through this dark period.

While enjoying this special family time I kept an ear out for the destruction looming over our publicly-owned lands system. Why are we working so hard to protect them if not for “this and future generations,” including our grandchildren? It struck me forcibly how the president who seems intent on desecrating our natural treasures enjoys a favorability rating far inferior to those presidents who conscientiously added lands to the System, begging the question: Will we stand for the least popular president defiling our most treasured places?

Until President Obama, President Theodore Roosevelt put the largest amount of land into protected status Although there were no polls in his time, his favorability rating in retrospect at YouGov place his modern public favorability rating at roughly 62% to 66%, during his mid-term. It was driven by his "Square Deal" progressive policies, aggressive antitrust "trust-busting" suits, and extensive public land conservation. President Obama exceeded President Roosevelt’s land protections and today enjoys a favorability rating of 57%.

Meanwhile, according to Google/AI, “President Trump's approval rating has dropped to 29% in specific issue areas, such as his oversight of foreign conflicts, while his overall national approval generally hovers between 33% and 37% in recent tracking.”

As shared by NPCA

“The Department of Interior is giving only 14 days for the public to weigh in on a proposal that could devastate the landscape surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park.”

We only have two more days to weigh in before the period expires July 29, and NPCA’s Take Action site makes it easy to do.

So let’s head to this very special place, which may arguably be considered the pyramids of America, due to multiple elements of their construction and orientation to the skies. Although the Pyramids of Giza precede them by approximately 3,000 years, “The ancestral Puebloan people aligned their massive stone great houses, roads, and ceremonial kivas precisely with the sun, moon, and stars.”

The Pyramids of Giza are reportedly aligned to the three stars in Orion’s belt.

Ironically, this sacred area was first protected by President Roosevelt in 1907 as a National Monument, and reauthorized to the higher status of National Historical Park in 1980 to expand protection to surrounding the archaeological sites.

But,

“If DOI moves forward with its proposal, new oil and gas leasing and development on federal lands will be allowed within 10 miles of the park’s boundaries – even on lands directly bordering the park – threatening the irreplaceable cultural resources throughout the landscape.”

And what a landscape it is. Chaco Culture is one of the top two National Parks I most want to visit next, the other being Mesa Verde National Park. As we explore this remote, rugged and historically significant landscape, let us take a look at the artifacts that caused UNESCO to declare it a World Heritage Site: