Kimball's Emergency Lesson Blog

Welcome to your Emergency Lesson Blog for US History!

Likely you are here because we have a unique experience before us which demands you do some “distance learning”. Distant Learning, although possibly new for you, has been around for quite a while.

Brief History Lesson: In the years between the World Wars (1918-1946), the federal government granted radio broadcasting licenses to 202 colleges, universities, and school boards. With all the demands and popularity of instructional radio, some of the very first distance education actually took place via "Telephonics" during the 1930's (as evidenced by a mural on the wall of old Radio Hall at the University of Wisconsin). By the year 1940, there was only one college-level credit course offered by radio and that course failed to attract any enrollments (Atkins, 1991). Still, the concept of education by radio was a major reason for development of educational television by the mid 20th century.

"Distance Learning" is a general term used to cover the broad range of teaching and learning events in which the student is separated (at a distance) from the instructor, or other fellow learners. Instead of having traditional classrooms (room, desks, student and teacher), distance learning means that an individual has more responsibility (and freedom) to budget time, workload, and input. Remember this as you work on your assignments (posted below) because this may actually, for many of you, be THE WAY you earn some degree, some skills, or even just some hobby in the years ahead.

Below you will find your assignments for the classes ahead which you will be responsible for. This means, just as in class, you will have to read, to take notes, and to take responsibility for your learning. Upon your return, the material you have assembled will be reviewed, graded appropriately and figured into your score but the larger lesson you will hopefully learn is that distance learning can be not only rewarding but also more personalized in many ways.

I look forward to the wonderful work you have done upon your return.

If you are struggling to do the work, I can be directly emailed at rkimball@skschools.net but realize I may have 125 individuals emailing the same question so check here frequently for any updates.

While using this blog, DO NOT reveal your last names!

(and please feed the fish... thanks!)

Assignment #1: Aldo Leopold

BACKGROUND:  Aldo Leopold is known as the "Father of Conservationism" but likely you have never heard of him, his life, or his accomplishments.  Sadly, so many American icons of accomplishment (Leopold, Rockwell, Oches) are overshadowed by other "larger than life" figures like Lincoln, Edison, Martin Luther King and Dylan who are foundational iconic figures.  The Leopold's of the world, although known in their own spheres of influence, can disappear unless we awaken them and study their own greatness.

A new graduate of Yale with a degree in Forestry at the age of 24, Aldo Leopold was assigned to the newly created US Forest Service in New Mexico and Arizona.   His career in those newly emerging wilderness areas of the US changed the way we look at land, wilderness and our delicate balance as guardians of the Earth forever.

As a young forester, Leopold only knew what he had been taught in college:  Forests, and the trees therein, were not much more than lumber to be harvested, processed and sold for an expanding and growing America.  Predators like mountain lions and wolves were to be exterminated (to protect cows, elk and deer).

Through careful observation and experience, his thinking began to change however.  He witnessed first hand the effects of unregulated, overgrazing on sensitive areas.  He saw how this overgrazing could lead to severe erosion as plantroots disappeared.  He was saddened by the effects of deer and elk population explosions in a predator free environment as food became scarce and the populations became weakened by starvation. His thinking changed.

He began to "think like a mountain" (in his own words).  He infered from the evidence before him that everything must be interconnected in the intricate web of life and that natural systems work in a delicate balance arranged over millions of years.  He also concluded this web was easily disrupted by the innovations and interuptions of mankind.

"Just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of wolves, so does a mountain live in fear of its deer," he wrote.

This simple sentence recognizes that unchecked populations of herbivores can wreak havoc on an ecosystem by overgrazing. When deer or elk or cows for that matter, mow down the young cottonwood shoots along a stream bank there is less shade and the banks are less stable. The river water heats up and the stream banks erode. Hotter water and heavier silt loads make the streams uninhabitable for native fish like trout. Extinction ensues.

In 1921, Aldo Leopold wrote a plan for the management of the headwaters of the Gila River creating the Gila River Forest Reserve. In 1924, this area became the Gila Wilderness; the first officially designated wilderness area in the US.   Leopold had the foresight to recognize that large tracts of land had to be preserved to keep ecosystems intact and they had to be managed to limit human activities.  Hunting and fishing are allowed along with hiking and horseback trips, but no motorized vehicles and no roads.

Leopold's vision lead to the creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964. Today, we are fortunate to have 756 designated wilderness areas encompassing over 109 million acres in 44 states and Puerto Rico. These are places where we can go today to escape the hectic pace of the modern world but also preserve the delicate integrity of a wilderness in balance.  It gives us a chance to step back and see the natural world in a more natural state, the way our ancestors may have seen it.

