I have a patriotic allegiance not just to a system of government but to the American land itself.

"I am expressing my growing sense of allegiance to this living nation.  Allegiance to the forests, the prairies, the deserts, the mountains, the swamplands, the seacoasts, the lakes and rivers and oceans . . . Allegiance to the greater community of landscape and organisms that encompasses and sustains us all, . . . a patriotic allegiance not just to a system of government but to the American land itself . . . There is a need for wider recognition that government has as much a duty to protect the land, the air, the water, the natural environment against technological damage, as it has to protect the country against foreign enemies."

Richard Nelson,

"Patriotism and the American Land"

Photo: Western Hemlock and Mowich Lake, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 29, 2013