Living room chat with Stewart Udall

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

By Brooke Williams

Two weeks ago, while traveling in Santa Fe, my wife Terry and I had the chance to visit Stewart Udall, former secretary of the Interior under President John F. Kennedy. Although he is best known for being one of the chief architects of the Wilderness Act, passed in 1964, he was also Rachel Carson’s champion during the storm caused by the publication of her book, “Silent Spring” in 1962. His own book, “The Quiet Crisis,” was published the following year and is considered by many to be a companion to Carson’s classic.

We caught him the day before he was to travel back east to the John F. Kennedy Library to participate in honoring Carson on the anniversary of her 100th birthday. He was busy preparing his remarks. His son, Tom Udall, the great young congressman from New Mexico, showed us in.

“He doesn’t see well,” Tom said. “He insists on memorizing his speeches.”
Stewart got up from his desk a bit slowly, having just given up the cane he’d been using since breaking his femur last winter. The fact that he is 87 hasn’t dimmed the greatness of his presence or dampened his passion.

We had just read the op-ed piece he’d written about Carson in the Denver Post a few days prior. He told us stories about her and the hell the chemical industry put her through because as a scientist and a writer – but also as a woman – she had been compelled to tell the world about the damage pesticides were doing to the earth.

As he spoke, I couldn’t tell whether his emotions were the result of his memory of the pain Carson suffered or because he was so moved by the courage she showed standing up against such powerful forces. I think the latter. He got angry about Oklahoma Congressman Tom Coburn’s recent blocking of two resolutions written to honor Carson because he believed that her “junk science” had caused the deaths of millions of people from malaria.

“How is it,” Udall asked, “that these powerful people think that if they ‘believe’ something hard enough and long enough that it somehow becomes truth?” (I was reminded of his famous quote, “We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.”)
His voice deepened and took on an oratorical quality when he quoted Carson from memory: Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature ... but man is a part of nature and this war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.

“We are at war against ourselves,” he said. “Will we acknowledge this in time?”
Stewart, who calls himself an ecumenical Mormon, told the story of being invited to Brigham Young University to give a speech, during which he was asked about his faith, since it was well known that he didn’t attend church. “Thoreau came to mind,” he said, “who when asked on his deathbed if he’d made peace with his maker, said, ‘I didn’t know we were quarrelling.’”

He asked me about the Murie Center and I told him that we were working on new tools for the next generation of conservation leaders. “Excellent,” he said, cutting the air with his right hand to emphasize his point.

“I never knew Olaus,” he said, but I consider Mardy Murie a friend. I’ve spent many hours in her living room. Is that plaque still hanging on the mantel above the fireplace?” I told him it was.

“I’ve never forgotten that,” he said. He looked up as if the words he was looking for were printed on the ceiling. “The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colors, lights and shades; these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts…” The words seemed to be coming from the center of his chest.
“Look ye also while life lasts,” he repeated.

“You’d better leave if you’re going to make your plane”, he said. Which was true. But more true, was his confidence in knowing that he still had very important work to do.
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Living room chat with Stewart Udall | Planet JH News Article: Left Wing Local

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