It’s just a rock, not a felony

A felony is usually reserved for murderers, rapists, child molesters and other serious criminals, but we can now add “rock pushers” to that list.

Three men pushed over a 200 million-year-old rock formation at Goblin Valley State Park in Utah and are being investigated with a felony charge pending.

They recorded the activity and uploaded it to Facebook. Not even a week later, the Internet exploded with responses chastising the men. The consensus was we should give these men the worst possible punishment.

But when it comes down to their actual actions, a felony charge is too much.

I’m not condoning their actions. The purpose of state parks is to preserve, and these jokers did the exact opposite.

They should be banned from parks permanently and fined heavily. Two of the men were leaders in the Boy Scouts and have already been removed from their positions.

They have received a tremendous amount of negative publicity across the country. This is punishment enough.

They don’t deserve to have to check the “felony” box on every job application the rest of their lives. They don’t deserve to be said in the same breath as some of the worst criminals in the country.

They acted on a whim and did what was undoubtedly wrong. However, I bet more of us than we would like to admit have done similarly stupid things.

When I visited the Grand Canyon, I took a small rock. Though I knew that it was wrong, I had an unexplainable urge to take a souvenir of one of the most wondrous things on this earth, altering the landscape in the process.

We all have impulses to change something forever and put our mark on this world.

That impulse can manifest at any time and, unfortunately for these guys, they recorded it.

We have bigger things to worry about in this country. Two weeks ago, none of us cared or even knew what Goblin Valley State Park was. Now we are springing into action to preserve a park and persecute three people.

At a certain point we need to realize what’s more important: nature or people. I believe even the most environmentally friendly would say people. We shouldn’t ruin three people’s lives for knocking over a rock.

These three guys didn’t start a forest fire, didn’t kill an endangered species or pollute an entire river. They moved a rock three feet. We need to relax our environmentally conscious reflex and realize the totality of the situation.

A felony charge is overkill. The rock didn’t feel a thing.

— lewicole@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Cole Lewis on Twitter @ColeThenLewis.