Although carrying a silent history, the wilderness is a working laboratory where animals, plants, insects, water and soil are undisturbed and functioning as well as can be expected.  As a historian, we often focus on the "improvements", "advances" and "moderization" of the world without realizing that sometimes (even often), our improvements are not really improving the Earth at all but damaging it.

Aldo Leopold understood that thought clearer after a particular incident in the wild.  One specific moment in his life "humanized" the entire struggle.  As a historian, you will examine his writing and comment on this work.

ASSIGNMENT:  Read the following passage by Aldo Leopold from "Thinking Like a Mountain" carefully then post a 5 sentence analysis in the COMMENT section.  Your comment will be read by your peers and can serve to guide you on your own analysis.

Thinking Like a Mountain

By Aldo Leopold

A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night. It is an outburst of wild defiant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world.  Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call.  To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet.  Yet behind these obvious and immediate hopes and fears there lies a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself.  Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.

Those unable to decipher the hidden meaning know nevertheless that it is there, for it is felt in all wolf country, and distinguishes that country from all other land.  It tingles in the spine of all who hear wolves by night, or who scan their tracks by day.  Even without sight or sound of wolf, it is implicit in a hundred small events: the midnight whinny of a pack horse, the rattle of rolling rocks, the bound of a fleeing deer, the way shadows lie under the spruces.  Only the ineducable tyro can fail to sense the presence or absence of wolves, or the fact that mountains have a secret opinion about them.

My own conviction on this score dates from the day I saw a wolf die.  We were eating lunch on a high rimrock, at the foot of which a turbulent river elbowed its way. We saw what we thought was a doe fording the torrent, her breast awash in white water.  When she climbed the bank toward us and shook out her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf.  A half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang from the willows and all joined in a welcoming melee of wagging tails and playful maulings.  What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot of our rimrock.

In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf.  In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy: how to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing. When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable slide-rocks.

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.  I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes - something known only to her and to the mountain.  I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise.  But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves.  I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails.  I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death.  I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn.  Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise.  In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers.

I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer.  And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades.  So also with cows.  The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf's job of trimming the herd to fit the range.  He has not learned to think like a mountain.  Hence we have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea.

We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness.  The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time.  A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run.  Perhaps this is behind [Henry David] Thoreau's dictum: "In wildness is the salvation of the world".  Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.

ASSIGNMENT:  Click on the word "Comment" below and write (or paste in) a thoughtful, punctuated, spell-checked and insightful "response to literature" (using the schoolwide rubric as a guide).

Your comments NEED to be in-depth and not simply wasted space.  The more thought and analysis you put in, the more credit you will GAIN.   The more space you truly waste (not "use" - I said "waste"), the more credit you will LOSE.

The instructions below will focus you a bit more. Don't forget you can copy/paste, add website links to images, other blogs, websites, pictures. Have fun and make this "blog" a model for future classes to emulate! I look forward to reading your postings!

REQUIREMENTS:

• USE the skills you were taught at the beginning of the class regarding crafting a 5 sentence paragraph.  (i.e. an intro sentence, 3 supporting senetences, summary sentence)
• READ the entire passage and do not skim.  Also take time to look at the pictures for a few moments.
• HUMANIZE this assignment.  Aldo Leopold was a powerful influence on millions of lives (human and non-human alike) but he was also one of us.  A single human working against great odds to make a difference.
• AVOID/ELIMINATE "I feel", "I believe", and such in your statements as they are redundant. Banish them from your writing forever!
• REMEMBER to not include your last name in any post.
• LASTLY, be considerate of others, follow all school rules of appropriate behavior, and seek to learn more from others (particularly those with whom you do not agree). This can be a sensitive topic - treat it accordingly. 

REMEMBER: Use the pulldown menu to select Name/URL and then type in only your first name and last initial in the "name" space; ignore the URL space).

Assignment #2: Thematic Photo Comparison

BACKGROUND:  Welcome to a Photo Analysis weblog for US History. This weblog is designed to draw in assorted comments, information, analysis, and data relating to a simple focus question:

How has "The American Dream" been different for different groups of Americans?

This weblog (or "blog" for short) is designed to be your personal and yet very public place to assimilate your deepest thoughtful analysis, assessment of data, and fact-based opinion.

All arguments and opinions will be accessible to not only myself and your peers but also to possibly others around the world who might "pop in" and comment. This is designed to allow you, in a single paragraph to show your talents as a critical-thinking and insightful historian. Do your best and learn from others as well.

Also be sure when you have FINALLY decided (and that may be in a few weeks when you can read what others wrote) to cast your vote in the poll.

