As I’ve mentioned a few times (Edit: more than a few times) for many years, I’ve performed a one-man show as Alexander Hamilton throughout the U.S. (cough… hamiltonlives.com … cough). I have the correct costume, wig, tights, and shoes without a left or a right (as was the custom in Hamilton’s time). Using a method called Chautauqua, I open with an unscripted riff on what I think Hamilton would say about things today, and then for the bulk of my show, I answer questions, as Hamilton, from the audience. I’ve done this for over 25 years now, for thousands of people, and the reception has been universally positive.

I’ve wondered, from time to time, why my shows seem to work so well. Part of it, (I flatter myself, as Hamilton might say) is because I’m good at it. But in the final portion of my show, wherein I doff the wig, break character and talk to the audience as myself about Hamilton, I’ve usually said that I think there are two main reasons the show works. The first is that my performance illustrates that the founding generation was made up of very real people, with passions, faults, and interesting characteristics. But the second reason is perhaps more important: none of the issues debated at that long-ago constitutional convention in Philadelphia have been settled even 234 years later. We still argue about states’ rights, rich versus poor, gender and race issues, north and south, big states versus small states and more. We still argue about the things that divided us back then because they still divide us in the modern era.

Which, of course, brings me to the Greater Sage Grouse …

This roughly chicken-sized wild fowl likes to run around in certain desert-ish parts of the Western United States. And as recently reported in Colorado Politics, the bird is again at the center of arguments in federal courts about what degree of oil and gas exploration and extraction can safely take place in the grouse’s habitat, given its near-threatened status. A federal judge ruled last week that the BLM did not fully consider the impact of drilling on the grouse, especially in the bird’s prime habitat.

And so, much like Hamilton back in 1787, we find ourselves in a fight regarding whose rights will trump whose. The BLM asserts that the grouse has made enough of a comeback in Wyoming that it can now allow drilling in other nesting areas, because, well, there are enough grouse. We also find states arguing with the federal government, private interests fighting in court for access to public lands and lots of shouting. Back in 2017 (hence my clever use of the word “trump” a couple sentences back) the BLM auctioned off hundreds of leases in the roughly 600 square mile area of prime grouse habitat, across four states, because back then, Mr. Trump wanted more oil than birds and the heck with the environmental implications, but I digress …

“Why should I care about the greater sage grouse,” you ask? It’s not like they are a particularly important part of the ecosystem, right? Well, as it turns out, pretty much everything in nature is connected. The grouse are an important food source for coyotes, bobcats, badgers and various birds of prey. Wipe out the grouse and you will find ripple effects up the food chain. And for those of you who argue that you still don’t see any value for the bird, I’d echo what I wrote 14 months ago to remind you that sometimes you get value from places you don’t expect it. For decades, loggers in California were frustrated by the darn Western Yew tree. It wasn’t much good for lumber and it always seemed to be in the way. As a result, yews were cut down and burned. The Yew was nearly wiped out before it was discovered that the bark of that tree was a natural anti-cancer agent, especially good at fighting breast cancer (today refined as Taxol). Is the grouse likely to prove equally useful? Maybe, maybe not, but should we risk it?

Plus, the world is simply a better place for maintaining as much biodiversity as we can, even if it is only so we can look at pretty natural things.

Oh, and the bird is the mascot of two California-based colleges, so go get ’em, mighty sagehens!

It is quite easy to see the world in front of you as a place for mere consumption, a place from which you can simply take whatever you want. But I would respectfully argue that such a view is dangerously shortsighted. The greater grouse may or may not prove to be important from a greater human perspective. But the bird is undeniably a part of the ecosystem, linked to the rest of the larger environment in important ways that we likely don’t yet fully understand. It is in our interests, on many levels, to protect the grouse and the other critters and plants out there, and not just the cute ones.

Our great-grandchildren may well thank us.