July 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 16

Archive Throwback:
September 1990
By Samantha Bartram

onarch conservation. Connecting America's youth to its sacred
natural spaces. Building community through recreation. The
power of parks. You'll find all these themes in this issue of Parks
& Recreation magazine, and in the September 1990 issue, you'll
find " Looking Inward to Save the Outdoors " by Daniel L. Dustin, which posits
a lens through which all might be viewed.
In the piece, Dustin outs himself
as a revolutionary - the kind who
eschews conspicuous consumption in
service to a deep reverence for our environment. Dustin is not a socialist or
communist, but he does push back
against the capitalist imperative of
acquiring more, more, more.
Dustin examines our failure
to act as thoughtful stewards of our
natural resources, despite knowing
that these resources are essential for
our very survival. He calls out his
readership for shirking democratic
and ecological responsibilities in favor of blind consumption. Dustin's
words admonished his audience in
1990 and sting just as smartly today. He writes: " Barring a radical
reduction in birthrates, a radical
increase in death rates or a radical
change in the way we live our lives
in-between, I am convinced we will
bear witness to the progressive degradation and impoverishment of
the earth's natural resource base in
our lifetime. In spite of a growing
awareness of our planet's limits, we
continue to measure the 'health' of
our lifestyles by the rate at which we
go through resources. We continue
to perceive increased consumption

14 Parks & Recreation

as a sign of 'well-being.' We continue to rely on the accumulation of
material goods as the best indicator
of a 'successful' life. "
It is the acknowledgement of this
truth that cements Dustin's status as
a revolutionary, if not in the field of
parks and recreation, then as opposed
to a stereotypical " Good American. "
He cites the words of Lewis Lapham,
the legendary journalist, author and
longtime past-editor of Harper's Magazine, writing: " What I'm saying stabs
at the heart of a commercial democracy. As Lewis Lapham describes it,
'Of all the subversive doctrines likely
to wreck the American dream of paradise...the most subversive is the one
that the ancient Greeks expressed as
the Golden Mean and the early Chris-

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tians as the virtue of temperance.
Were a majority of Americans suddenly to say, " I have enough...No, I
don't think I'll buy anything more this
week, " the country would soon fall
into ruin.' "
Dustin finally distills his message to its radical essence: " The
problem with a nation such
as ours is that we have no relationship with the land other than
what can be realized economically
from it. "
As we continue to look to the future during our 50th anniversary celebrations, as we celebrate 30 years of
devoting an entire month to park and
recreation awareness, and as we look
for ways to connect our children to
nature and develop them as considerate stewards of the environment,
we should heed Dustin's rallying
call: " What, then, do I expect of the
park and recreation profession in this
day and age? I expect three things:
First, I expect us to put our heads together and try to reach a consensus
about the kind of world we live in...
Second, I expect the park and recreation profession to serve as this society's environmental conscience...
and Third, I expect each and every
one of us within the park and recreation profession to set an example, to
demonstrate environmental wisdom
in the conduct of our own lives. "
Samantha Bartram is the Executive
Editor of Parks & Recreation magazine
(sbartram@nrpa.org).

July 2015 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2015 - Parks & Recreation