| Replying to my own since it's weird to edit at this point. About 12-14 years ago I was trying to figure out where to donate money for environmental concerns. Sierra Club was one of the first names to come to mind. They have pretty good PR and brand recognition (Green Peace had already painted themselves as ineffectual tantrum-throwers and phone botherers by then). Even in the early 10's there was already a lot of bad press about John Muir with respect to First Nations and pastoralism. He was a very good man, but he was not a great man, and we don't make a habit of creating role models out of the least problematic person amongst a bunch of drastically problematic people. But that stuff bothered me enough that I donated money to The Nature Conservancy instead and even put them in my will. They're not saints either, and by 2013 I was donating time, energy and a small quantity of blood to environmental causes instead of paying money for other people to do it. I am still a Legacy Club Member, but they get donations every few years and I donate a few hundred hours of my time to local projects instead. For a few years there, that was almost 10% of my free time. If John were to walk up to me I wouldn't say 'fuck you' to his face, I'd shake his hand. I would say fuck you to everyone who wanted his autograph. The man was above average. The icon needs to die. So I don't think the president of Sierra Club denouncing Muir in 2020 is some sort of overnight epiphany. It was feedback from years or decades of lost opportunities for fund raising, because of Muir's tarnished legacy. |