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Article II, Section 30a of our state constitution has
been in effect since Jan. 3, 1989, and it states that
The English language is the official language of the
State of Colorado.
Just what that means might be open to argument. If we
assume that English
means English,
then all
state documents should have English spellings like
honour
and colour.
In recent days, some have
taken it to mean that publicly funded libraries in Colorado
should not offer books printed in other languages.
But the Official English issue here is not about other
languages. It's about the meaning of pristine.
My favorite desk dictionary, the American Heritage
Second College Edition, defines pristine as 1. Of,
pertaining to, or typical of the earliest time or
condition; primitive or original. 2. Remaining in a pure
state; uncorrupted.
Now, consider its use in some current controversies. As most of the literate world knows, the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude want to suspend fabric panels over portions of the Arkansas River between Salida and Cañon City (more accurately, between Wellsville and Parkdale, across the river by Coaldale, Howard, Cotopaxi, Texas Creek and Spikebuck).
Their proposal has provoked considerable opposition, and
some of the opponents say that the project would destroy
the pristine
nature of the canyon.
The earliest written account of the area comes from the
journal of Capt. Zebulon M. Pike, who gave this account of
his travels and travails east of present Salida on Dec. 27,
1806: Marched over an extremely rough road; our horses
received frequent falls, and cut themselves considerably on
the rocks. From there being no roads of buffalo, or signs
of horses, I am convinced that neither those animals, nor
the aborigines of the country, ever take this route, to go
from the source of the river out of the maintains; but that
they must cross one of the chains to the right or left, and
find a smoother tract to the lower country. Were obliged to
unload our horses and carry the baggage at several places.
Distance 12 1/2 miles.
As Pike proceeded downstream, he found the most
perpendicular precipices on both sides
and the
impossibility of getting along with horses.
In other words, in the pristine
state, there
wasn't even a buffalo trace or an Indian path along the
Arkansas east of Salida. Now U.S. 50 runs along one side of
the river, and the former main line of the Denver & Rio
Grande Railway on the other. The route is lined with old
gypsum quarries, lime kilns, charcoal ovens and prospect
holes. There are towns, campgrounds, resorts and rest
stops.
It's about as pristine as Mattie Silks or Laura Evans.
While there might be good reasons for opposing Christo's
Over the River
project, preserving a pristine zone
isn't one of them. You can't protect a primitive purity
that doesn't exist.
In yesterday's Post, there was a story about some idiot
with a spray can who painted white arrows on rocks along a
trail in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. A forest ranger
was quoted as saying For over 100 years, people thought
of this place as pristine.
Sure. But if there had been ore worth mining, or timber
worth cutting, people a century ago would have thought of
that area as potentially productive, not pristine. A photo
of a painted rock showed a wide trail. Footpaths are good
things, but I bet that one was not from the earliest
time or condition.
Never mind the painted arrows; the footpath itself keeps the area from being pristine.
Also there are those rock cairns the Forest Service erects to mark the preferred route above timberline. But even though they detract from original purity, they also help preserve it; if hikers wander all over the place, they damage the tundra and cause erosion, and marked routes minimize their effects.
Thus we really aren't talking about a pristine
environment with no trails or other signs of human
activity. We're talking about one where human effects are
minimized, just as the opponents of Christo's Over the
River aren't trying to preserve a pristine environment,
just a rural one.
So here's a challenge for the Official English crowd. Do
something useful, and find us a better word than
pristine,
which has been so misused lately that it
may soon lose all meaning.
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