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Good evening, my name is Jim 
Wohlpart, I 

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have the deep honor of being the 
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

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here at the University of Northern Iowa,
 thank you for coming out.

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"Democracy is 

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an insecure landscape,” wrote Terry 
Tempest Williams in a letter

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dated October 6th, 2004. 

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“And today, it feels even more so.”

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Williams penned this letter to then 
President William Merwin, a 

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Florida Gulf Coast University after he 
canceled her convocation

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address. His concern: remarks 

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about President George Bush included
in The Open Space of Democracy.

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She continues, “If our institutions

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of higher learning can no longer be
 counted on as champions

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and respecters of freedom of speech,
 then I fear

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that no voice is safe from being silenced

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in this country. The Open Space of
 Democracy

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is a call for conscious dialogue in times of

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devisive political rhetoric that has 
no heart.

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Democracy invites us to take risks

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it asks that we vacate the comfortable 
seat of 

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certitude, remain pliable, and act,

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ultimately, on behalf of the common good.

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Democracy’s only agenda,” she concludes, 

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“is that we participate.” 

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In response to President Merwin’s
 cancelation, 

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the students at Florida Gulf Coast University,

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the students, the college Democrats 

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joined by the college Republicans, 
and 12 other organizations

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reinvited Terry to campus, where she 

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appeared as scheduled. 

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These were the circumstances under 
which I 1st met Terry Tempest Williams

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who has been called a “citizen writer"

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a writer who speaks eloquently on behalf

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of an ethical stance towards life. A 
naturalist and

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fierce advocate for freedom of speech, 
she has 

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consistently shown us how environmental 
issues are social issues,

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that ultimately become matters of justice.

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“So, here’s my question,” she asks, 

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“what might a different kind of power 

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look like? And feel like? And can power 

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be redistributed, equitably, even beyond

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our own species?” Williams has

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testified before congress on women’s 
health issues, been a guest

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at the White House, has camped in 
remote regions of Utah and Alaska, 

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and worked as a barefoot artist in 
Rwanda. Known for

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her impassioned, lyrical prose, Terry 
Tempest Williams is the author

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of the environmental literature classic, 
“Refuge: An Unnatural History

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of Family and Place.” She has published 
many other books,

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too many to mention here, but if you 
don’t have a Terry Tempest

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Williams section in your library at home, 
tonight is the night to build

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one. Her most recent book, “The 
Hour of Land: A

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Personal Topography of America’s 
National Parks” honors the centennial 

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of the National Park Service. The 
book is a New York Times Best Seller

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and in 2006 Williams received the 
Robert Marshall

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Award from the Wilderness Society, 
the highest honor given to

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any American citizen. She also 
received the Distinguished 

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Achievement Award from the 
Western American Literature Association and the

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Wallace Stegner Award given by the 
Center for the American West.

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She has also received the Lannan 
Literary Fellowship, and a John Simon 

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Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative
 Nonfiction. In 2009, Terry

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Tempest Williams was featured in 
Ken Burns’ PBS series on the National

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Parks, how many of you have seen 
that? Remarkable. You need to see it. 

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In 2014, on the 50th

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anniversary of the wilderness act,
 Ms. Williams received the 

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Sierra Club John Muir Award, 
honoring a distinguished record 

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of leadership in American conservation. 

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She has served as the Annie Clark 
Tanner Fellow in the University of Utah's

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environmental humanities graduate 
program which she also helped found. 

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She’s currently a writer in residence 
at the Harvard Divinity school.

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Her writing has appeared in the
 New Yorker, The New York Times,

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The Progressive, Orion Magazine, 
and numerous anthologies 

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worldwide as a crucial voice for
 ecological 

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consciousness and social change. 
She and her husband,

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Brooke, divide their time between 
Castle Valley, Wyoming, 

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and other places where she’s 
teaching. As you know, 

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Terry is the final speaker in the 
2018-2019

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Aldo Leopold lecture series here 
at the University of Northern Iowa. 

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As part of the celebration of the 
50th anniversary

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of the North American Review on 
our campus. Folks, this is 

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remarkable. It’s been an amazing 
year with great speakers.

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Like Williams, Leopold challenged 

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our worldview, offering an expanded 
ethical framework within

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which to consider relationships, 
including,

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especially, our relationship to the 
land. In the 

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Sand County Almanac, Leopold 
asserted that our ethical obligation

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exists beyond the social world of 
humans to include

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the soils, the waters, plants and 
animals,

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that is the land. He insisted

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that we broaden our understanding
 of care to recognize

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the intertwinement of humans with 
the natural world.

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The Aldo Leopold Distinguished
 Lecture Series

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is born of this same vision: to 
question our 

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assumptions, to critique our values 
and beliefs,

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and to expand or even alter our
 way of thinking and

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being in the world. In order to 
create a foundation for the 

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thriving of human society and 
planet Earth together

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into the future. To achieve such a 
thriving,

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will depend upon deepening our 
understanding of 

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our deep connection with the world 
around us. So I want to

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pause for a moment and thank the 
Leopold Committee for their dedication and hardwork

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bringing such a spectacular round of 
speakers to our campus

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they include Chris Martin, who I think 
is here tonight, Chris give a wave if I

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say your name, there’s lot of folks here. 
Rachel Morgan is here in the front,

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Jeremy Schraffenberger is here, back
 on the side, 

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Marcy Seavey, I saw come in, Angela 

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Waseskuk, I know is here, Theresa
 Westbrock,

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from our library is here,

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Senator Eric Giddons, I saw walk in late, 

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[applause] and I 

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especially want to thank, you all have 
seen Eric running around, right?

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Eric O’Brien. What’s remarkable about
 Eric O’Brien’s work is that 

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he’s the Director of Sustainability in 
the division

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of Facilities and Operations. He’s not
 even in academic affairs, but you couldn’t tell that.

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What a remarkable confluence: Eric 
O’Brien, Director of

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Sustainability, and Alicia Rosburg, 
the Provost fellow for sustainability

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have brought it together so that our 
campus understands

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the deep work that needs to happen 
with sustainability. Please give them our thanks.

