Letters

Return to Rwanda
I had a tough time getting through Joshua Hammer's provocative article about the return of mountain-gorilla conservationist José Kalpers to Rwanda ("After Rwanda," April). The horror of what has happened there--to humans and gorillas alike--staggers me. In 1977, I was fortunate enough to spend time in a couple of the area's national parks, where I witnessed the grace and kindness of the people and the magnificence of the gorillas. Years later, when I saw the first reports on the slaughter, I was deeply saddened as I wondered what had happened to the gorillas, the guides, our driver, the villagers on the edges of the parks. I want to thank Kalpers for going back to Rwanda and facing the nightmare. I pray that his brave efforts will be rewarded and that because of them the gorilla will be spared our foolish hatred of one another.

Lauri Wettling
Georgetown, Kentucky

And One Who Doesn't
In reading Brad Wetzler's profile of the bass fishermen of Castaic Lake ("Big Bass and the Men Who Love Them," May), I was struck that whoever does break the record for catching the heaviest bass will receive a great deal of money and notoriety for an incredibly dubious accomplishment. Using fish-finding sonar to locate a transplanted hybrid sumo-wrestler of a fish in a man-made lake in the desert is hardly sport.

Dane Thomas
Vail, Colorado

Tough-Love Tragedy
After reading Christopher Smith's article on the death of Aaron Bacon ("What Happened Out Here?" Dispatches, June), I want to let his family know that my heart goes out to them. But having devoted nearly five years of my life to counseling teenagers in a wilderness camping program, I can attest firsthand to the benefits: Such programs teach kids to respect not only themselves and others, but the environment as well. Painting such a biased and generalized picture of these programs was, I feel, a crime in itself.

Bill Lillard
Wake Forest, North Carolina

I find it simply amazing that parents would be willing to part with $14,000 to "reform" a child whose only transgression appears to be that of behaving like a typical nineties teen. There is no love in this kind of "tough love," just a desire to break an individual with boot-camp torture.

S. L. Smith Jr.
Shreveport, Louisiana

The Archdruid's Rx
Thanks to Andrea Barrett for reviewing my book, Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run--and for liking it (Review, May). I only wish that she had not dismissed my new ideas as "familiar"--to wit, these proposals that no other book or major magazine has described before: the Global CPR (Conservation, Preservation, Restoration) Service; a National Biosphere Reserve System; a National Land Service that would supersede the Bureau of Land Management; a route to sustainable forestry; a major addition to the World Heritage idea; ways to get the marketplace to tell the truth; a renewal of boldness in the environmental movement; adding conscience to corporate and investor behavior; and pleading with present generations to stop stealing from children. True, the book contains no detailed prescriptions for each of these. The book does, however, contain much detail, by Amory Lovins, about his hypercar idea. Far from being familiar, it is perhaps the most revolutionary idea of our time and can free us from our bondage to gas guzzlers. As for my proposals, they're the best ideas I've been able to come up with after 57 years of trying to save bits and pieces of the earth.

David R. Brower
Berkeley, California