Some safety tips to remember:

• Select Name/URL when you comment...  ignore the URL
• Use only first names and last initials.
• Never publish personal identifiers about yourself or others.
• Do not post personal information, personal pictures, or inappropriate material.
• Any problems in your blogs, whether technical or content related, should be communicated to your teacher immediately.
• Follow all school policies regarding behavior, language and appropriateness at all times.

The task is now before you as a historical learning community.  You have accumulated data in classes and on your own which should allow you ample evidence to support your claims.  You have analyzed thoughts the causes and events of U.S. History up to this point as well. You even have 16+ years of experience (your own) to reflect upon.

ASSIGNMENT:   In a (1) concise and logical paragraph for each pair of pictures, post a comment reflecting on "The American Dream" as a central "pull factor" to American growth.  Do this by clicking on COMMENT, selecting "Name/URL" from the dropdown menu, and typing in your first name and last initial ONLY (ignore the URL), and typing your response in the space provided.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Your comments NEED to be in-depth and not simply wasted space.
• The more thought and analysis you put in, the more credit you will GAIN.
• The more space you truly waste (not "use" - I said "waste"), the more credit you will LOSE.

The blog below will focus you a bit more. Don't forget you can copy/paste, add website links to images, other blogs, websites, pictures. Have fun and make this "blog" a model for future classes to emulate! I look forward to reading your postings!

1. LOOK at the pictures and accompanying questions carefully. The questions with each picture are designed to have you examine the same question but through different lenses.
2. HUMANIZE this assignment.  Take time to REALLY examine the photographs and use details from them to support your answer.
3. AVOID/ELIMINATE "I feel", "I believe", and such in your statements as they are redundant. Banish them from your writing forever!
4. REMEMBER to not include your last name in any post.  If you think/know someone has the same name under the "First name/last initial" formula, use first name and first 2 letters of last name.
5. LASTLY, be considerate of others, follow all school rules of appropriate behavior, and seek to learn more from others (particularly those with whom you do not agree). This can be a sensitive topic - treat it accordingly.

Pictures #1: "Native americans and the American Dream"

The Indian Americanization Act encouraged Native Americans to adopt traditional "White American" appearences so they could be more productive, more accepted and better prepared to deal with the world around them.

These pictures, taken upon arrival and after some time in the program, give insight into "The American Dream" as it applies to these individuals.

Answer below by clicking "Comment" and writing in your reply.  Use your first initial and last name ONLY

Pictures #2: "Children's Dreams"

The dreams and reality of American youth varies depends upon factors, including wealth, education, opportunity and location.  Some children worked while others had time to relax and enjoy "American traditions" like a sandlot game of baseball.

Using these two pictures as only part of a vastly mixed collection of youth activities and situations, explain how "The American Dream" varies for the youth of America?

Pictures #3: "Blacks and the American Dream"

Black Americans have recently reached heights of power (politically, socially and economically) that equate to their white peers but such was not always the case, despite "The American Dream".

How does the concept of the "American Dream" apply to black Americans?

Pictures #4 - "Home Sweet Home"

Part of "The American Dream" involves having a place of your own, a house, a "home".  Below are 2 pictures of American homes, very different but both in the United States and occupied at roughly the same time by families.

Based on these two pictures, how does "The American Dream" differ for American families?

Assignment #3: "UNLESS"

BACKGROUND:

From simple seeds grow the mightiest trees. I heard that somewhere yet can’t recall the source (might have been my grandfather). But it is true.

And one of the greatest truth-speakers, Dr. Theodore Geisel, touched the hearts and minds of the tiniest seedlings with his humor, wit, and creative genius. While I could have chosen any number of his works to analyze (The Butter Battle, The Sneeches, Horton Hears a Who), I chose The Lorax because… well… it just seemed “right”.

The Lorax is a children's book, written by Dr. Seuss and first published in 1971. The story follows the plight of the environment and the Lorax (a brown, mossy-furry creature), a self-proclaimed protector of the environment against the greedy, mysterious Once-ler.

As in most of Dr. Seuss works, the creatures are of his own creation but are easily transferred to those in the wilderness around us. The story is commonly recognized as a modern-day fable concerning industrialized society, using the literary element of personification to depict “industry” as the Once-ler (whose face is never shown in any of the story's illustrations) and to the “environment” as the Lorax. For environmentalists, the story is a popular metaphor.

And the “The Lorax” has created modern controversy. In 1988, California school district fought to keep the book on a reading list for elementary schoolers while some in the town claimed the book was unfair to the logging industry nearby.