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[applause]

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Now you all…if you’ve been in Iowa

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most or all of your life, you may not 
fully appreciate today, although after

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the winter we’ve had, you do. Coming 
from Florida for 21 years, I 

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certainly know that there are very 
few places in the world that you get a day

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like we had today. You all know, 

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with this crystal clear sky, the reason
 that we’ve ordered this weather

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for this evening is because we have 
a full moon tonight. 

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The “Frog Moon” tonight. The frog 
moon comes in

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mid-spring, when Earth is returning 
to life, and

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what the frog moon reminds us to do
 is to remember

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our connection to Earth. To all of our 
relations, the plants and the 

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animals, and to each other. The frog 
moon is a time of healing

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and restoration. It is a time of

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ceremony as a sacred act of renewal.

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When I think about the importance

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of today, when I think about the 
weather outside, the

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turning of the seasons, the moon, the
 NAR turning 50

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on our campus and moving into this 
new space, 

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and then this visit by this remarkable 
and gifted speaker,

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I wonder, can we learn again, to think 

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of the daily. The mundane. The 

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chores that we go through on a daily 
basis, the wind blowing in our face, as the sacred.

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Can we remember that it is the sacred? 

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And participate in this act of continual 
co-creation

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of the universe? Tonight, I would offer,
 is just 

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such a gift. The gift of the frog moon

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that can connect us to something bigger. 

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To his credit, President William

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Merwin did attend Terry’s lecture on 

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the FGCU campus that evening, and 
Terry, if you remember, 

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she brought her father with her, who 
is a very tall strapping man.

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We made certain that her father sat 
between the President and Terry.

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[laughter] He did later acknowledge

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to me and a classroom full of students
 that he made a mistake in cancelling

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that convocation, and that he had
 learned and grown

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that night. But before Terry spoke

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on the FGCU campus that auspicious 
evening, she received

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a standing ovation that lasted a full 5 
minutes. Please 

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join me in welcoming Terry Tempest 
Williams to this historic Lang Hall Auditorium

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on the campus of the University of
 Northern Iowa.

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[applause]

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[applause]

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[Terry]This is what leadership looks 
like.

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Thank you so much, Jim.

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[applause]

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I am so excited to be here in

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this place, and I’m nervous and I hope
 you’ll bear with me.

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My heart will calm down, but this does

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feel like an auspicious moment, and 
to be here at the University of 

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Northern Iowa is just a great gift.

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Thank you, Jim and Sasha. Dear 
friends,

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old friends, we’ve been through much 
together, protecting

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The Open Space of Democracy as 
Jim recounted,

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and that moment changed me, at
 The Gulf Coast

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University in Florida. It was hard

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and I think in that moment, I stopped 
using the word

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‘hope.’ Because I saw that it was so fully 

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embodied in the students. 

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I stopped using hope and I changed
 it to faith, because that is what I

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have faith in. And I would just love to 
see the students stand

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who are here tonight. [applause]

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And in my heart, this is what The
 Open Space 

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of Democracy is. What I do remember, 
is that

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the students, their one condition, 
when they said, we will have

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this, is that the President

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of Florida Gulf Coast University and
 I would be on the

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same program, and that mattered.

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It was difficult for both of us, but I
 think

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what I said to the students, I remember 
so clearly, is “you don’t have to read a book

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about The Open Space of Democracy, 
you embody it.” And 

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that has always stayed with me, and 
Jim, your leadership was

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absolutely front and center

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at that moment, and I’ve never 
forgotten you.

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I’ve never forgotten the love that I 
hold for you. That was 25 years

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ago. That’s hard for me to really even 

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take in, because at that time, in 
that administration

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and I certainly don’t mean to offend 
anyone, although,

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I have a tendency to do so, I don’t assume that we

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all share the same politics. Coming 
from Utah, I know that’s not true. I was saying that

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to the students today, and in fact
 it’s not true in my own family 

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and maybe some of you have that
 experience, but I love that we can have the 

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conversation. 25 years later, I 

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think our democracy has never been
 in greater peril.

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It’s not about, in my mind, 

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Republicans or Democrats, but a 
sense of decency.

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A sense of truth-telling, and a 
sense of

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really standing our ground in the 

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places we love when there is so
 much loss

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in our public lands. 

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That’s really what I want to talk 
about tonight.

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I’m deeply moved to be a part of
 this Aldo Leopold series.

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Just to see who you have had here,

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real heroes of mine, and to be able 
to celebrate the 50th anniversary 

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of the North American Review. It 
was literally the 1st

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place that I was ever published, and
 I remember

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[applause] that’s how I felt!

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I was so excited! You know, people 
say you always remember

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“where you were when…” I remember 
where I was when I received...

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I still have the letter, it was this small
 letter from Robley Wilson

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and it was the most courteous, 
generous letter;

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“Dear Ms. Tempest William’ you 
know, ‘we

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accept’ and I didn’t read anything
 else [laughter]

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Bill, to hear you talk about your 
father and your mother

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and your ‘dinner table of the 
manuscripts’, 

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that were surrounded by the food 
that you ate, I’m so grateful

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for your sacrifice that has been 
our gain. 

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I really want to make a commitment 
to the

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editors, tonight. 

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With this beautiful new design, I 
think it’s a new era for all of us to

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pay our respect to the magazine 
that gave us a voice. I cannot wait 

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to go back and tell my students to 
send

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in their manuscripts to be a voice 
and an advocate 

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for this venerable literary magazine,

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and to earn my name, that is listed 
as one of the

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contributing editors, so thank you.
 I was

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reading some of the beautiful 

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entries in this special issue on The
 Open Space of Democracy, and you

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have to know how much this means 
to me, that this has been

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a phrase that you have taken as
 your own. With the gorgeous posters,

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the submissions, and again, it gives
 me such faith

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in where we are and where we 

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will continue to be and move forward. 
I was particularly 

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struck by Heather Lang, “The White
 Whale, or the Existential Heart”

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after Melville, quote unquote: “A 
slender statue has become

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the night. Flashing restless anger
 deeper into

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what? We do not agree.”

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Let me read that one more time: “A 
slender statue has become

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the night, flashing restless anger 
deeper, into what? 

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We do not agree.” No we don’t.

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We are a divided nation and in some 
ways I feel like

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the civil war has never ended, and as
 writers, how do we 

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write in a way that opens hearts 
instead of closes them?

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Jim, your leadership continues to 
show me how that is possible.

