This is a cross-post, but I expect it'll interest a few of you.
William McIntosh, the "White Warrior" of the Creek nation, had risen to the leadership of the Creeks in spite of being of mixed Creek and Scottish blood. That Scottish ancestry offered no shame to a warrior people: he was of the blood of John Mohr McIntosh (the Gaelic byname meaning, "the Great"). John Mohr was recruited by Georgia's own founder, the heroic Sir James Edward Oglethorpe, friend of the Yamicraw nation, to guard the early colony against Spanish raiders from the south. Chief William was of the blood also of General Lachlan McIntosh, who served with General Washington at Valley Forge and helped to negotiate treaties for the establishments of forts in the west during the Revolutionary war; he thereby opened the West to later expansion. General McIntosh also killed Declaration of Independence signatory Button Gwinnett in a duel. Finally, he was a direct descendant of William McIntosh, who was sent by the Revolutionary government to the Creeks to aid them in fighting the British.
Perhaps out of loyalty to this revolution, or out of loyalty to his fathers who fought for it, Chief William McIntosh made a deal that put the lands of the Creek Nation under the jurisdiction of the state of Georgia. Shortly thereafter, he was assassinated in his home by tomahawk; but the transfer of authority held in spite of his murder.
What had heretofore been forested country began to be cleared by homesteaders, who wanted a place to grow food for their families and crops to sell at market. As they cleared a particular patch of land in west central Georgia, they began to notice that the land began to erode far more than other lands in Georgia. The erosion was serious enough to be noteworthy in the 1830s. One can imagine the early farmers wondering how bad it would get. The topsoil, and their livelihood, was washing away: where would it stop?
Here.
Providence Canyon, North Rim
Providence Canyon, West Rim
Providence Canyon, Spire
It's a strange world we live in. Divided loyalties lead to murder or betrayal. Other men stake their hopes on a crop, and see the ground literally wash away from them. Hopes are dashed, lives are blasted, the work of a lifetime is lost: and an unimaginable beauty appears from the land. Long she waited there, cloaked in seemingly usual hills and valleys, waiting only the right touch to make her beautiful. How many more wait, and for what man's touch?
The ranger center proudly posts several registry sheets showing the names of famous guests. In 1967, the guest register for Providence Canyon was boldly signed: "John Wayne."
I would say the lessons are that:
Disaster may give way to beauty.
Many things are hidden.
Here are men who did their best, and followed their vision. They did not get what they sought: Chief McIntosh was killed by his own, farmers lost their fortunes, Lachlan McIntosh slew a great man of his own cause.
Here is their mark: this is how the world received them.
Find its equal. The world loves such men. At their touch, she shows herself as only does a woman who loves.
So that's what happened to Button Gwinnett!
It certainly is. His leg was broken by the pistol ball, and he died of the wound a few days later. Gen. McIntosh held several positions in the early government, including chief negotiator with the southern American indian tribes, commander of the port of Savannah, delegate to the Continental Congress, and so forth. Two of his grandsons were Civil War brigadier generals: James McIntosh for the Confederacy, and John McIntosh for the Union.
A weathered skeleton in the desert sands is a beautiful, touching sight, too.
Unless it's yours.
You make a good point that beauty can grow out of environmental destruction, and good things can grow from individual evil and even from racial tragedy.
But where does that leave us, as a guide to right action?
Should we shrug off environmental destruction, murder, and genocide, on the grounds that some goodness and beauty will very likely come from it, sooner or later?
I say that we must try to do right. We must try to avoid doing evil, even when evil is done to us. And when we fail, as we often will, then eventually beauty and goodness comes, not as a result of our failures, but as redemption.
As forgiveness.
None of them were much for shrugging things off. Rather, they fought for what seemed best to them, and did right by their own beliefs. Theodore Roosevelt spoke of the 'man in the arena'; these were those men.
All I say is: do that, and have faith.