Several timber industry groups sponsored the creation of a counter-book called The Truax, offering a logging-friendly perspective to an anthropomorphic tree known as the Guardbark. Just as in The Lorax, the book consists of an argument between two people. The logging industry representative emphasizes their efficiency and re-seeding efforts whereas the Guardbark, a personification of the environmentalist movement (much as the Once-ler is for big business), refuses to listen and repeatedly lashes out.

Additionally, the line "I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie" was deleted from the book more than fourteen years after the story was published. Two research associates from the Ohio Sea Grant Program of the line a wrote to Seuss about a highly successful clean-up of Lake Erie and asking for the removal s a sign of environmental progress. The research associates credited the book, however, in drawing attention to their previous pollution problems and for some of the community response.

ASSIGNMENT:  READ the story which follows in preparation to post a public comment.

The Lorax

by Dr. Seuss

At the far end of town

where the Grickle-grass grows

and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows

and no birds ever sing excepting old crows...

is the Street of the Lifted Lorax

And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say,

if you look deep enough you can still see, today,

where the Lorax once stood

just as long as it could

before somebody lifted the Lorax away.

What was the Lorax?

And why was it there?

And why was it lifted and taken somewhere

from the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows?

The old Once-ler still lives here.

Ask him. He knows.

You won't see the Once-ler.

Don't knock at his door.

He stays in his Lerkim on top of his store.

He lurks in his Lerkim, cold under the roof,

where he makes his own clothes

out of miff-muffered moof.

And on special dank midnights

in August, he peeks

out of the shutters and sometimes he speaks

and tells how the Lorax was lifted away.

He'll tell you, perhaps...

if you're willing to pay.

On the end of a rope

he lets down a tin pail

and you have to toss in fifteen cents…

and a nail

and the shell of the great-great-great-grandfather snail.

Then he pulls up the pail,

makes a most careful count

to see if you've paid him

the proper amount.

Then he hides what you paid him

away in his Snuvv,

his secret strange hole

in his gruvvulous glove.

Then he grunts, "I will call you by Whisper-ma-Phone,

for the secrets I tell are for your ears alone."

SLUPP!

Down slupps the Whisper-ma-Phone to your ear

and the old Once-ler's whispers are not very clear,

since they have to come down

through a snergelly hose,

and he sounds as if

he had smallish bees up his nose.

"Now I'll tell you," he says, with his teeth sounding ray,

"how the Lorax got lifted and taken away...

It all started way back...

such a long, long time back...

Way back in the days when the grass was still green

and the pond was still wet

and the clouds were still clean,

and the song of the Swomee-Swans rang out in space...

one morning, I came to this glorious place.

And I first saw the trees!

The Truffula Trees!

The bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees!

Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze.

And, under the trees, I saw Brown Bar-ba-loots

frisking about in their Bar-bo-loot suits

as they played in the shade and ate Truffula Fruits.

From the rippulous pond

came the comfortable sound

of the Humming-Fish humming

while splashing around.

But those trees! Those trees!

Those Truffula Trees!

All my life I'd been searching

for trees such as these.

The touch of their tufts

was much softer than silk.

And they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk.

I felt a great leaping

of joy in my heart.

I knew just what I'd do!

I unloaded my cart.

In no time at all, I had built a small shop.

Then I chopped down a Truffula Tree with one chop.

And with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed.

I took the soft tuft. And I knitted a Thneed!

The instant I'd finished,

I heard a ga-Zump!

I looked.

I saw something pop out of the stump

of the tree I'd chopped down.

It was sort of a man,

Describe him?...

That's hard.

I don't know if I can.

He was shortish. And oldish.

And brownish. And mossy.

And he spoke with a voice

that was sharpish and bossy.

"Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze,

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.

I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs"—

He was very upset as

he shouted and puffed

"What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?"

"Look, Lorax," I said. "There's no cause for alarm.

I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.

I'm being quit useful. This thing is a Thneed.

A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!

It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat.

But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that.

You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets!

Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!"

The Lorax said,

"Sir! You are crazy…

crazy with greed!

There is no one on earth

who would buy that fool Thneed!"

But the very next minute I proved he was wrong.

For, just at that minute, a chap came along,

and he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great.

He happily bought it for three ninety-eight.

I laughed at the Lorax, "You poor stupid guy!

You never can tell what some people will buy."

"I repeat," cried the Lorax,

"I speak for the trees!"

"I'm busy," I told him.

"Shut up, if you please."

I rushed 'cross the room, and in no time at all,

built a radio-phone. I put in a quick call.

I called all my brothers and uncles and aunts

and I said, "Listen here! Here's a wonderful chance

for the whole Once-ler Family to get mighty rich!

Get over here fast! Take the road to North Nitch.

