Entry from 7/4

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!
Out here in the backcountry, every day feels like independence day.  There is a strict set of policies that I must uphold and in turn am held to but the great part about these policies is that they make sense in order to build a safe and tightly-knit community for 7 weeks.  In the grand scheme of things, these policies are really no big deal (next time I have my Crew Leader Manual with me, I will list them, so stay posted).  The standard for discipline is simple -- if you don't want to abide by these policies, you don't want to be a part of this community.  This makes me think about laws in a grander sense of the world. I have broken laws before, I won't deny it (on the Fourth of July, what 15-year old boy wouldn't want to set off fireworks in the street?!); does this mean I don't want to be a part of this community we call the United States of America, or more specifically, the states of Vermont or Massachusetts?  When I don't agree with a rule or law, should I leave that community or try to change it?  In the case of many things I see wrong with our country, it may be futile to try and fight the bureaucracy.  The bureaucracy, government, or as is called in many of the circles I am affiliated with, "The Man," is currently something I couldn't live without -- in fact, they employ me at the state level through both direct funding from taxpayer money to the VYCC and through grants written to the VYCC through entities like the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).  "The Man" also funds most of how I pay for college as I get a large amount of funds from the fed.  The Man, like any man or woman, has Its flaws, however.  I could go on to list these numerous flaws, but in short I will say that I am not free.  I am imprisoned by the walls of "civilization" and my only Free Land is rapidly being turned into lumber plantations, feed crops, suburbia, and highways (freeways? never!) that divide our fellow Americans' (I'm talking pronghorns, not your hominid neighbor) freedom to move.  What is a free country to me?  A country whose laws are based on the welfare of the people, the animals, and their shared place.  A country who favors bison over bills.  A country whose immense prairies are used for roaming, not tilling.  A country that has more protected wildlands than suburban developments.  A free country, to me, respects the freedoms of animals as much as it respects the freedoms of all life.  As Dr. Bronner's Soap, Edward Abbey, and so many other say, "All Is One."