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You’re one of the most elegant minds
 I’ve ever met, and also one of the most

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graceful human being who acts outof compassion and intelligence.

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One who knows how to listen and I 
personally honor your conscious leadership.

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Sasha, I want to tell you as a friend
 and as a sister, 

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how deeply your creative vision
 inspires 

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my own, your beautiful tenacity 
toward life, and I will use this word

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again, graceful, manifestation of
 courage becomes you. 

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And I just love that you have taken 
this leadership onto the school board.

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We honor you. [applause]

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To all of you who are here, students, 

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visiting writers for this conference,
 faculty, community

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members, we can all share the 
celebratory

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moment together under this 
beautiful full moon

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in the prairies. Thank you Taylor 

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Brorby, for your work on fracking

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and where we find ourselves now.
 Also Deborah Marquart

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you just gave me such a beautiful 
piece of knowledge

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that you’re writing about oil. These 
are the writers that I admire

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they’re on the frontlines, you are, 
not only in the classroom, but in

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community, and it’s just a privilege
 to be able to

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stand with you by your side. 

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Again, Jeremy, Rachel, Brooke, Brian,

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Sarah, and Grant, thank you for 
your editorial brilliance. 

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Iowa, Utah, 

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00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:09,000
We bear many similarities. We are a 

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conservative people tied to the land, 
with an immense sky that arches

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over us. We are wanted for our oil 
and gas,

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and we have suffered the physical 
consequences of 

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pesticides and nuclear testing, with 
high rates of cancers.

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I was immediately aware of that…
um…just with the

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advertisements for the hospitals 
and what’s happening here in Iowa.

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It’s the same in Utah, it’s the same
 in New Mexico,

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and so many of these places where 
oil and gas 

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00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:45,000
has moved in. We’re both the sites
 of National 

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00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:49,000
Campaigns, the Bakken pipeline,
 DACA, that’s 

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cutting your state in half. For us in 
Utah, it’s the gutting of our National Monuments

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for oil and gas development, 
Bear’s Ears National Monument,

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00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:01,000
Grand Staircase Escalante, National
 Monument.

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00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,000
There is a healthy opposition
 among us, 

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00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:09,000
and it’s here that I believe that the
 Open Space

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00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:13,000
of Democracy is most alive. We are 

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00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:17,000
a kind and community driven people, 
I believe that. 

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00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:21,000
It’s not easy to disagree publicly, 
or to have

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the hard conversations, but I 
believe we are having them.

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00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:29,000
And the scale and repetity with 
which our communities are being torn asunder,

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00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:33,000
I think, are bringing both sides 
together. I see it in my

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00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:37,000
own family. Even to the point that 
when Brooke and I, my husband,

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bought oil and gas leases in the 
state of Utah as a protest,

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00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,000
being inspired by Tim DeChristopher, 
who served 2 years in prison. At a very

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00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:49,000
hard moment among our family, my

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00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:53,000
family lays pipe where natural gas 
runs through, 

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00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:57,000
my father, with our newly constructed 
LLC

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00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,000
Tempest energy company, said “I 
will be your CEO, 

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00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:05,000
because you don’t know what the
 hell you’re doing.” [laughter] My father didn’t do

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00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:09,000
that to be kind, he did it because
 he believed in it; because of the scale,

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00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:13,000
because of these lands, our public
 lands, our public commons

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00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,000
are being ravaged. "A thing 

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00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:21,000
is right,” Aldo Leopold wrote, 
“when it 

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00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:25,000
tends to preserve the integrity, 
stability, and beauty of the 

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00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,000
biotic community. It is wrong
 when it tends otherwise.” 

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00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:33,000
That is a manifesto to me, and I
 remember reading it as a young writer and I thought,

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00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:37,000
‘that’s all I need.’

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00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:41,000
And it is on my desk, and I look at
 it every time I sit down to write. 

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00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:45,000
“A thing is right when it tends to
 preserve the integrity, stability, and

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00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,000
beauty of the biotic community.
 It is wrong when it

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00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,000
tends to do otherwise.” That—is 
an ethical

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00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,000
stance toward life, I gauge.

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00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,000
At the heart of 

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00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:05,000
the Open Space of Democracy is 
the land, public lands, and in

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00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,000
the beating core of public lands is 
Aldo Leopold. Call him

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00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,000
a ‘deep part of the land ethic’ here 
in Iowa.

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00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,000
What I can tell you, is anything I 
have written, I honestly

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00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,000
was derivative of Leopold’s land 
ethic. In fact, I’m 

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00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,000
almost ashamed to say but I think 
I’ve plagiarized him. [laughter]

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00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:29,000
This paragraph, for example, “The 
land ethic

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00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:33,000
simply enlarges the boundaries of
 the community to include soils,

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00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:37,000
waters, plants, and animals 
collectively, the land.

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00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:41,000
In short, the land ethic changes
 the role of homo sapiens from 

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conqueror to the land community, 
to plain member and citizen of it. 

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00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,000
It implies respect for his fellow 
members, and also respect for the community 

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as large.” I have written these 
exact words

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00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:57,000
and I only hope that if his ghost is 
here, his spirit,

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00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:01,000
that he understands that it is only 
because nobody 

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00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:05,000
can say it better than he has, and 
the rest of us are following. 

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00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:09,000
The words that I read on the
 banks of 

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00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:13,000
the Green River in 

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00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:17,000
Dinosaur National Monument in
 Utah, were 

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00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:21,000
Aldo Leopold’s. I had just graduated
 from high school in Salt Lake City,

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00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,000
I was with my mother and grandmother, 
and brothers and cousins,

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00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,000
and as they were playing in the 
water and the women in my family 

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00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,000
were talking about family issues, I 
was sitting beneath a cottonwood tree,

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00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,000
reading “The Land Ethic.” It created 
a revolution

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00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:41,000
in me. Leopold loved wild places, 
and 

356
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,000
wild geese, so did I. Leopold was 
asking me to

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00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:49,000
quote “think like a mountain.” That
 didn’t seem strange to me.

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00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:53,000
The Wasatch Mountains were my 
backbone and bedrock at once, and when he

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00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:57,000
spoke of seeing the green fire go 
out of the dying wolf’s eyes, 

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00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:01,000
I knew that green fire was alive in
 my own heart. 

