Lakes Are Too Important to Leave to Others

'Saving the Great Lakes is not something to be left to others. It is not an overstatement to say that the Great Lakes are too important to be trusted to government. In fact, the Great Lakes are too important to be trusted to environmentalists. The boisterous, messy, entertaining, complicated and hopeful history of the lakes teaches us that individuals have been the source of their cyclical comebacks. And the source, in turn, of their passion to make chance happen has been a personal link to the lakes. To the fish. To the lighthouses. To the passing freighters and sunken shipwrecks. To the dunes. To the rookeries, to startling horizons and the great skies that reflect the water below. To the wonder these things inspire.'

--From On the Brink--The Great Lakes in the 21st Century, a book by Michigan State University Press which argues that even "after two generations of consistent public support for their protection, shame-proof governments captured by exploitive industries often betray the lakes in quiet defiance of the public."