500,000 or 55,000?

The U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewel was in the area for two days last week touring the proposed Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, which President Obama may be willing to create using a 1906 law that allows him to bypass Congress.  The proposal, put forward by U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Tom Udall (D-NM), calls for 500,000 acres to be set aside for wilderness and national monument status.

Congressman Steve Pearce's (R-NM) plan asks for only 55,000 acres to be set aside around the Organ Mountains.  This is the same Steve Pearce whose recently released book, Just Fly the Plane, Stupid!, suggests that a wife's duty is to submit to her husband.  It reads:  "The wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice.  The husband’s part is to show up during the times of deep stress, take the leadership role and be accountable for the outcome, blaming no one else."  Apparently his philosophy stems from his reading of the Bible, the same Bible that suggests that man has dominion over the earth.  No surprise, then, that Pearce, owner of an oil-field service company, sees the creation of wilderness areas and national monuments as threats to our right to exploit as many of our natural resources as possible.  I pray that President Obama takes this opportunity to assert himself over a do-nothing Congress.  Apparently, last year was the first Congress since World War II to not set aside any land.

Read more here:  http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_24994406/interior-department-secretarys-visit-renews-land-protection-debate