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00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:05,000
What I didn’t know then, that I do 
know now, 

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00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,000
is after witnessing decades of 
environmental degradation,

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00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,000
is how important it is to fight for
 these lands.

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00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,000
My father recently said, “she used
 to be such a nice person,"

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00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:21,000
[laughter] and that was after he
 also said, 

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00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,000
at the same dinner, family dinner, 
“at least she has a hobby.”

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00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,000
[laughter] Writing. 

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00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,000
And in fighting for land health,

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00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,000
and Leopold’s words, and protecting
 that land, 

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00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000
“We’re also joining arms with our 
brown and black and native

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00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,000
brothers and sisters in issues of 
environmental and social justice.”

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00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:49,000
I am so grateful for that, and much
 of what I want to share tonight

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00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,000
is how Utah has been completely 
transformed by

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00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000
the leadership of the tribes. The 

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00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,000
Navajo, Dine, Hopi, Zuni, Ute, and

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00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,000
Ute Mountain Ute, they have shown
 us, not only

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00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:09,000
what dignity is, 

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00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:13,000
but how to listen,

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00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:17,000
what integrity feels like,

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00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,000
and how when I asked Willie Grayeyes,
 who is one of the community organizers

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00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,000
and a spiritual leader among his people,

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00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:29,000
where he resides at the base of 
Navajo Mountain, 

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00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:33,000
he said to me in a very low moment, 
and with a name like

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00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,000
Tempest, it’s hard not to get angry 
easily, [laughter]

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00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,000
when we knew what was going to 
happen with Donald Trump coming in to gut Bear’s Ears, 

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00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:45,000
I went to him, and I said, “Willie, 

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00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:49,000
what do we do with our anger?” 
and he looked at me and he said, 

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00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,000
“This is not a time for anger, Terry,
 anymore, this has

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00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:57,000
to be a time of healing.” I’m still
 thinking about 

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00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:01,000
what that means. 

391
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:05,000
"One of the penalties of

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00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:09,000
an ecological education, is that 
one lives alone in a world of 

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00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:13,000
wounds,” Aldo Leopold. Don’t you
 love that?

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00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,000
“One of the penalties of an ecological 
education is that

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00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:21,000
one lives alone in a world of wounds.”
 I want to

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00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,000
just briefly give a rendering of what’s 

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00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:29,000
happened in Utah, because I think 
one place illustrates

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00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,000
every place. How many have heard 
of Bear’s 

399
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:37,000
Ears? It makes me so happy, because
 a couple 

400
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,000
of years ago, that would not have
 been the case. Bear’s Ears

401
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:45,000
has changed me, instructed me, 
continues to mentor

402
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,000
all of us who live in this state of Utah,

403
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:53,000
as to the art of dwelling, what that 
really means.

404
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:57,000
Mark Maryboy, who I’ve known for 
decades, 

405
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:01,000
Utah is a small town, maybe it’s
 the same in Iowa, 

406
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,000
he’s been one of the most 
courageous native leaders...

407
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:09,000
former county commissioner, um…

408
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:13,000
very very brave. He told…when 
someone asked him

409
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,000
“How long has Bear’s Ears been 
going on?” He looked at them and said, “How long

410
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:21,000
has the Earth been formed?” Then 
he walked about when he

411
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,000
was a child, he was sitting on the 
banks of the

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00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:29,000
San Juan River, by the bridge. If 
you can imagine,

413
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:33,000
it was 1968, in the spring, 

414
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000
and Robert Kennedy was running 
for President of the United States. 

415
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:41,000
He paid the Navajo elders a visit,

416
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,000
and on the edge of the San Juan 
River, he asked 

417
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,000
them, “How might I serve you?” 
Can you imagine? 

418
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:53,000
Mark listened

419
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000
as his grandparents, who were 
elders, said, 

420
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,000
in unison, “Protect Bear’s Ears.”

421
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:05,000
That was 1968. 

422
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:09,000
In 2011, it started being discussed. 
I think it was ignited

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00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,000
by the oil and gas development,

424
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,000
the elders came forward, met with

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00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,000
conservationists in the state, and
 a conversation began.

426
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:25,000
2016, President Barack Obama

427
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,000
listened, and on December 28th, 

428
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:33,000
2016, toward the end of his 
presidency, 

429
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,000
he established the Bear’s Ears
 National Monument. 

430
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,000
It was a healing moment between 
the tribes 

431
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,000
in the American Southwest, the 
4 corners area, and 

432
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:49,000
the United States Government.
 It was a recognition,

433
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,000
a handshake across history. That
 traditional

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00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,000
knowledge, what the tribes know, 
what native people

435
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:01,000
live with, can exist simultaneously

436
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:05,000
with “scientific” knowledge

437
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,000
with the federal agencies.

438
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:13,000
Dreams started becoming 

439
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:17,000
public policy, and then less than a
 year later, 

440
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,000
on December 4th, 2017, 

441
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,000
Donald Trump came to Utah for 
under 2 hours, 

442
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,000
and at the behest of Senator 
Orrin Hatch, beholden to the fossil fuel

443
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,000
industry, gutted Bear’s Ears by 
85%,

444
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,000
and cut Grand Staircase

445
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:41,000
National Monument by half, 
saying, 

446
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,000
“As a real estate person, 

447
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:49,000
1.2 million acres sounds good to 
me.” And it was open for business.

448
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,000
What do we do 

449
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:57,000
in the face of such blatant and 
bold disregard as we watch

450
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,000
The Open Space of Democracy 
close?

451
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:05,000
We turn to 

452
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:09,000
our communities, we assess our 
gifts,

453
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,000
and we offer them up in the name
 of community. 

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00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:17,000
I can tell you I didn’t know what to 
do. I was so angry. 

455
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:21,000
That’s when I went to Willie. That’s 
when he said

456
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:25,000
we have to heal. What I think he
 meant, in which we've

457
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:29,000
had further conversations, is, if 
we are going to begin to heal

458
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:33,000
as a nation, we have to find the 
source of our pain.

459
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:37,000
If you have a splinter or a piece of 
glass in your heel, 

460
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,000
before you can really heel, you 
have to find that splinter.

