To Matt Love, lovematt100@yahoo.com
Mr. Love:
In Sunday's _Oregonian_, you talk movingly of the pleasure you take in Oregon's public beaches, and your loathing for people who drive recklessly on them. In these sentiments, I completely concur.
But you don't seem to know your Oregon history when you praise the wise progressives of a previous generation and then say "Now it's legal to drive on the beach".
The beaches of the Oregon coast are publicly owned because some decades ago the state legislature declared the beaches to be a state highway. This was done partly to preserve the beaches as public land, but also because the packed sand of low tide really was the longest stretch of drivable surface in the state.
Seems to me that you can't have one (public beaches) without the other (the tradition of driving on the beach).
As for your (tempered) relish at the fate of the witless driver who buzzed you and then promptly got his brand-new Tahoe stuck in the sand with the tide coming in, again I concur.
-- John M. Burt
2 comments:
Thanks for the great letter. I am well informed on
Oswald West and the great history of Oregon beach
conservation. I urge you to check out my first book,
Grasping Wastrels vs Beaches Forever Inc, which is a
collection of essays about the coast (you can get it
at Powells). I think it will reveal my ultimate
sympathy on all matters of coastal conservation--the
beach. I am out there almost every day and it feels
great to be an Oregonian enjoying public beaches.
Thanks again, for the great letter.
matt love
Oops. When you said "Now driving on the beach is legal", I thought that by "Now" you meant "These days", hile you actually meant "Of course", or "Mind you".
Okay, I take it back -- you clearly know plenty about the history of Oregon beaches.
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