Bully Pulpit
Inspired by Doughton Park trail and Potato Creek Chapel near Sparta NC Written with quilting on this piece are these words: Over one hundred years ago before the Global initiatives to preserve the environment, President Theodore Roosevelt placed under public protection over two hundred million acres of land in the United States. He called the Presidency his “Bully Pulpit” meaning a spectacular place from which to preach about his own conversion from thinking about the natural world as a place of infinite resources to exploit, into believing that in his own poetic words: “It is not what we have that will make us a Great Nation, it is the way in which we use it” Over thirty years later construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway was begun by Virginia’s Civilian Conservation Corps making great work possible for unemployed victims of the Great Depression. These people commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt created a scenic motorway that was an engineering marvel, designed to preserve while making experiencible the fragile environment linking the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. Hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway has been one of my most insistent inspirations.
