Category | Op Ed

The Owl Forum

Published on September 11, 2007 by The Sentinel

Check out this weeks letter to the editors.

Spaceship Earth: A brief history of purpose

Dear Editor,

    In response to the “Just Say No to Eino” (pronounced
“a”-no) article in last weeks Sentinel edition, I would like to inform
the author as well as the readers of the blind significance of this
monument–because the meaning behind it travels years beyond the label
of art.

 David Brower is the name of the man mounting Spaceship Earth; the
worldly sculpture next to the Social Sciences building. Brower was a
man of ambition and great compassion for the world as a provider of
life. His efforts as the director of the Sierra Club in the 1980’s is
why we may enjoy the splendor of the Grand Canyon today, for he led a
successful campaign against the flooding of this beautiful landmark
many wildlife call home.  He dedicated his name, time, and life to
conserving the precious beauty of our planet, not just for his
generation, but for the future of the world and its inhabitants. Thus
explains the name “spaceship” earth. The sculptor of this timeless
message is David Brower’s personal friend Eino; who received the
blessing for the sculpture from Brower himself on his death bed. 

    David Brower mounting the earth is a symbol of the
power we still have over preserving and improving the lives of our
kin’s future generations. Sure Atlas may have shrugged (thank you Ayn
Rand) but Brower did not and never will. The cost that came with this
sculpture is less important than the potential it has in our fertile
minds. Although we shouldn’t need a material representation, we as mere
humans need that reminder of our finite existence and our children’s
world we are contaminating. 

    The sculpture’s home was almost found at Berkeley in
California; however the stipulations would not allow Brower’s statue to
mount the globe. Eino would not let the conditions “take the messenger
out of the message”. Thus the home for this monumental message is found
here at KSU.  I commend and respect these tenacious men who are
now a part of the enlightenment that welcomes us on our way to class. I
welcome it in return with open arms and an open mind.

    David Brower knew that he, as one man, could not
help our home planet by himself. Eino understands this mentality and
knows that in order to make a significant influence upon our future we
must not ignore what small changes we can make in order to protect,
improve, and maintain a healthy existence for the people that will live
here long after we are gone. So I say yes to Eino, yes to my children’s
children, and yes to the reconstruction of and message presented by
Spaceship Earth.

    (Post Script: Do not write me off as merely an
environmentalist for I may call all of humanity the same, considering
we sustain life within our provider, the environment of the
earth.  We owe her respect, at the least.)

Brittany Wallace
Junior, Anthropology