My maternal grandfather, Samuel John Benke, was of German descent and a first-generation American. He was born and raised in Oklahoma, on his parents' farm. The family business was to work the earth, like that of many Oklahomans. Farming practices of the time coupled with an extended drought eventually brought about what we know as the Dust Bowl. This environmental event deeply affected the lives of many midwesterners, including my grandfather, and was characterized by John Steinbeck in his novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west - from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico.... They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food.... "

When the same livelihood was no longer available to my grandfather that he had learned from his parents, he had to look for something else. Like many others, he looked west. The ability to work hard was his greatest asset, so he came to stay with an aunt in Los Angeles, California and to look for work. He later settled in the Central Valley. California proved bountiful, and my grandpa's philosophy of working hard and smart proved successful in this region. After a string of odd jobs, anything to get by, he bought a gas station, and began to develop business practices that he carried from his Shell station through a thirty year career in real estate in Santa Clara County. He lived what has come to be known as the "American Dream" by starting with nothing and acquiring property in order to achieve some level of monetary wealth.

The buying and selling of land and land development became a family business. My mom was in real estate for nearly twenty five years. She witnessed the South Bay's evolution into an overdeveloped, suburban nightmare. In her career, land use issues entered the political arena, with zoning and protected areas becoming topics of heated debate. My mother died of lung cancer at the age of 49. Her cancer was caused by the use of a crop that was indigenous to the Americas, tobacco. The overplanting and abuse of this crop have harmed both our external and internal environments.

As for me, I have been shaped by the generations before me. I have long been interested in legal theory, and this interest has developed a focus around environmental and housing issues. I believe crises have been born out of the use now, pay later approach that was taken by my grandfather's and mother's generations. I view land developers as a sort of "enemy" and yet real estate development was what allowed my family to survive and even prosper, enabling me to pursue an education in philosophy. Ironically, the very profits made off the land by my family may indirectly serve, through me, to someday help protect the environment.

This exercise has provided me insight into the choices made by generations I have held responsible for many of our environmental problems. My grandparents had a tough German work ethic and a depressed and poor upbringing. They were typical of a generation whose perception of nature was as a resource for their needs, and for their profit. My grandparents never imagined that humans would begin to deplete their natural resources, that fossil fuels would be so harmful to the environment, or that a valley of fruit orchards would someday transform into a "Silicon Valley".