Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory. -Dr. Seuss

Some say that those of us who oppose the School Board plan to destroy hundreds of trees for ball fields are pitting the children against the trees. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Of course our children are more important than the trees. Our children are also more important than school district programs.

Yes, we do understand the importance of school sports. But the greatest threat our children face is the prospect of environmental catastrophe. Environmental degradation will have a more profound impact on our children and their generation than any school program.

The School Board has prioritized its programs before our kids’ futures. They have endorsed a plan for sports fields, and then, having acknowledged that it is an environmentally bad plan, expect compromises be made to support those plans. The School Board has it backwards.

For the benefit of our kids’ future, we first need to commit to avoiding further environmental destruction, and then, given the constraints imposed, devise the best programs possible.  Our children’s planet, and therefore our children, come first, not the programs.  Our children deserve better from us. Twenty years from now we want to tell them with pride we acknowledged the problem and were were part of the solution, and contributed to saving their finite, priceless natural world.