461
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:45,000
You have to take out that piece of 
glass. Otherwise,

462
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,000
it festers. Where is the source

463
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:53,000
of our pain? Where is the source
 of our

464
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:57,000
disconnect? As writers, 

465
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,000
how do we begin? For me, I began

466
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:05,000
in locating someone that I wanted 
to work with. When I

467
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:09,000
was teaching, I met a photographer 
named Fazal Sheikh. 

468
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:13,000
He is from this country, he’s 
American, but he’s been 

469
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,000
photographing all over the 
world—Israel, Palestine, places

470
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,000
of dispute, of contention, and war,

471
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:25,000
including Rwanda, Pakistan…all 
over the world. 

472
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:29,000
We met for a cup of coffee, and 
very indelicately

473
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:33,000
I said, without knowing him, “Why
 don’t you come home?"

474
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:37,000
And he said, “How dare you. 

475
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,000
You don’t know who I am.” And I
 said, “I know your work. 

476
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:45,000
and if you’re going to all of these
 places in conflict, why don’t you come home, why don’t you 

477
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,000
come to Utah? You are needed."

478
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,000
It did not end well. 

479
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:57,000
[laughter] We said goodbye, and I 
thought, ‘Why didn’t I just

480
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,000
keep my mouth closed?’ That was 
in May,

481
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,000
2017. The end of July, I got a 
telephone call.

482
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:09,000
I said, “Hello?” and he goes, 
“Damn you!” And I thought, ‘whoops! Robo call!” [laughter]

483
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:13,000
I said, “Excuse me?” And he goes, 
“This is

484
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:17,000
Fazal Sheikh, can I come?”

485
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:21,000
and he did. We went and we talked 
to the elders.

486
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:25,000
When he met the spiritual leaders, 

487
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:29,000
he said to the community, “How 
can I help?” 

488
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,000
What beautiful words, ‘how can 
I help?’ ‘what can we do together?’

489
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:37,000
For a year, Fazal listened. 

490
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:41,000
We went down repeatedly, and 
listened. Then when we heard

491
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:45,000
what was going to happen with the 
monument being

492
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:49,000
dismantled, there was a 

493
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:53,000
rally at the Utah State Capitol.

494
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,000
What we decided is, we could do 
the only thing that we knew how to do

495
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:01,000
as a writer and a photographer. We 

496
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,000
followed the lines of Camu, when
 he said, 

497
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:09,000
“Sometimes words can be more
 than ammunitions.” Or, 

498
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:13,000
when he had these pamphlets that
 he would distribute in Paris

499
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:18,000
during conflict, and so what we did
 in a matter of 2 weeks,

500
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,000
we found some funding, and Fazal
 with his photographs, he’d been taking 

501
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:25,000
pictures for the year, we 

502
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:29,000
made, just a brochure, and I share
 this with you because I think,

503
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:33,000
you know, how do we act? If I 
didn’t act, I would be in bed--

504
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,000
so depressed, I cannot tell you. I 
think it’s 

505
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:41,000
in those moments when you can’t 
get up in the morning. You’re aware

506
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:45,000
of what a single imagination can’t
 do;

507
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:49,000
but imaginations shared, create

508
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:53,000
collaboration and in collaboration 
we create

509
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,000
community, and in community 
anything is possible. So, this was the

510
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,000
brochure exposure. We printed 
10,000. 

511
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,000
We had a local printer; we 
distributed them 

512
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,000
through different grass roots 
organizations and to the crowd. 

513
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,000
Then, we gave most of the 

514
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,000
brochures tracks to the tribal 
members

515
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,000
themselves on the res. So, exposure,
 it talked 

516
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,000
about the issue, “Establishment of 
Bear’s Ears National Monument,” 

517
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:29,000
we quoted from the beautiful 
proclamation from Barack Obama.

518
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:33,000
This was an open letter to President
 Donald J. Trump by Willie Grayeyes,

519
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,000
who was leader of the Utah Dine 
Bikeyah, these were

520
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:41,000
examples of what’s happening on 
the outskirts of Bear’s Ears,

521
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:45,000
coal, uranium tailings, 

522
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,000
fracking, off-road vehicles. I 
wrote a 

523
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:53,000
piece called, “Boom,” and then, 
the most important thing, 

524
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:57,000
is, we exposed, through Fazal’s…um…

525
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:01,000
photograph—Does anyone know 
what this is?

526
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,000


527
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:09,000
It’s a capped Uranium mine, that is 

528
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:13,000
leaching into the San Juan River 
and the Colorado River. 

529
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:17,000
I’ve never seen this. It’s hidden. 
Fazal saw it.

530
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:21,000
Instinctively, I knew, he would 
be brave enough

531
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:25,000
to expose what none of us dared 
to see.

532
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:29,000
Millions of people have

533
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,000
suffered from Uranium tailings
 leaching into the water system.

534
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,000
10’s of 1,000’s of Navajo minors 
and Mormon people

535
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:41,000
are dead from 

536
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,000
this particular line. 

537
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:49,000
I want to share with you, and I’ve
 not done this, but 

538
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:53,000
I feel safe because Jim is the 
Provost. [laughter]

539
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:57,000
I want to read this,

540
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:01,000
I’ve read excerpts, but I haven’t 
read the whole thing. 

541
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:05,000
It’s an angry piece, but I think 
there are times

542
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:09,000
when anger is appropriate. 

543
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,000
I think, because of this piece, I 
am able to heal. 

544
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:17,000
Because I’ve acknowledged 
something that I haven’t before. 

545
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:21,000
What I can tell you, is that this 

546
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,000
piece was actually a very long text. 

547
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:29,000
When Fazal came back after 
flying all

548
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,000
over Utah, and he called me and 
he said, “Terry, I have been

549
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:37,000
all over the world, this is the most 
violent place

550
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:41,000
I’ve ever seen.” 

551
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:45,000
I knew the pieces,

552
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:49,000
I never dared connect the dots. 

553
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:53,000
[reading] What is beauty

554
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:57,000
if not stillness? What is stillness 
if not sight?

555
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:01,000
What is sight if not an awakening?
 What is an awakening

556
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:05,000
if not now? The American 
landscape is under assault,

557
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:09,000
by an administration that cares 
only about themselves. 

558
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:13,000
Working behind closed doors,
 they are strategically undermining environmental 

559
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:17,000
protections that have been in
 place for decades, and they’re getting away with it.

