A flock of cormorants at the airport was shot rather than delay a flight. Great pines and ancient oaks were destroyed in the night with gasoline-powered chainsaws and bulldozers. Rivers were rerouted to more convenient locations.

Flowers, and wild berries, neighborhood play lots and cemeteries, and the old or unfashionable folks had to go. Sentiment and Nature were for the weak. Progress - gargantuan highways and tall climate controlled buildings and sculpted landscaping, nuclear power and monitoring of resident activity - was for those with big financial vision and bottomless pockets. The gifts we'd been blessed with were met with disdain and wasted on a whim.