The Rape of Twin Islands
Not that many years ago, husbands' abusive behavior toward wives and sexual assaults on daughters were not confronted in our society because of attitudes descended from beliefs (and English laws) which gave fathers virtual ownership of their families. It has taken revolutionary courage for women to challenge the assumptions and acts of some patriarchal tyrants and make them accountable for the damage they have done.
Our present attitudes and legal system are protecting another kind of abusive behavior --- the beating and rape of the natural environment under the cover of private property rights. The Twin islands near Cortes island are being ravaged for a quick orgasm of profit. Maybe one day our sons and daughters will haul these abusers out of their retirement villas and put them on trial for their crimes against nature. How will we be able to defend ourselves against the accusation that we were accomplices because we stood by and watched, accepting our helplessness because the landowners had the law on their side?
Most of us are wary of more government regulation of our lives. Unfortunately, some individuals and companies have access to millions of dollars to buy, log and subdivide whole Islands, or large sections of them, destroying the beauty and the natural systems of the landscape we all share. They violate the respectfulness that lack of regulation requires. They force us to consider more limits on private property rights. If we cannot curb our excessive greed, we will lose our freedoms as well as our surroundings.
John Sprungman
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