Talagang hindi titigil
Ni Rudy Arizala
Talagang hindi yata titigil ang pagpuputol ng mga kahoy sa natitira pang maliit na kagubatan sa Sierra Madre.
Pagka hindi tinigilan ang pagputol ng mga kahoy sa Sierra Madre, darating ang araw na matutuyo o mawawala na ang ating Ilog Agus sa Infanta at Gen. Nakar.
Malimit ko nang isulat o ipa-ala-ala ang sinabi ni Red Indian Chief Seattle noong nais bilhin ng Pamahalaang Amerikano ang lupa, kagubatan at kailogan ng mga Indians.
Naito uli ang sinasaad sa wiking Ingles:
"The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. . .The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst They carry our canoes and feed our children. . .
"When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here?Will there be any spirit of my people left?
"We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. . .
"His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert."
If we will not put a stop to cutting of trees in our forest especially in the Sierra Madre mountains, borrowing the words of Chief Seattle, their "appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert."
Do we like that to happen?