June 2, 2020

Our Nation’s Historic Stain

The history of our nation is stained by racism, colonialism and violence. These are indisputable facts. We cannot wish them away, nor can we rewrite history to erase them from the record. Recent events, first with the pandemic and now with the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and many others, combined with the racial profiling of Christian Cooper, a bird watcher pursuing his passion in Central Park, remind us of the daily injustices our fellow Americans must endure every day.

These acts illustrate a burden that our society too often places on people of color. Exclusion. Exploitation. Marginalization. These must change. We are all Americans: One Nation, Under God. Our own Declaration of Independence states that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Tragically, we are a long way away from this ideal.

Our former Chairman, Charles Jordan, the first African American to chair a national environmental organization, grew up in the West during a time when he and people like him were not allowed to visit state and national parks. He went on to serve for years as the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Portland, Oregon, and to serve with distinction on President Reagan’s President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors. Charles was my friend, my mentor, my chairman and my brother. I loved him. He taught me about equity, diversity and inclusion before it was common language. He taught me about the importance of telling the stories of America—the good, the bad and the ugly—so that future generations could learn from and not repeat the dark periods of our history. And, most importantly, he taught me about the need to conserve, forever, the places that commemorate our history so that all Americans could immerse themselves in our past, our present, and prepare themselves for our future.

Conserving our nation’s natural, cultural and historic resources enables an honest dialogue about our past and a hopeful discussion about our future. Current events remind us in stark and horrific ways of the need to accelerate our journey along this path. At The Conservation Fund we are dedicated to these goals. Conserving Civil War battlefield sites, Japanese American Internment Camps, Native American sacred ground and essential sites that tell part of the story of African Americans in America—like Harriet Tubman’s birthplace in Maryland and the Freedom Riders National Monument in Alabama—these are our mission, along with helping communities address critical issues of equity, diversity and inclusion such as land ownership, food security and access to nature.

We are only a small part of what our nation needs, but we are proud to play our part. Along with our partners, peers and millions of Americans we will continue to fight for the ideals upon which this nation was founded and the natural, cultural and historic resources where they must be expressed for all time.

Sincerely,

Larry Selzer
President and CEO