HoustonToad_WhateverBelongs_HeiserJr_Joseph_HoustonTX_14August1984_ReelOH314_ThomasKreneck.mp3

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:00:02] Just saving the special things isn't going to discharge our responsibility as custodians of this nation's natural features.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:00:13] That we have to save something of everything, as the present-day custodians of the natural treasures and features of this country are passing through our hands.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:00:27] And our responsibility is not to save what appeals to us, what happens to be best able to resist change, but everything that comes into our hands that we inherited from those ahead of us.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:00:43] It is our responsibility to save as much of those things that we can, to pass them, and pass them on.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:00:50] And what belongs, I say, it isn't up to us to save just the magnolias and the whooping crane, but the Houston toad and the chinquapin tree, and all of those things - whatever belongs on the land.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:01:13] As much as we can, we have got to save those things as they were, because, as I say, those are not ours. We are merely tenants here, temporary. We were born, and live and die. And the land is continued.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:01:26] And what, what, what Americans have after we are gone is what we were wise enough and smart enough and responsible enough to save.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:01:37] And that's what I, see what it says there? What belongs? I say, it isn't up to us to save what we like, or what is best fitted to survive, but whatever belongs on the land and what is ever a part of our inheritage, that's what we've got to save.

Joseph Heiser, Jr. [00:01:55] And that's my story.