a large part of our lives maintaining federal,rnstate, and priate land. Are those ofrnV.1S wlio choose to preserve nature worth)’rnof the epithet “slaves to nature”?rnMr. Williamson shonld stick to knockaboutrntales of the people and places of thernWest, the landscapes, the distances, andrnwhat immigration is doing to take it allrnaway. That, we know, he can do with thernbest of them!rnDavid TillotsonrnLake Mills, WlrnMr. Williamson Replies:rnMr. i’illotson’s rant is so off the mark, tendentious,rnand falsely suggestive, so basedrnon what seems a deliberately carelessrnreading of what I wrote, that I have a hardrntime finding the string to pull that wouldrnunravel this ball of confused charges.rnFirst, Mr. Tillotson claims my suggestionrntinat the federal government wants tornremove citizens from the land is “outlandish.”rnWhile I don’t specify the feds asrnhaving this goal in mind, at least twornplans I know of are currently in train —rnone for the past ten years or more—to vacaternthe Northern Plains and returnrnthem to the status of a buffalo commons.rnSecond, I don’t know the environmentalistsrnMr. Tillotson knows. The organizedrnmovement I’m familiar with outrnWest is certainly Deep Ecologist, at bottom.rnAnd it does support—in fact, it is behindrn—ever}’ goal and campaign againstrnthe traditional West.rnThird, I don’t complain that m gas billrnis too high: I merely allude to the fact. P^urther,rnI don’t take sides here on the GalernNorton appointment, though I considerrnthe idea of a “Great Undoing” laughable.rnFourth, is Mr. Tillotson an anti-gunnerrnand an animal-rights activist as wellrnas an environmentalist, as his rhetoricrnsuggests? (Hunting is not a “sport,” asrnJose Ortega ‘ Gasset once explained.)rnFifth, of course, the act of protectingrnand preserving nature doesn’t make you arnslave. It is, rather, the spirit in which onernacts, not the acts themselves, that enslave.rnWhat confuses Mr. Tillotson, I belierne, is that he —quite rightly—discernsrnthat I despise organized environmentalismrnat least as much as I loathe the prodevelopmentrnlobby. If anything, I despisernthem more: Carl Pope is a morernhypocritical human being than Dick Cheney,rnas the Sierra Club’s refusal to condemnrncurrent immigration policy proves.rnOn the Editor’s ArtrnAlthough there’s been little reason torncomplain about the types of editorialrnchanges made by your magazine, an unsettlingrnamount of liberty seems to ha’ernbeen taken with nry recent review, “ThernJanus Faces of War” (May). Specifically,rnthe concluding sentence was made to expressrna judgment different from the one Irnintended to convey. While I certainl}’ dornnot share Alan J. Levine’s predominantlyrnpositive opinions about the politicalrnchanges that occurred during the Rooseveltrnand IVuman presidencies, I believernhe writes in a responsible and oftenrncourageous way. His stated views on ethnicrnwhining, social mores, and the ColdrnWar have served to isolate him professionallyrnand ideologically from the historiographicalrnmainstream.rnFrom what I can see, the mistake inrnwording occurred because of a departurernfrom the praiseworthy practice followed,rnexcept in this case, of sending me galleysrnbefore printing my essay. I’ve every confidencernthat this practice will be resumed.rnDr. Paul GottfnedrnElizabethtown, PArnThe Editors Reply:rnWe faxed Dr. Gottfried his galleys. If hernfailed to receive them, it was his dut’ torninform us. We admit to making changesrnin his review, both for the sake of clarih’,rncorrectness, and coherence, and to eliminaternsome of the exuberant encomia lavishedrnupon a writer whom Dr. Gottfriedrnacknowledges to be his good friend andrnformer student.rnOn the Old BallgamernJohn O’NeiU’s “Letter From Detroit:rnField of Schemes {Correspondence,rnApril)” caught my eve, as I have visitedrnsome 30 different Major League Baseballrnparks in my 50-plus years of existence.rnWlien I found out that 1999 was the finalrnyear for Tiger Stadium, I decided tornspend a week in Detroit and catch a fewrngames. It is difficult to account for nostalgicrnsentiments about a place I had onlyrnvisited via television. I can’t begin tornimagine the sorrows of the local faithful.rnIn 2000, my travels took me close tornMichigan, so I made a side trip to seernComeriea Park. In addition to the Ferrisrnwheel and carousel mentioned byrnO’Neill, there are not one, not two, bittrnsix statues of Tiger greats at the main entrancernand on top of the scoreboard, andrnthe main concourse has exhibits of Tigerrnhistory. The tiger gargoyles with baseballsrnin their mouths are a clever touch.rnSucker that I am for old ballparksrn(I have every one of those coffee-tablernbooks on the deconstructed fields ofrnyore), I have to admit that I enjoved thernamenities and architectural detail ofrnComeriea Park. It was a bit Disneylandishrnfor a nuts-and-bolts town like Detroit,rnbut impressive nonetheless. Myrnmost lasting impression, however, wasrnone the architects never intended.rnComeriea Park is designed so that fansrnsitting behind home plate will have arnpanoramic view of the cify skyline. Arrivingrnearly for a night game, I couldn’t helprnbut notice the transformation that takesrnplace as the sky darkens. As the lights onrnthe downtown buildings come on, itrngradually becomes apparent that aboutrnhalf the office towers are unlit—in otherrnwords, abandoned. A downtown walkingrntour in the daylight reveals a number ofrnvenerable old buildings that would be atrnhome in the Chicago Loop. But there isrnno demand for office space in downtownrnDetroit, so there is no money to renovaternthe old buildings and no need to tearrnthem down to make way for new buildings.rnWliat can you expect of a town thatrnpeaked at close to two million people inrnthe 1950’s and now has less than half thatrnmany? And abandoned buildings are notrnlimited to downtown.rnTiger owner Michael Illich, who alsornrenovated the Fox Theater (a block awayrnfrom Comeriea Park), is doubtless hopingrnthat the ballpark and the new footballrnstadium under construction (the DetroitrnLions currently have a domed stadium inrnnearby Pontiae) will bring people back torndowntown Detroit. Illich, who also ownsrnLittle Caesar’s Pizza, is a smart businessman,rnbut I think he has overestimated hisrnlocal market’s taste for bread and circusesrn. . . or is it pizza and sports? FhroughoutrnComeriea Park’s inaugural year, therernwere plenty of empty seats. This year, thernTigers have taken the almost unheard-ofrnstep of lowering ticket prices. Frankly, Irnthink it will take a lot more than that tornbring people to downtown Detroit.rnFrank JacksonrnDallas, TXrnAUGUST 2001/5rnrnrn