As a past article in The New York Times reminds us, Mark Twain and Will Rogers shared a common sentiment. Twain put it this way: “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” Land is a good investment. It is, inevitably, a scarce commodity. Over time, the value of land is almost certain to go up.
Terry Tempest Williams, writing in the July 6, 2025, edition of The New York Times, makes clear that she understands the point made by Twain and Rogers. In the hard copy version, here is the headline on her opinion essay: "Public Lands Should Not Be Sold By Congress."
Our current president and his Republican Party supporters in the Congress must surely know that the value of land, over time, is almost guaranteed to increase. After all, our current president first came into public view as a real estate developer. Given that he, and his supporters, well understand the value of our public lands (held by our government on behalf of the people), we perhaps need to ask ourselves which "team" our current president and his supporters are playing for. Here is a brief excerpt from Terry Tempest Williams' opinion essay:
A provision proposed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah in the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill that would have required the Bureau of Land Management to sell as much as 1.225 million acres of public lands is dead. It died when Mr. Lee raised a white flag in defeat. It died because, in addition to Democrats, four Republican senators from Montana and Idaho refused to vote for it. It died because five Republican House representatives from Western states said it was a “poison pill.” And it died because over 100 conservation groups and public lands advocates, as well as hunters, anglers, ranchers, recreationists and right-wing influencers said no.
I absolutely agree with the headline on Williams' essay: "Public Lands Should Not Be Sold By Congress." That's true just as a matter of good economics, per Twain and Rogers. Williams, though, relied on a different argument, in making her point:
Public lands are our public commons, breathing spaces in a country that is increasingly holding its breath. There we are free to roam and wander and believe in what we see: rock, water, sky; pronghorn in sagebrush, eagles in flight, a night sky of stars above a silhouette of mountains. These are places of peace and renewal, where landscapes of beauty become landscapes of our imaginations. We stand before a giant sequoia and remember the size of our hearts instead of the weight of our egos.If we allow these lands to be developed in the name of profits, we will lose the wide-open spaces that define us as Americans.Over the next year, as we prepare to celebrate the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, we can honor what unites us: the beauty of the places we call home. Our wealth as a nation is held in these wild lands. They are worthy of our protection and patriotism and must remain free as we choose to sing to, not desecrate, America the beautiful.
That is true, too! For a host of reasons, let's not forget the headline on Williams' essay:
Public Lands Should Not Be Sold By Congress
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