560
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,000
In practices of secrecy, in deeds
 of greed, in acts of

561
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:25,000
violence that are causing pain. 
Like many, I've

562
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:29,000
compartmentalized my state of 
mind in order to survive. Like

563
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:33,000
most, I have also compartmentalized 
my state of Utah. 

564
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:37,000
It is a violence hidden that we all 
share. 

565
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,000
This is the fallout that has 
entered our bodies. Nuclear bombs

566
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:45,000
tested in the desert, “boom.” 
These are Uranium tailings

567
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,000
left on the edges of our towns 
where children play, “boom.”

568
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,000
The war games played, and nerve 
gas stored in the West desert, “boom.”

569
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:57,000
These are the oil and gas lines, 
frack lines, from Vernal to Bonanza

570
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:01,000
in the Uintah Basin, “boom.” This
 is Aneth and Montezuma Creek,

571
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:05,000
the oil patches on Indian lands,
 “boom!” Gut Bear’s Ears, “boom!”

572
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:09,000
Cut Grand Stair Case Escalante 
in half, “boom!”

573
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:13,000
And every other wild place that 
is easier for me to defend than my 

574
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:17,000
own people and species “boom!” 
The coal and copper mines

575
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,000
I watched expand as a child, 
Huntington and Kennecott, “boom!”

576
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,000
The oil refineries that foul the air 
and blacken our lungs in Salt Lake

577
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:29,000
City, “boom!” And the latest 
scar on the landscape, the tar sands mine

578
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:33,000
in the Book Cliffs, closed, now 
hidden, simply by its remoteness, 

579
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:37,000
“boom!” Add the Cisco Desert 
where trains stop to settle the

580
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,000
radioactive waste they are carrying
 on to Blanding, “boom!” Move the

581
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:45,000
Uranium tailings from Moab to 
Crescent Junction, then bury them still hot in

582
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:49,000
the alkaline desert, out of sight, 
out of mind, “boom!” See 

583
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:53,000
the traces of human indignities 
on the sand near Topaz Mountain left by the

584
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:57,000
Japanese Internment Camps, 
“boom!” President Donald J. Trump

585
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:01,000
will try to eviscerate Bear’s Ears
 and Grand Staircase Escalante

586
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,000
Monuments with his pen and 
poisonous policies. He will stand

587
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,000
tall with other white men who,
 for generations, have exhumed, looted, and 

588
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:13,000
profited from the graves of 
ancient ones. They will tell you Bear’s Ears

589
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:17,000
belongs to them, “boom!” 
Consider Senator

590
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:21,000
Orrin Hatch’s words regarding 
the Bear’s Ears Intertribal Coalition’s support

591
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:25,000
of the Bear’s Ears National 
Monument, “The Indians,

592
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:29,000
they don’t fully understand 
that a lot of the things that they are currently

593
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:33,000
taking for granted on those
 lands, they won’t be able to do if it's

594
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,000
made clearly into a monument 
or a wilderness…”

595
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:41,000
And when he was asked to give 
examples by a reporter, the Senator said, 

596
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,000
“Just take my word for it.” 

597
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,000
This is a story, a patronizing story, 
a condescending

598
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:53,000
story. I see politicians and Mormons 
discounting the Tribes once 

599
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:57,000
again, calling them “Lamanites,” 
the rebellious ones against 

600
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:01,000
God, dark-skinned and cursed, 
that is their story. 

601
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:05,000
Racism is a story. The Book of 
Mormon is a story

602
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:09,000
“boom!” Perhaps, our greatest
 trauma living in the state of

603
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,000
Utah is the religiosity of the 
Mormon patriarchy that says

604
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,000
“You have no authority to speak.” 
Women, 

605
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:21,000
Indians, Black People, Brown 
People, Gay People, Trans,

606
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:25,000
it is the only the chosen ones 
who hold the priesthood over us and council 

607
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:29,000
us that the only way to heaven 
is through them. All my life 

608
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:33,000
I was told I could not speak, that 
I had no 

609
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:37,000
[crying] voice, no power, except 
through my father

610
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:41,000
or my husband, or my bishop, or 
the general authorities,

611
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:45,000
and then there was the prophet, 
“boom!” I refused

612
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:49,000
to perpetuate this lie, this myth,
 this abuse called silence. If

613
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:53,000
birds had a voice, so did I. I would 
tell a different

614
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:57,000
story, one of beauty and abundance,
 not what it means

615
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:01,000
to endure. Environmental racism
 is the outcome of

616
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:05,000
bad stories. A by-product of poverty. 
In Utah, 

617
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:09,000
yellow cake has dusted the lips of 
Navajo Uranium workers for

618
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:13,000
decades who are now sick or dead, 
“boom!” There is no running

619
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:17,000
water in Westwater, a reservation 
town adjacent 

620
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:21,000
to Blanding, “boom!” Local 
municipalities refuse to provide

621
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:25,000
Navajo families with this one 
basic right,

622
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,000
water. Boom!

623
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:33,000
But we are not prejudice, “boom!” 
If you speak of these oversights, call them cruelties, we as Mormons are seen 

624
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:37,000
as having betrayed our roots and 
our people. These are my people, 

625
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:41,000
“boom!” This is who I am, “boom!”

626
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,000
A white woman of privilege, born
 of the covenant. I am not on the outside,

627
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000
but the inside. boom!

628
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:53,000
It is time to look in the mirror and 
reflect on the histories that are ours. We are being told

629
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:57,000
a treacherous story that says it is 
an individual's

630
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:01,000
right, our hallowed state’s right to 
destroy what is common to us all: 

631
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:05,000
the land beneath our feet, the 
water we drink, the air

632
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:09,000
we breathe. Our bodies and the 
body of the state of Utah are being 

633
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:13,000
violated. Our eyes are closed.
 Our mouths are sealed. 

634
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,000
We refuse to see or say what 
we know to be true: 

635
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,000
Utah is a beautiful violence. 

636
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:25,000
Our silence is our death sentence. 

637
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:29,000
The climate is changing. We
 have a right and responsibility to protect

638
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:33,000
each other. Resistance and 
insistence before 

639
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:37,000
the law. We are slowly dying. 
We are ignoring the 

640
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:41,000
evidence. Awareness is our prayer. 
Beauty will prevail. 

