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Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it; not a bit. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.

President Theodore Roosevelt (Mitchell 9)

The place where we live, this planet earth, is being destroyed by the pollutants we create to make our lives "easier." This is not news, nor is it undebated: in Congress and the United Nations representatives fight over what is - and is not - an acceptable compromise between progress and preservation. The terms they use are scientific and economic. They miss the point. As the environment deteriorates there will most certainly be economic repercussions. Science speculates on the long-term physical ravages the world would suffer. Neither take into account the most elemental human-earth connection, one that is being severed by pollution destroying our environment: this environment is our home, our place in the universe. It is an emotional bond that, if broken, will leave us crippled in ways deep and irreparable.

"Home is where the heart is." This is not the most profound statement in the world. It is, in fact, a cliche. Like all cliches, however, it is based upon a certain element of truth. One's emotions, one's heart, is where one's home is. It is where one's place in the world is. Home and heart are always a part of the environment within which one lives. To mutilate and damage that environment is to threaten and destroy the personality of one's home, heart - and life.

We all have a sense of place in the world. Even the so-called "outsider" exists in relation to a place that he or she might not feel a part of, but nevertheless recognizes. To take away one's sense of place is to kill a part of one's identity.

Hence the tragic concussions of the various diasporas throughout history: the Jews, the Armenians, the Native Americans. Without a sense of place a people cannot exist. It is important to remember that, even in diaspora, the exiled who ...

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Definitions. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:05, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700912.html