Before I say anything ... I must say that this is quite a good dialogue
... and I have enjoyed being able to bounce these ideas around a virtual
forum ...

I think that one of John's comments might hit something on someone's
head ... it is also a point demonstrated by Phil. Pothunters are
"competitors" ... this is crucial to understand. I fully agree that
anyone who commits trespassing or larceny should be brought before
authorities ... no matter if they are a pothunter or a professional. The
problem becomes ... how can we ... as Phil so cogently put it ... find a
transcendent or moral argument here. I think that the call for the
preservation of "scientific information" is a rather poor argument.

Do we think that "science" and the "public trust" provides us with the
authority to "dig up the goodies" and then place them in a museum ...
most likely never to see the light of day?

How often do the public get paid back for their tax dollars in
subsidizing the indulgences of a few academics or the destructive rape
and development of the landscape?

At least when it comes to some of our tax dollars ... we know that they
are of use to some of us. We can drive on highways ... or visit national
parks ... or be suitably maintained in one of those wonderful new-fangled
prisons.

This argument reminds me of the work of one of Phil and I's colleagues at
Colonial Williamsburg ... Audrey Horning. In her work in Shenandoah
National Park ... she has vividly demonstrated what the "interests of
the public" and the "public trust" sometimes mean. In the formation of
the park ... in the "public interest" ... numerous citizens had to be
removed from their property. Well ... the government bought it from them
at a "fair market value" ... but it just so happened that a lot of them
folks didn't want to sell. They had no choice in this matter. The key to
the argument of the "public interest" being that these poor hillbillies
probably didn't know what was in the best interest of "public."

I wonder why folks without a lot of money just can't comprehend the
"public interest" as well as us educated middle class people ... not to
mention all of those wonderful corporations who make it their job to
cater to "our interests" ...

Kevin.