641
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:45,000
Native people are showing us 
the way. It is time to 

642
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:49,000
heal these lands and each other 
by calling them what they are: 

643
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:53,000
Sacred. May wing beats 

644
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:57,000
of Ravens cross over us in 
ceremony. May we recognize our need

645
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:01,000
of a collective blessing by Earth. 
May we ask forgiveness

646
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:05,000
for our wounding of land and 
spirit. And may our right 

647
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:09,000
relationship to life be restored 
as we work together toward

648
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:13,000
a survival shared. A story is 
awakening.

649
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:17,000
Many stories. We are part of 
something much larger

650
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:21,000
then ourselves, an interconnected
 whole that stretches 

651
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:25,000
upward to the stars. Coyote in 
the desert

652
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:29,000
is howling in the darkness, 
calling forth the pack,

653
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:33,000
lifting up the moon.”

654
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,000
Afterwards...

655
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:41,000
[applause]

656
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:45,000
Afterwards, I went and spoke
 with Jonah Yellowman, 

657
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:49,000
who is the Spiritual Advisor of 
Bears Ears after the gutting,

658
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,000
after the cutting of these 
sacred lands.

659
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:57,000
I said, “Jonah, what are you
 feeling? What are you seeing?"

660
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:01,000
He said, “What my elders are 
telling me,” and 

661
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:05,000
he’s 72, “is that we have to 

662
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:09,000
go deeper.” That is 

663
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:13,000
my question to us tonight: How
 do we go deeper?

664
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:17,000
Each in our own way, each in our
 own 

665
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:21,000
time with the gifts that are ours.

666
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:25,000
In the places we call home. 

667
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:29,000
Where is our love? 

668
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:33,000
Where is our outrage? Where is
 our grief?

669
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:37,000
Where is our community?

670
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:41,000
To the students here, at this 
extraordinary

671
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:45,000
University, I would ask you to 

672
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:49,000
find your community. If you haven’t 
found one yet, 

673
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:53,000
build one. And as you build it, 

674
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:57,000
nurture it, support it;

675
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:01,000
that is how we

676
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:05,000
survive, that is how we thrive. 

677
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:09,000
Come home. 

678
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:13,000
To where you are in this beautiful, 
broken

679
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:17,000
place we call home. 

680
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:21,000
It can no longer be about anger, 
it has

681
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:25,000
to be about healing. We must go 
deeper. 

682
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:29,000
We do not agree. Tell me a story. 

683
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:33,000
I 

684
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:37,000
want to close with 

685
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:41,000
a story, prefaced by

686
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:45,000
a passage from The Open Space 
of Democracy. 

687
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:49,000
I just want to thank you so much

688
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,000
for letting me share these things
 closest to my heart. I feel

689
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:57,000
free to do that, because I know 
the people that I love

690
00:45:57,000 --> 00:46:01,000
and revere in the state of Iowa 
know about

691
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:05,000
homecoming, understand loss,

692
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:09,000
the prairie, and I know you’re
 fighting for your lives. 

693
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:13,000
[rustling pages]

694
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:17,000


695
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:21,000
“The human heart is the 1st 
home of democracy.

696
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:25,000
It is where we embrace our 
questions, can we be

697
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,000
equitable? Can we be generous?
 Can we listen with

698
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:33,000
our whole beings, not just our
 minds, and

699
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:37,000
offer our attention rather than 
our opinions?

700
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:41,000
Do we have enough resolve in 
our hearts, to act

701
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:45,000
courageously, relentlessly, 
without giving up ever?

702
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:49,000
Trusting our fellow citizens to 
join with us

703
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:53,000
in our determined pursuit of a
 living democracy.

704
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:57,000
The heart is the house of empathy, 
whose door 

705
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:01,000
opens when we receive the pain
 of others. 

706
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:05,000
This is where bravery lives. 
Where we find our medal to give

707
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:09,000
and receive, to love and be loved. 
To stand in the center 

708
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:13,000
of uncertainty with strength, not 
fear. Understanding 

709
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:17,000
this is all there is. The heart

710
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:21,000
is the path to wisdom, because
 it dares to be vulnerable in the 

711
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:25,000
presence of power. Our power 
lies in our 

712
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:29,000
love of our homelands. I want to 

713
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:33,000
close with a story that is about

714
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:37,000
my friend, Doug Peacock, who 
many of you will recognize as

715
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:41,000
the inspiration for the character, 
'George Washington

716
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:45,000
Hayduke’ in Edward Abbey’s novel 
“The Monkey Wrench Gang.”

717
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:49,000
He’s also, um…

718
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:53,000
an amazing advocate for grizzly 
bears. 

719
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:57,000
I think he and Aldo Leopold 
would have gotten along. 

720
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:01,000
This will take about, 7 minutes, 

721
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:05,000
and I just appreciate your 
generosity. 

722
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:09,000
“It is time to weep and sing,” 
wrote W.H. Auden.

723
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:13,000
At a low ebb of hope, I ask my 
friend, Doug Peacock, 

724
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,000
how he staves off despair. This
 is the man

725
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:21,000
who kept a map of Yellowstone
 in the back pocket of his fatigues throughout

726
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:25,000
the war, and would unfold it at 
night to keep insanity

727
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:29,000
at bay. "Insulate yourself with 
friends, 

728
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:33,000
and seek out wild places,” he 
said. Which is exactly what I was

729
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:37,000
doing. Seeking out my friend 
on the other side of Yellowstone,

730
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:41,000
on the day we learned that the
 U.S. Fish and Wildlife service had denied

731
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:45,000
wolverines protection under the 
Endangered Species Act. 

732
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:49,000
While driving from Jackson Hole, 
Wyoming to Livingston, Montana,

733
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:53,000
I was listening to Vivaldi’s “Four 
Seasons” recomposed by

734
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:57,000
the musician, Max Richter. I 
love this piece of music,

735
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:01,000
and I love the story behind it. 
Richter’s favorite piece of 

736
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:05,000
music was Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” 
He’d played it as a

737
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:09,000
musician hundreds of times and
 had heard it many more times than he’d ever

738
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:13,000
performed it. But the strangest
 thing started to occur: the

739
00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:17,000
“Four Seasons” had become 
so commercialized, so trivialized, 

740
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:21,000
played in elevators and as the 
soundtrack for cheap commercials, 

741
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:25,000
that he could no longer hear it. 
It’s beauty had

742
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:29,000
become lost to him, demoted 
to musical wallpaper. 

