"It was encouraging news recently from the EPA that they intend to tighten the laws pertaining to air pollution. To bring the matter close to home, Sumter's increasingly smoke-laden air is of deep concern to those who envisage the situation for generations hence.

The air is but one aspect of the abuse of our environment; how very many other aspects there are that need urgent attention.

How different it all could have been had we listened to the wisdom of the American Indian on the sacredness of the land, animals, air, rivers and trees, as they ceded their precious lands to the conquerer whose chief motivation was unbridled greed.

In retrospect, considering the abusive treatment accorded the life encompassed in the vast territory of the United States, it must set all thinking people to wondering who is the savage and who is the civilized. And further to wonder if man indeed is the highest creation in the great loop of life itself. I personally have grave reservations.

The sagacity of the Indian is infinitely touching and so reproving of our dismissive attitude. This, in part, is a quote from Chief Seattle (1790-1866) from a letter to the president of the United States, urging him to consider the Indians' point of view. "Every part of the earth is sacred and we are all part of the precious earth, as well as being brothers in spirit.""

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Joyce Miller: We could all learn from the wisdom of the American Indian (The Sumter Item 1/14)