Turn left at Weehawken. Sharp right at South Stitch."

And, in no time at all,

in the factory I built,

the whole Once-ler Family

was working full tilt.

We were all knitting Thneeds

just as busy as bees,

to the sound of the chopping

of Truffula Trees.

Then... Oh! Baby! Oh!

How my business did grow!

Now, chopping one tree

at a time was too slow.

So I quickly invented my Super_axe_hacker

which whacked off four Truffula Trees at one smacker.

We were making Thneeds

four times as fast as before!

And that Lorax?...

He didn't show up any more.

But the next week

he knocked on my new office door.

He snapped, "I'm the Lorax who speaks for the trees

which you seem to be chopping as fast as your please.

But I'm also in charge of the Brown Bar-bo-loots

who played in the shade in their Bar-bo-loot suits

and happily lived, eating Truffula Fruits.

"NOW...thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground,

there's not enough Truffula Fruit to go 'round.

And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies

because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!

"They loved living here. But I can't let them stay.

They'll have to find food. And I hope that they may.

Good luck, boys," he cried. And he sent them away.

I, the Once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go.

BUT... business is business!

And business must grow

regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.

I meant no harm. I most truly did not.

But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.

I biggered my factory.

I biggered my roads.

I biggered my wagons.

I biggered the loads…

of the Thneeds I shipped out.

I was shipping them forth

to the South! To the East!

To the West! To the North!

I went right on biggering...

selling more Thneeds.

And I biggered my money,

which everyone needs.

Then again he came back!

I was fixing some pipes

when that old-nuisance Lorax

came back with more gripes.

"I am the Lorax," he coughed

and he whiffed.

He sneezed and he snuffled.

He snarggled. He sniffed.

"Once-ler!" he cried with a cruffulous croak.

"Once-lear! You're making such smogulous smoke!

My poor Swomee-Swans...why, they can't sing a note!

No one can sing who has smog in his throat.

"And so," said the Lorax,

"--please pardon my cough--

they cannot live here.

So I'm sending them off.

"Where will they go?...

I don't hopefully know.

They may have to fly

for a month...or a year...

To escape from the smog

you've smogged-up around here.

"What's more," snapped the Lorax.

(His dander was up.)

"Let me say a few words

about Gluppity-Clupp.

Your machinery chugs on,

day and night without stop.

making Gluppity-Glupp.

Also Schloppity-Schlopp.

And what do you do with this leftover goo?...

I'll show you. You dirty old Once-ler man, you!

"You're glumping the pond

where the Humming-Fish hummed!

No more can they hum,

for their gills are all gummed.

So I'm sending them off.  Oh, their future is dreary.

They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary

in search of some water that isn't so smeary.

I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie."

And then I got mad.

I got terribly mad.

I yelled at the Lorax,

"Now listen here, Dad!”

“All you do is yap-yap and say, 'Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!'

Well, I have my rights, sir, and I'm telling you

I intend to go on doing just what I do!

And, for your information, you Lorax, I'm figgering

on biggering

and BIGGERING

and BIGGERING

and BIGGERING,

Turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds

which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!"

And at that very moment, we heard a load whack!

From outside in the fields came a sickening smack

of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall.

The very last Truffula Tree of them all!

No more trees.

No more Thneeds.

No more work to be done.

So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, every one,

all waved me good-bye.

they jumped into my cars

and drove away

under the smoke-smuggered stars.

Now all that was left 'neath the bad-smelling sky

was my big empty factory

the Lorax...

and I.

The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance...

just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance...

as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.

And I'll never forget

the grim look on his face

when he heisted himself and took leave of this place,

through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.

And all that the Lorax left here in this mess

was a small pike of rocks,

with the one word:

"UNLESS."

Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn't guess.

That was long, long ago.

But each day since that day

I've sat here and worried

and worried away.

Through the years, while my buildings

have fallen apart,

I've worried about it

with all of my heart.

"But now," says the Once-ler,

"Now that you're here,

the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.

UNLESS someone like you

cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better.

It's not.

"SO...

Catch!" calls the Once-ler.

He lets something fall.

"It's a Truffula Seed.

It's the last one of all!

You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.

And Truffular Trees are what everyone needs.

Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.

Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.

Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack…

Then the Lorax

and all of his friends

may come back."

ASSIGNMENT:  Greed can be defined "as a selfish desire for food, money, or possessions over and above what one needs".

The Lorax says that the Once-ler "is crazy...  crazy with greed".  The Once-ler says, "I biggered my money which every needs." Is it true that everyone needs money?

How much money do people need?  What is the difference between a "want" and a "need"?  Can industrial progress truly co-exist with environmental protection?

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