743
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:33,000
Max Richter did the unthinkable. 

744
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:37,000
He reimagined Vivaldi’s masterpiece
 and recomposed it

745
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:41,000
so it could be heard once again, 
at this moment and time. 

746
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:45,000
Richter added the base notes, 

747
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:49,000
“The Four Seasons is something 
we all carry around with us,” Richter said, 

748
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:53,000
“it’s everywhere. In a way, we
 stopped being able to hear it, so

749
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:57,000
this project was about reclaiming 
the music for me personally. 

750
00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:01,000
I wanted to fall in love with it all over 
again,” he said, “by getting

751
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:05,000
inside the music and rediscovering 
it for myself, I was able to take a new

752
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:09,000
path through this well known 
landscape.” 

753
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:13,000
So, I was listening to “The Four
 Seasons Recomposed” 

754
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:17,000
as I was in route to Doug. My mind
 was moving toward the

755
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:21,000
reverie with the music. It was exactly 
what I needed to recompose

756
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:25,000
myself as I was driving through
 Yellowstone to Montana,

757
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:29,000
inspiring me to reimagine everything. 

758
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:33,000
Our institutions and agencies,

759
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:37,000
churches, universities, hospitals, 
healthcare, 

760
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:41,000
families, as institutions, are no 
longer working

761
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:45,000
for us. It is time to reimagine them

762
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:49,000
as movements of direct action. 
Fierce

763
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:53,000
and compassionate at once. Time
 to reimagine our 

764
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:57,000
public lands as sanctuaries, 
refuges, and sacred lands. 

765
00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:01,000
Time to rethink what is acceptable, 
and what is not. 

766
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:05,000
I became lost in the music, and
 then, as I was driving

767
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:09,000
through the Hayden Valley, the
 cars in front of me came to an abrupt halt. 

768
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:13,000
Bison jam. Hundreds of bison,

769
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:17,000
not only crossing the road, but
walking alongside us. 

770
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:21,000
I was now barely at a crawl, going 
5 miles per hour.

771
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:25,000
I rolled down my window, still listening 
to “The Four

772
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:29,000
Seasons” with the volume much 
louder than I realized. The bison

773
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:33,000
started moving closer to the car. 
[laughter] I started 

774
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:37,000
getting nervous, thought about
 rolling up my window, but then I began

775
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:41,000
noticing the bison turning their 
heads toward the music, walking 

776
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:45,000
even closer to the car. I imagined
 they were enjoying Vivaldi

777
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:49,000
as I was. [laughter] And I relaxed 
as we listened 

778
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:53,000
to the music together for over a
 mile. All of us,

779
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:57,000
slowly moving down the road. 

780
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:01,000
I was late to Doug’s house, he was 
waiting. 

781
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:05,000
Luckily, I brought him a nice French 
Bordeaux. We took 

782
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:09,000
the bottle and 2 glasses outside 
with the view of Paradise Valley. 

783
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:13,000
Doug had written a plea on the
 wolverines behalf

784
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:17,000
a week before. It had been published
 online in The Daily

785
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:21,000
Beast. He’s received a note from
his editor, Chris Dickey. 

786
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:25,000
The son of the poet, James Dickey. 
“I’m sorry,” Chris said, 

787
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:29,000
“perhaps this poem from my 
father will help."

788
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:33,000
Under a thunderous sky with bolts 
of lightning adding punctuation,

789
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:37,000
Doug and I read “For The Last 
Wolverine” out-loud to each other,

790
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:41,000
between sips of wine, alternating
 between stanzas,

791
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:45,000
with tears streaming down our 
cheeks. The

792
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:49,000
final lines undid us. 

793
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:53,000
“Alone with maybe some dim racial 
notion of being the last, 

794
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:57,000
but none of how much your 
unnoticed going will mean, 

795
00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:01,000
how much the timid poem needs
 the mindless explosion of your

796
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:05,000
rage. The glutton’s internal fire,
 the elk’s heart

797
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:09,000
in the belly, sprouting wings, the
 pact of the 'blind swallowing

798
00:53:09,000 --> 00:53:13,000
Thing,’ with himself, to eat the 
world, and not be

799
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:17,000
driven off it—until it is gone, 
even if it

800
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:21,000
takes forever. I take you as you 
are

801
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:25,000
and make of you what I will, 
skunk-bear, carcajou, 

802
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:29,000
bloodthirsty non-survivor. Lord,
 let me 

803
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:33,000
die, but not die…out."

804
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:37,000
Doug and I raised our glasses

805
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:41,000
to the mountains, black clouds 
billowing all around us, 

806
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:45,000
as a swath of red clouds turned pink.

807
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:49,000
“To wolverine,” Doug said, and 
then he turned to me with tears in his 

808
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:53,000
eyes, “we lose nothing by 

809
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:57,000
loving.” 

810
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:01,000
["The Four Seasons Recomposed" 
begins playing]

811
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:05,000


812
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:09,000
♪

813
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:13,000


814
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:17,000


815
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:21,000


816
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:25,000


817
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:29,000


818
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:33,000


819
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:37,000


820
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:41,000


821
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:45,000


822
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:49,000


823
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:53,000


824
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:57,000


825
00:54:57,000 --> 00:55:01,000


826
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:05,000


827
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:09,000


828
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:13,000


829
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:17,000


830
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:21,000


831
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:25,000


832
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:29,000


833
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:33,000


834
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:37,000


835
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:41,000


836
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:45,000


837
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:49,000


838
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:53,000


839
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:57,000


840
00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:01,000


841
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:05,000


842
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:09,000


843
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:13,000


844
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:17,000


845
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:21,000


846
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:25,000


847
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:29,000


848
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:33,000


849
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:37,000


850
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:41,000


851
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:45,000


852
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:49,000


853
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:53,000


854
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:57,000


855
00:56:57,000 --> 00:57:01,000


856
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:05,000


857
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:09,000


858
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:13,000


859
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:17,000
Question. Stand. Speak. 

860
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:21,000
Act. Thank you.

861
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:25,000
[applause]

862
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:29,000


863
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:33,000


864
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:37,000


865
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:41,000


866
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:48,373