Like Thoreau in 1830

I am both in and out of time.

I am making the Earth say beans instead of grass.

But those who we entrust with caring for our public property, the Commons, are on the take as much as the Stasi of the East German government were on the take.

For this reason the Commons, that which does not exist within our property lines, has no stewards, no protectors.

It does, actually. In Maine, the protector of the Commons is the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (Maine DEP).

But in reality, the Maine DEP is the antithesis of its title and mission.

The Maine DEP was created in the 1970s on the basis of the natural, childlike impulse of people to not take a crap on the same plate they are going to eat supper on.

Now the Maine DEP is a Darwinian parasite of that normal, vital impulse. The Maine DEP polishes the turd.