Political Quotes

“wilderness is another measure which has lost any sense of judgment. It is now only a function, again, of acreage, and it is a function of press releases in the media. We do not worry about whether there is any ``wilderness'' character at all. Much of this is not in the minds of those who judge wilderness in the state of a natural wilderness area. We have seen this. We have seen checkerboarded lands without the possibility of a wilderness experience, unless we use the heavy hand of the Federal Government to make life unbearable for the inholders at the same time, and that is not fair. As I said before, I can testify what the heavy hand of the Federal Government has done to my constituents in Alaska. During the hearing before the committee, the Secretary described his approach to dealing with land exchange for the extensive holdings of the Catellus Corp.. We recall that. His precise words were: If you do not want to do it, we would be happy to let these inholdings just sit in these areas as inholdings forever. Is that a responsible statement for the Secretary of the Interior to make? In other words, you either take our offer, or you can rot. I do not think it is fair. It is not the way the Federal Government should deal with the citizens of this country.”