Dear Progressive Reader,

In June 1862, The Atlantic published “Walking,” an essay by the late naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau who had died of tuberculosis a month before at the age of forty-four. The essay, which the magazine said “extolled the virtues of immersing oneself in nature and lamented the inevitable encroachment of private ownership upon the wilderness,” was probably first delivered as an oration in Concord, Massachusetts, on April 23, 1851. The essay contains what may be Thoreau’s most famous quote, “In Wildness [often misquoted as ‘wilderness’] is the preservation of the World.”

It was this idea that inspired the early environmental movement, and in particular a middle-aged President Teddy Roosevelt, to create government protections for our wild, natural regions. Writing in the first year of his new political magazine La Follette’s Weekly on March 13, 1909, Robert M. La Follette said of his sometime rival, that “his greatest work was inspiring and actually beginning a world movement for staying terrestrial waste and saving for the human race the things upon which, and upon which alone, a great and peaceful and progressive . . . life can be founded.” During his presidency, Roosevelt signed legislation to create five new national parks and numerous national monuments—protecting them from destruction and exploitation by industry. Roosevelt is today remembered as our “conservation President.”

It would be fifteen more years (June 3, 1924—the same year La Follette contended for the presidency as an independent, Progressive candidate) before the first “national wilderness area” was created at the instigation of naturalist Aldo Leopold. And it would take another forty years (September 3, 1964) until President Lyndon Johnson would sign the Wilderness Act, perhaps finally codifying and providing federal protections to those words of Thoreau from a century earlier: In wildness is the preservation of the world. (Also of note, one of our former interns at The Progressive, Mary Grace Larson, has been spending her summer visiting eighteen national parks across the country while doing research for her master’s thesis. We wish her all the best on this important project in this auspicious anniversary year!)

This week on our website, Jeff Abbott reports on actions by Colombia to further pressure Israel to stop the killing in Gaza; Emilio Leanza examines Donald Trump’s often off-script event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday; and Hannah McKiernan looks at the phenomenon of Christian music that adulates Trump in some very frightening ways. Also this week, Sylvia Allegretto of the Center for Economic Policy and Research pens an op-ed on how a “no taxes on tips” might actually just benefit the wealthy; and Jessica E. Martinez of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health reminds us that workers are bearing the brunt of this summer’s extreme heat caused by climate change.

Monday is Labor Day, and working people around the country are gathering to celebrate unions and the hard-fought-for protections that have been achieved over the past century. As President Joe Biden says in his annual Labor Day proclamation from the White House, “Labor unions have done so much for our nation—giving workers a voice at the workplace, raising standards on the job, and fighting for better benefits and wages for us all.  Today, we honor the pioneers who fought for the rights of working people, pay tribute to the dedication of our American workforce, and honor the enduring movement that powers our economy and strengthens our nation.” Here at The Progressive, we reiterate the slogan now being heard often at Democratic campaign rallies, “We’re not going back!”

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

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